We join our tour group this evening, and this tour is following the normal G Adventures process of holding a meeting this evening at 6 followed by a group dinner at a nearby restaurant. The Chief Experience Officer (CEO – well, guide really) will make sure all our paperwork is in order and describe what the next 14 days will look like. He’ll cover some housekeeping things such as where is best to do laundry, where to exchange money, etc. And then we’ll be off for dinner. Great to be able to engage with our fellow travellers before setting off on our adventure tomorrow. Always interesting to see what countries the other travellers are coming from. We’ve already identified 3 – 4 of the other travellers just hanging out in the hotel for the past couple of days. Almost everyone adds on a day or two at the beginning of the tour.

After a proper nights sleep, we were up and out and in the taxi on the 10 – 15 min drive to the Mosque to catch the 10 am tour.

Tours were conducted in about 6 different languages, and took about 45 minutes. We toured the main prayer room and the ablutions area. I was a little disappointed that we didn’t learn more about the Muslim religion from our guide, although she did describe the ablutions process, a ceremonial act of washing parts of the body, as we toured that area which I’d never heard described before. And she did ask if we had any questions, but then you don’t know what you don’t know and what to ask sometimes.

The details about the Mosque seem to be a little fluid but certainly it’s an impressive building. Today we were told that it is the 3rd largest Mosque in the world, only surpassed by two in Saudi Arabia, one in Medina and one in Mecca. We were told yesterday it is the 4th largest and I’ve read that it is the 7th but the largest in Africa. It seems consistent that the minaret is the tallest in the world, or second tallest, at 265 meters or 210 metres and it houses an elevator to transport the person who does the call to prayer from the balcony of the minaret.

The architect was Frenchman Michel Pinseau, a non-Muslim friend of the King at the time. King Hassan II wanted to have something impressive built in Casablanca to help offer something for the growing tourism trade.

All the materials in the Mosque are from Morocco except the chandeliers, all 57 of them, which are Venetian Glass, and some pillars at the front of the main prayer hall which were from Italy as well.

The inside of the Mosque holds 25,000 people, 20,000 men on the main level and 5,000 women in balconies. In the courtyard of the Mosque an additional 80,000 can pray and during Ramadan it does get filled with worshipers.

It is relatively new and having seen the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, it certainly feels newer. It was built between 1987 and 1993 by approximately 10,000 craftsmen working around the clock in 3 shifts 24/7.

The guide said the cost had been estimated at $800 million US but she thought it was more likely 2 – 3 times that amount.

There are a couple of interesting, and I think unique, things about this Mosque. One is that it was built so that the roof can be opened up in good weather and it takes only 3 minutes to open and 2 minutes to close. You can see the light through the cedar ceiling and my thought was whether it leaked when it rained. It’s apparently used primarily when full, to provide some air circulation. 25,000 is a lot of people!

The second is that it is built partially on the water. King Hassan II said he wanted “to build this mosque on the water, because God’s throne was on water. Therefore the faithful who go there to pray, to praise the creator on firm soil, can contemplate God’s sky and ocean”. And according to different sources, there may or may not be windows in the floor through which you can see the ocean. I certainly didn’t see any. There were windows in the floor overlooking the ablutions area in the level below the prayer area however.

As you can see from the pictures the decor and craftsmanship are amazing. The tile-work is absolutely phenomenal, and was a highlight for me.

After our tour we decided to head out to walk along the seawall for a while. The mist had burned off by then and there was a little bit of a breeze. And I even found a lighthouse!

It was great to be by the ocean again. I still miss that. Well, “a while” turned in to 11 km and 16,800 steps, in 26 degrees with no shade. Thank goodness for sun screen, and for a mall at the end of the walk to cool down with a Coke Zero. We took a taxi back to the hotel!

Tomorrow our real adventure begins and we’re off for Fes and Meknes.

This afternoon I remembered why on previous trips I wrote my blog in Notes first, rather than directly into my blog. I had spent an hour or so writing about our adventures today, and then navigated away from the blog page to find something and lost everything I’d written. So, lesson learned, but I’m afraid now you’ll get the Readers Digest version of our first day in Morocco.

I slept well last night, just not long enough. We weren’t up for too much adventure this morning, but we did want to see some of Casablanca because once we start the tour on Monday, we head immediately out of town and won’t be back again.

So, through the hotel concierge we hired a guide/driver, named Mickie, for a 3 hour tour of the highlights of Casablanca. He was very knowledgeable and answered our (OK mostly Nanci’s) many questions about life in Casablanca.

Casablanca (“White House” named for the white buildings on the hills surrounding the port) is strategically located near the entrance from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean at Gibraltar and so has been governed by many different groups over the centuries. It is a port city and so became the economic and financial centre of the country while Rabat is the capital of government. Morocco gained its independence from France and became a constitutional monarchy with a combination of a monarchy and a parliament.

