Monday, July 4, 2011

let's start the tuesday story ...

so ... as i recapture my trip by looking at my photos and going through my journey journal, it kind of amazes me the stories that amassed in such a short time ....and i'm leaving bits out .... just putting in the best bits .... so .. tuesday morning arrived ... we had gotten in bed about 8.30 .... and i think everyone but me was asleep by nine ... i think sophie was asleep by 8.31 .... i was reading (i read five sookie stackhouse vampire mysteries while away .... ) and reluctant for the day to end .... it had been a grand day .... monday morning the alarm had been set for 5.45, not a very vacationy feeling time to rise, but on tuesday, 7.30 seemed just fine ... we got to breakfast at 8 .... and at 8.20, jaime took us in his van to the bus to the narel ... yate narel ... the boat we'd spent the day on yesterday ..... hooray! we were happy to see alejandro again ... happy that we knew the bow of the boat was a great spot to sit .... happy that alejandro would be our fearless leader again ....

we were on our way to north seymour , a close island ... baltra, where the airport is, used to be called south seymour .... so north seymour was a tiny island nearby .... and north seymour was astonishing .... i must pre tell you, that on the last day, i asked alejandro which was his favorite of the tours he did, and he said it was undoubtedly north seymour ... i'd read about north seymour, and i had hight expectations ... but i had NO idea it would be like that ... it was a mindblowing place ... (so even after we went swimming with penguins at the equator, we still had a little mind left to be blown ... ) ....
so, in the galapagos, all travel onto the islands and the snorkeling and diving sights is VERY regulated ... they limit the number of boats and visitors to all the sights .... the tour boats have very specific itineraries, time specifications when they can be somewhere, and no variation is allowed .... when we pulled up to north seymour in our big boat, there was a galapagos park enforcement boat ... they were checking with boat captains for registrations to be at that island at that time .... and no one can go to one without a certified guide ... alejandro is certified, and they actually go to north seymour every tuesday (and bartholome on mondays) ... the yate narel's itinerary doesn't vary ....