There are 6 million people who call Casablanca home and the number of inhabitants swells to 7 million each day as people come into the city to conduct their business. The main industries of Morocco are agriculture, fishery, phosphates and increasingly tourism which is flourishing as a result of Morocco’s relatively stable political climate compared to others in the region. Even the Aventura penquins are vacationing here. (I clearly watch too much live tv).

After taking on provisions, (well, water) we headed from our hotel in the Jewish Quarter towards the Atlantic and the King Hassan II Mosque. We will visit the Mosque tomorrow for a tour inside but today we stopped to take pictures outside. It’s location right on the Atlantic is beautiful and has significance to the Muslim religion.

We carried on south west along a newly landscaped walkway running parallel to the ocean and along the rocky and sandy beaches. Along the beaches were bright umbrellas and chairs, surfing schools and restaurants. The main beach, which is a mile long, had lovely white sand and it was very busy. Others were rocky where there were people fishing. We made another short stop to enjoy the fresh breeze off the Atlantic, and to take some pictures.

Mickie took us through some really nice residential neighbourhoods where the large homes were surrounded by high white walls many of which were covered in beautiful bougainvillea and other flowing shrubs. There were definitely security guards in evidence in the nicer neighbourhoods but no razor wire atop the walls as I’ve seen in other cities. Mickie admitted there was petty crime, such as pick pocketing, that we needed to be aware of, but when we asked about the crime rates, he said only the police carried guns.

We had seen some advertising for Morocco Mall since arriving and after enjoying the fresh air by the ocean we stopped at the mall just to have a quick look to see the kind of stores and fashions here. Unique to this mall is that they have a huge aquarium inside the mall which was taking more of the attention of the shoppers than the stores. Not unique to this mall is that there was a busy Starbucks in it.

We made our way through the financial area where there are modern, medium rise buildings to the Hobous Quarter (also called the New Medina, as opposed to the old median) where the King’s palaces, both historical and modern are found. There we wandered through a small area of shops selling handicrafts and souvenirs. The first of many areas such as this that we’ll see, I’m sure.

On our way out of the Hobous Quarter we saw a large group of people huddled around one street vendor and asked why they had so much business. Not so different than in Canada, parents were shopping to get school supplies for their kids who are starting school next week.

The city hall and court and other administrative buildings are near our hotel at Place Mohammed V, and this was our final stop (except for a quick stop at a money exchange) for some pictures.

After losing my blog, it was time for a nap or a drink and I opted for the nap. We decided to have an early night given our recent lack of sleep, and had a really nice dinner at our hotel restaurant. We started with a traditional Moroccan soup with lemon and dates and a sesame seed roll that was amazing. And the main of chicken and pasta was really nice as well. Early to bed to get ready for another big day of exploring tomorrow. Also we get to meet our tour leader and group tomorrow evening at a meeting and then dinner.

Friday, August 30

Our uneventful travels started in Ottawa at 9:45 pm Thursday evening when we departed on Air Canada for Frankfurt, Germany. After a 7 hour flight, we arrived in Frankfurt at 10:30 am Friday morning, local time, and aside from having to go through security despite the fact we were just connecting, and not sleeping much, it was a great flight.

Frankfurt is a really busy airport, with flights going to all over the world, on airlines from all over the world. There were some that we saw that I had no clue where they originated. It was a long day, but we discovered that the airport has supplied lovely chairs with foot rests at the far end of our terminal and so we spent most of the day there, drifting in and out of sleep, eating, and people watching.

Although we weren’t really visiting Germany (for another trip – hopefully a river cruise) I decided to participate in their cuisine anyway. When in Rome….. I had a Frankfurter and potato salad for lunch, which was excellent, and a huge pretzel with my afternoon tea. No beer for me but we were early for Octoberfest anyway.

I had a lovely conversation with a young woman travelling back to Bosnia after spending her summer in Vermont, USA. She had lots to say and was really very entertaining. She was surprised that I’d been to Bosnia and I was able to tell her about our time in Sarajevo and Mostar. Her view was that most tourists only travel to Dubrovnik, Croatia and don’t bother with her part of the world. We had an interesting discussion about the political situation there and she said she goes about her life trying hard to ignore it.

Finally, we boarded our Lufthansa flight to Casablanca and took off at 10:15 pm for the three hour flight. It was a nice newish plane and they served dinner despite the late hour. Right on schedule we arrived into Aeroport Mohammed V.

The formalities seemed to be just that, and in no time we were meeting up with our G Adventures driver who would take us to the hotel where we’ll spend 3 nights. While waiting for the driver a casually but nicely dressed (and rather nice looking I have to say) come over to ask us if we were alright. We got chatting and turns out he’s head of the local police or airport police or something. He was very friendly and gracious and warmly welcomed us to the country. Nanci’s customs agent was very warmly welcoming as well. Mine was busy dealing with another traveller who didn’t know what hotel he was staying at and they weren’t going to let him through until they found out. So starting to get a sense of the people.

On our short drive from the airport to our somewhat tired hotel, we saw a bit of Casablanca. The streets are very quiet, which is not surprising given that it’s 2:30 am. There are modern buildings and lots of the merchants we see every day, like Burger King and MacDonald, Shell, UPS, etc. The billboards are predominantly in French, some with Arabic as well. And there is lots of English as well. Everyone we’ve run in to so far has spoken perfect English.

We are fairly near the water here, and we can see the minaret of the Hassan II Mosque which we will visit and tour in the next couple of days. Off to bed after 24 hours of travel and 36 hours with little sleep. As I have said before, travel is great, except for the travel part.

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I have never been to Morocco. But I have been to southern Spain and Turkey and my expectation of Morocco is a combination of the two. Loud, bright colours, interesting smells, fabulous food, busy streets and markets, centuries of history and great architecture. Oh yeah, and great ceramics/tiles. I’m not sure what to expect from the people so that will be fun to exeprience. And then there is the desert element, so I guess add in an expectation of it to be somewhat like being in the Namib or Kalahari Desert. In any case I’m sure it will have it’s own personality and I look forward to the inevitable surprises and culture shock.

As with other predominantly Muslim countries/regions where we’ve traveled, we want to be respectful and so packing for travel in a region that routinely hits mid-30s to 40s during the day, and where modesty adds to the complexity, is a challenge. And always it’s the shoes! I’m determined to only take a carry-on size suitcase (21L), and we are asked to take soft sided so that presents it’s challenges with 30 days of travel. I’ve packed and unpacked a couple of times and each time whittled down the extra things I had hoped to squeeze in. So if you see me wearing the same thing day after day in the pics, be assured I am laundering them in between.

The write up on the 15 day tour lists the following as some of the highlights:

• Enjoy a traditional lunch at a local women’s co-op
• Watch storytellers and acrobats at Djemaa el Fna Square in Marrakech
• Learn about Moroccan cuisine with a cooking class in a traditional Berber house
• Traverse the Sahara Desert by 4X4 (i.e. the back of a pick up) and overnight in a Bedouin camp

As with previous G Adventure trips, I’m sure the interaction with local families and businesses will be some of the highlights. So far we think there are only 10 in our group, so that will be a nice tight group to help make logistics easy.

We leave this evening and head to Frankfurt where we have a long layover tomorrow, and depart in the evening Frankfurt time to head to Casablanca. We have a couple of nights in Casablanca booked before we join the tour, to allow us to catch up on lost sleep and adjust to the new time.

So, off we go on another adventure!

Yes, another travel adventure is about to begin. It’s been quite some time since I traveled anywhere out of the ordinary.  Spring of 2018 I visited South America (Ecuador including Galapagos and Peru) and you can scroll down to see those blog posts.

But I had a very good reason for not travelling in the later part of 2018. On November 7 my first grandchild was born. I was so very honoured to be in the birthing unit with Gill and Phil when Benjamin Edward Cartwright entered the world, peeing all over everyone to mark his turf! I was shocked by how much love and joy could fill my heart by this tiny bundle.

Ben is now almost 10 months old (where did THAT 10 months go!), and is just the most wonderful, gentle, loving, rambunctious, curious (downright nosey really), funny child. Of course, I’m his “Gram” so it’s my job to say nice things.  But really they’re true. I’ve loved spending time with him, and we’re becoming fast friends. He’s scooting and crawling and it’s my job to chase him. His giggles make the effort so worth while. So travelling is going to be more difficult now.  Could you leave this little man?

I’m hoping his parents will sent pictures and videos for me to see while I’m away so I can watch them over and over. I do that even when he’s just across town.

So, where to this time? Another of the regions of the world I’ve never been before – MENA (Middle East – North Africa). I didn’t even know “MENA” was a “thing” before the planning started. More specifically we’ll be touring Morocco (15 days), Israel (7 days) and Jordan (7 days), in that order, with our favourite small group travel company, G Adventures. I’m once again travelling with my “travel buddy” and friend, Nanci and we leave for Casablanca through Frankfurt on Thursday, August 29th. I won’t go into too much detail here, but below are the maps of the three trips to give you an idea of our routing. All of these trips look jam packed so I’m not sure how much time I’ll have to write, but I’ll try my best.

If you’ve travelled to this part of the world, please share your thoughts with me and if there is anything I should watch for along the way. Our routing is set, but we do have some free time in some of the places we stop.

Now it’s time to step away from the keyboard and get organized.  Only 4 more sleepies.

 

Before dinner last night the Captain moved the ship to a bay called Black Turtle Cove, on Baltha Island. And so this morning there was an opportunity for one more early panga ride to power through the mangroves looking for turtles and white tipped sharks. Only half the passengers participated, and I wasn’t one of them. I figured after snorkeling with them for the past week, just looking at them from the panga was going to be a downer. So I figured sleep was more important. We were up at the usual time, fed a fabulous breakfast, as usual and then it was off on our last panga ride to Beltra Island and the second of the two airports in the Galapagos.

Our luggage was waiting for us at the airport and we did some last minute shopping in the airport while we waited for our flight back to Quito and an overnight at the Hilton before the flight home tomorrow. This small but modern airport has a LEED designation and is touted to being the First Ecological Airport in the world.

It hardly seems possible that it’s only been a week since I was at this hotel meeting with my new fellow passengers. It’s been quite the adventure. More than I could have ever anticipated. I was pushed outside my comfort zone physically, and I’m proud of my accomplishments. Being part of the Rambo snorkelers is an accomplishment at 62.

Every day was different because of the biodiversity of the islands. Every activity brought a broader understanding of the principles that Darwin articulated after visiting this place. Sixteen breeds of finches have evolved from just one species. Giant turtles have adapted differently on each island, and even within the same island where barriers to their movement created different species based on adaptations. Marine iguanas, adapted to a lack of food by becoming ocean-going in search of food. The lessons learned can best be summed up by the saying on the back of my Darwin T-shirt.

I hope I continue to change, to adapt, to grow, to learn, to love and to feel joy. Travel is the best way I know to ensure that happens. If I have inspired you to start thinking about an adventure of your own, I am so happy.

“Where next?”, you ask. Well, I’m not sure. Nanci and I will be travelling to Israel and Jordan in the fall of 2019, but who knows where else I’ll be in the meantime. I do know that I’ll be in Ottawa this coming November because as important as travel is, family is even more so.

So until my next adventure, I hope you’ve enjoyed travelling with me on what has possibly been the best trip ever. But then I say that every time don’t I?

Saturday, May 26 Santa Cruz Island

Sadly, it is our last full day in the Galapagos but this day followed pretty much the same pattern of a hike followed by a snorkel in the morning and a hike followed by a snorkel in the afternoon.

Bachas Bay, on the north east tip of Santa Cruz Island was the drop off point for our morning activities. It was named for a barge that was found ashore on this beautiful white sand beach. It is one of the nicest we’ve seen and is made up of tiny little pieces of shell and coral.

It’s also a primary nesting beach for green sea turtles. We walked along the beach for a ways, checking out the wildlife on the lava rocks and in the sky. There were a pile of Sally Lightfoot Crabs in the rocks and Ghost crabs in the sand. It’s hard to see Ghost crabs but we did see lots of evidence of their existence. These holes are their homes and they can be up to a meter deep. The sand piled immediately near the hole is from them cleaning out the hole, but the round formed bits of sand is from them taking sand in their mouths and sucking the nutrients out of it and then spitting out the sand.

The Sally Lightfoot crabs were really busy on this beach covering the lava rocks. They are black when hatched but develop the bright colouring as they mature.

Then we walked down a path inland to a brackish pool just over the sand dune which was a birders paradise. There were flamingos (not as many or as bright as we’d previously seen), and Mockingbirds and ducks and more.

At the top of the dunes you could see the indentations where the sea turtles had laid eggs in the first few months of the year and the eggs were mostly hatched by the end of March. But sometimes Mom is late laying the eggs or they are buried deeper and take longer and we did see some tracks of some hatchlings that had made their desperate run for the sea probably the night before. It’s hard to see their prints in this picture. But as Adrian pointed out, only 2 – 3 % of them will make it to adulthood and last night was clear and almost a full moon, not giving them any protection. The herons, pelicans, crabs and other birds and even fish would be ready to pounce as they made their way across the open beach.

Then it was snorkel time and for the first time I didn’t feel like going in (I think I was tired from the long walks and snorkels the day before) so I enjoyed the sun sitting on the beach while most of the others scrambled into their gear and in they went. It was apparently pretty good snorkelling with sightings of sea turtles, a couple of sea lions and lots of fish. But I still enjoyed the snacks once back on the boat.

In the afternoon we headed to the west side of Santa Cruz and Cerro Dragon (Dragon Hill) Beach to start our search for land iguanas. Although we had seen lots of marine iguanas (the only place in the world where they have adapted to be able to swim and feed in the ocean), we hadn’t yet seen land iguanas except in captivity in the Charles Darwin Research Centre. The peak of Dragons Hill has been used for navigation among the island for generations since most of the islands are pretty flat.

The vegetation was quite different here and the cacti provided food for the land iguanas.

We hiked for quite a long time and it was probably the hottest we’ve encountered during the week. But we were rewarded with the spotting of one land iguana who posed for us, and a couple of more that were in the distance. One was quite large but after just a few seconds he disappeared either into the shrubs or into his burrow and we lost sight of him. They are pretty unusual looking, so say the least.

We took a smaller and rough path after the last sighting toward the beach and after a few minutes of struggling we came out to a lovely beach from which we would have our last snorkel. The crew had brought our gear in the pangas for us and it was all piled up on the beach waiting for us. So off we went. I found it was one of the most challenging of the snorkels we had. First of all, it was shallow and there were lots of rocks and so you had to find you way through the valleys in the rocks and time it right to cross over some of the rocks when you had a swell. The good news is that there isn’t any coral to cut yourself on, but some of the lava rocks are pretty sharp. It was also not that clear, but I did manage to find a green turtles nibbling on his lunch. The poor guy had only one front flipper, but he seemed to be managing just fine.

Milton said there were some white tipped sharks usually hanging out by some rocks further down the beach so a bunch of us headed over there to see them. Yup there were five of them resting under a ledge and Milton helped to steer us to have a look without bashing into the rocks from the swells. Then it was time to head back to the beach to get picked up by the pangas. It was a long way back and with picking my way through the rocks, took quite a while but there was plenty of fish to look at along the way. I was pretty exhausted by the time I got back. But well worth it for our final look at the sea life.

Back on the ship it was our farewell cocktail party with the crew in their whites and us offering our thanks both verbally and in the presentation of our tip envelopes which had discretely arrived in our cabins while we were out in the afternoon. We also had a birthday celebration for two of the passengers celebrating today and tomorrow, which meant excellent cake baked by Chef Bolivar. The picture below is of our two guides, Milton on the left and Adrian on the right. Adrian is a G Adventures employee and he has been rewarded for his excellence with a trip to G Adventures headquarters in Toronto. They are both great guides from whom we learned so much.

This is an example of the info board the guides provided for us each day with the times and activities for the following day. As you can see, Milton is quite the artist.

It was off to bed for our last sleep aboard the Monserrat tonight; exhausted, happy and a little sad the adventure was coming to an end.

Friday, May 25 – Santiago and Bartolome Islands

As you will have seen, one of the incredibly interesting things about the Galápagos Islands is how very different they are from each other. The volcanic hot spot that has created the islands remains stationary and there continue to be 5 active volcanos on Isabella Island. The oldest islands are moving eastward as the Nasca Plate on which the islands exist is moving under the major South America plate.

Santiago Island where we spent Friday is one of the newer islands (in relative terms) and the island is a great example of how the land mass changes over time. There was volcanic activity here as 1897 when 25% of the land mass was covered with the black lava called Pahoehoe lava flow. That’s a Hawaiian term for smooth, unbroken lava or literally “easy to walk on”.

We started out early and landed on Santiago Island at Sullivan Bay. It was an odd contrast between the white sand beach which we’ve seen everywhere, the black shiny lava formations and the browner hills and areas from a previous eruption left uncovered. There were some green areas that were the oldest parts and where the lava had already started to break down into earth and plants had started to grow.

The patterns in the lava which looked like ropes were interesting as were the places where multiple layers of the lava could be seen where the outer crust of the lava had hardened but the inner layers kept flowing creating splits in the lava like mini Teutonic plates.

There were remnants of gas bubbles in the shiny black lava in some places and as we walked over the lava field, Milton pointed out where trees had once stood and left holes in the lava after the tree disintegrated over time. Oddly out of place were the lava, prickly pear and candelabra cacti.

We were very glad that we’d started early in the morning since the sun was bright today and we felt like we were being fried on the black lava. We did see some lava lizards, and some finches but not a lot of other wildlife.

Fortunately next on the agenda was a deep water snorkel along Sullivan Bay so we were able to cool off while pursuing things to look at underwater in this calm bay. There were piles and piles of fish, mostly ones we’d seen before.

While we were back on the boat for lunch and siesta the ship sailed and repositioned just off shore of Bartolome Island where we did another deep water snorkel in the shadow of Pinnacle Rock which had been formed by volcanic action.

And here we were unbelievably lucky to come across a penguin in the water fishing in the area in which we were snorkelling. Oh my goodness, what fun to just float and watch it zipping back and forth chasing fish oblivious to the large creatures with the funny eyes, with tubes coming out of their heads and long black feet. It surfaced several times among us and came within a couple of feet of me both in the water and on the surface. Wow, swimming with sea lions, turtles, fish, sharks, and now penguins. I have said more than once this week that I am going to be forever spoiled for snorkelling any where else. I also saw a Chocolate Chip Star fish, and Orange Tube Coral on this snorkel as well as a plethera of fish and schools of fish. We were in the water for an hour or so, and it was a little chilly by the end, but not complaining.

This had been an active day already but after a quick rinse to get the salt water off, we were back on the pangas on our way to Bartolome Island once more, this time to climb to the summit of the island, along a walkway and up 367 stairs. Unfortunately I didn’t have altitude to blame for all the huffing and puffing up the stairs because we were obviously at sea level, but after one hike and two snorkels earlier in the day, my legs were pretty tired. We did stop along the way for Adrian to give us more information about the formation of the islands and type of rocks we were seeing. I have to say the view of the surrounding islands from the summit look out were pretty spectacular.

AND what is that? Is that a light house? Well, kind of and I’ll take it. A trip to the ocean wouldn’t complete without a light house picture.

On the way down I slipped on one of the wooden steps that had quite a lot of sand covering it and wrenched my knee and caught the back of my heel on the next step up. Sigh. Another bruise and small cut to go along with al the others. Honestly I don’t know how I got a bunch of these, but clambering over the side of the panga, up the stairs on the ship, moving in my room when the ship is at sea all contributed I’m sure.

I don’t think I’ve mentioned one of the most important elements of our experience aboard the Monserrat. Snacks! One of the women on my Ecuador/Peru land tour had been on the same tour on the Monserrat before the land tour and one of the things she told me about was the fantastic snacks they prepared and served us on the back deck of the ship in the morning and afternoon after our return from our activities. I thought at the time that it was a little weird that she would make a point of talking about the snacks in particular. Well after about 2 days I understood. First of all, by the time you’re done an hour or hour and a half hike and a 45 min to an hour snorkel, you’re darn good and hungry. And secondly, they were so good. Never the same kind twice, and only a few times prepared things like packaged cookies. There were always two offerings: empanadas with queso, plantain cups with fresh cheese, yucca sticks with dip, homemade chips and salsa and even chicken wings one day. And there was always a choice of 2 different kinds of fantastic fruit juices and iced tea. Eduardo was the server of our snacks and our food in the dining lounge and the bartender. He was a very busy guy.

I hit the sack at 9 pm and didn’t wake up til the alarm scared me to death at 6 am the next morning. I never sleep through to the alarm going off.

Thursday, May 24th – Santa Cruz

I know, after all the lovely nature pictures, this one is a little jarring. Today we woke up in the very busy harbour of Porta Ayora and it was the first day all week when we spent the whole day on land exploring the island of Santa Cruz, one of the three populated islands in the Galapagos. (The others are Floreana, and San Cristobal which we have already visited). Porta Ayora has one Main Street running along the harbour, named Charles Darwin Street, naturally, with side streets only running a block or so. It is lined with restaurants, tourist stores selling all manner of blue footed boobie paraphernalia, t-shirts and silver jewellry, and places selling last minute cruise excursions, and day trips.

It was turnover day and so they kept us busy on the island from 8 am to 5 pm so the staff could prepare for the next batch of passengers.

Our fellow travellers who were leaving today departed really early (like 5:30)but we got a pretty early start as well and our first stop was the Charles Darwin Research Station just on the edge of town. It was a great place to see information on Darwin’s stop in the Galapagos (for only 5 weeks in 1835) and on the research that is continuing to work to preserve the Galapagos ecosystem. We also got a chance to see the various turtle species from the various islands and learn about the similarities and differences in them. It is in interesting study in adaptation. Saddleback turtles, shown below, developed the odd shaped shell to allow the longer neck in that species to reach up to eat the vegetation that grows in higher bushes instead of the dome species that eat vegetation on the ground and have a shorter neck.

Other bits of info on turtles are: turtle eggs will not scramble when shaken in their shell (I’m not sure I heard why that is), sea turtles have a bone in the top of their heads for protection but land turtles don’t so must pull their heads into their shell for protection.

There were also some non-turtle displays such as some land iguanas. They are really brightly coloured compared to their aquatic cousins.

There is a bit of a creepy tribute to Lonesome George, the last known surviving male of a species from Pinta Island and known in his last years as the rarest creature in the world and was a symbol for the conservation efforts in the Galapagos Island. For several years they tried various techniques including trying to have him mate with other species in order to preserve it, but never successfully. Finally in 2012 he died and his body was sent to the American Museum of Natural History in NYC, USA for taxidermists and genetic studying. There are various opinions about his actual age at dearth but it is thought to have been between 80 and 120 years old. This is relatively young for a tortoise as they can live up to 200 years. The tribute is the stuffed body in a glass case with dark lighting and temperature controlled to preserve it. We weren’t allowed to use flash and the glare off the display made it impossible to get a good picture.

We had 30 minutes or so to wander through the very touristy town with lots of shops, but not really enough time to do any damage to the pocket book. People watching was great though as it’s the main centre from which people take ferries to other islands or join excursions. We also watched a local pass time, volleyball, at a sports court nearby. They play 3 a side on a court that looks a little longer than a normal 6 man court and they seemed very intense. There were some heated words between the same team members or across the net from time to time. I was told my by guide in Quito that in the park there that the locals are avid watchers of the games and also that hundreds of dollars trade hands in the side betting that goes on.

When we gathered again to head out for lunch, the new passengers also met up with us and continued for the afternoon activities.

We headed out into the rural area to a turtle ranch for a lovely lunch in an open air restaurant. It was nice to be eating off the ship, although our meals there have been absolutely fabulous. The ranch is a safe place for turtles who have been raised as pets and abandoned or have been injured and can’t be released back into the wild. There were pathways throughout the property, and a small lake where the turtles could wallow in the mud to keep cool. Although ginormous they still moved with agility.

We next visited another giant turtle ranch and coffee plantation where there were also some lava tubes on the property. As I think I’ve mentioned, and certainly we heard it over and over, the Galapagos archipelago was born from volcanoes millions of years ago. In some places where the lava flowed, the outside of the flow hardened but the inside continued to flow creating hollow tubes of volcanic rock. In this particular location there were three that we walked through, a short one which wasn’t totally dark, a second and longer one that was actually one on top of the other and the upper one had collapsed in places. And the last one was really long and even had propane lights allowing us to see the striations on the walls. Pretty weird phenomenon. We saw smaller tubes that had formed on the side of some hills on one of the other islands we visited as well.

It was then time to head back to the harbour and jump on the pangas and head back to the ship to clean up and attend the welcoming reception for the new passengers. We missed our siesta today so I imagine it will be early to bed after our exciting day in town.

Wednesday, May 23

Our weather in the Galapagos has been mostly sunny with some cloud cover off and on, and usually the cloud cover is appreciated to keep the air temperature down and keep from sun burning. Today, however we are farther south and in some cooler weather and it’s overcast. It didn’t keep us from doing anything though as the temperatures are still really comfortable.

After breakfast we headed off in the pangas for a wet landing at Punta Cormorant on Floreana Island to go for a 1.5 hour walk to hunt for flamingos and another surprise. We landed on one side of the island and walked over to a lagoon where we hoped there would be some flamingos. The guides warn us on a regular basis that these islands are not a zoo and the wildlife is in fact wild and so they can not promise to always find certain things in their normal locations. But lo and behold, although they were far away at the other end of the lagoon, there were perhaps 30 flamingos standing feeding. Milton seems to be able to replicate any bird or animal sound and soon had the flamingos responding to his call. We stayed for a bit hoping they’d come closer and they did, but still well out of camera range. A group of them did fly past which was an amazing sight. They are much more orange than the ones I’ve seen in other places and brilliant coloured due to their food source.

BTW, speaking of food sources, I don’t think I’ve mentioned that the darkness of the blue in the feet of the blue footed boobies is because of their food source (sardines) as well. The deeper the blue, the better fed they are, so when the female boobies are choosing a male to mate with they look for the bluest of feet.

We continued our walk to the other side of the island and to a beach that is a breeding ground for green and Black Sea turtles but it is not the right season. Here is where the guides hoped we’d see stingrays because it was an eating area for them, and did we. We shuffled into the water, I remember them calling it the “stingray shuffle” in the Grand Caymans, without lifting our feet, because there could be rays sitting on the bottom covered by sand and we don’t want to step on them or more importantly for us, their stinger. We waded in knee deep and it took no time at all and we had a parade of them coming by. Most were platter sized greyish or sandy coloured ones and they tickled as they were washed up against your feet or hovered over them looking for food. We also saw 3 larger dark ones, Eagle Rays, which had beautiful markings. The edges of their “wings” sometimes flipped out of the water as they swam along. They were more wary and stayed a couple of feet away from us. It was a hard to get pictures, but one of our group got a picture of me with them in front of me, so hope I can get it from him.

We headed back to the ship to get ready for a deep water snorkel around Champion Islet off the panga. We went through the usual drill to get ready, putting on flippers, putting “sea lion spit” (really shampoo) on our masks to cut down on fogging, and once ready I slid into the water. I looked around to get oriented and couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Thousands and thousands of fish! All around us. All different kinds. All different depths. Huge schools of King Angelfish, with their bright colours of blue with a white strip and yellow tail and fins that almost fluoresced they were so bright. Parrot fish whose colours seem to be iridescent, and lots of surgeon fish with their yellow tails glistening in the sunlight that filtered down into the water. And every other kind we’d identified before and some we hadn’t. I didn’t know where to look. I just floated and my eyes darted all over taking it all in. We didn’t want to move on because we wanted to take it all in. And of course we were accompanied by the usual playful sea lions darting about as we swam along with them. We slowly made our way around the end of the islet and let the current float us along between the islet and the beach. The current was strong and the water a bit choppy so the less adventurous snorkelers were dropped in closer to the beach and Milton stayed with them with a life preserver to allow them to rest there when necessary. More than one of us commented on the fact that it felt like swimming in an aquarium. We followed the rocks along for quite a long time, soaking it all in. Along the way we also saw some White-tipped Reef Sharks who mind their own business and aren’t that large, but the shape and the way they swim still gets the heart racing.

I laughed out loud at one point (and was rewarded with a mouth full of very salty sea water) because a bunch of us were all floating looking at something and pointing down and I looked over to my left because I sensed there was someone close and I didn’t want to accidentally run into them. It was a sea lion and he was tail in the air, looking down with his head at the same angle as ours, as if he too was looking at what we were pointing to. When I looked at him he looked at me and them back down. It was priceless. It was a tad chilly because of the deep water and currents, but no one wanted to give in and go back to the panga and the guides practically had to drag us back in to go back to the ship.

Then on the way back to the boat, when no one was even looking for them, Milton spotted 3 penguins on the rocks near the water. He was so excited for us and he got on the radio to Adrian hoping the other panga would be able to get there before they disappeared. They all jumped into the water right away but I was lucky enough to get a picture before they did. They are smaller here than that ones I’ve seen in South African and certainly much smaller than on the ones we’re used to seeing on TV about Antarctica. We watched them in the water for a short time before they disappeared down the coastline. The theory is that at some point they came on the Humbolt Currents from Antarctica and over the generations they shed the size and weight which wasn’t needed here in the warmer waters.

This is what makes this place so special. The adaptations of the wildlife make it so interesting to see them on the different islands because they’re all so different. Lava Lizards (like geckos) are a classic example. They are differently coloured depending on what island they are from because of their food source. Some are black with the top half of the body red, some are dark with a red stripe down the middle and others are almost a yellow colour.

We had a special treat of sangria at lunch today perhaps because it was the last day for some of our fellow travellers to be on board. And then the usual siesta time which we’ve all come to love.

In the afternoon, we had an excursion to visit Post Office Bay where we would find the Post Office. The post office was started in 1793 by the English whaling vessels to allow for news to be passed on to the sailors loved ones. A barrel was placed on shore, not far from the beach and sailors put letters in it with the hope that the letters would be taken back home by sailors passing in the other direction. It has continued as a tradition and we sorted through the post cards to see if there were any from our home towns which we could deliver. I took three, one for Gloucester and one for Elgin, ( both just outside of Ottawa) one in Kingston. I’ll make a trip down to Kingston in the next couple of weeks to deliver it. I left 5 post cards there so you never know when you might get a knock on your door with the delivery of an unstamped post card.

This was the first stop where the bugs were annoying. There weren’t any mosquitos but there were horse flies and other small ones that buzzed around our ears. So we were happy to don our wet suits and do a beach entry snorkel into Post Office Bay. The sand there was lovely and white and soft although there were some rocks to navigate over about knee deep. Once out in the protected bay we wandered around checking out the rocks for fish. I could hear a couple of my fellow travellers ahead of me all excited so I headed for them at top speed. There, feeding on the bottom, were the most gigantic sea turtles. I’m not exaggerating to say their shells were 6-7 feet across. There were some strong currents and we had to work at keeping from being pushed into them. They didn’t even look up from their munching at us despite the fact they were quickly surrounded by 6 or 8 of us. Every once in a while they’d surface and I found one’s head pop up within 2 feet of me at one point. We’re not supposed to go within 2 metres of them, but again, someone forgot to tell the wildlife not to come close to us. It was amazing! What a day of snorkelling.

This evening was our last dinner with 9 of our fellow travellers who will be leaving the boat tomorrow, and heading home or on to other adventures. At our usual 6:30 briefing the crew all joined us in their white uniforms and the people leaving had a chance to say their thanks to them for everything. And we raised a toast in a traditional way which I’m not sure the origins of, but it was a really nice send off. Selfishly I was glad I wasn’t among those leaving. I’m am just not ready to leave yet.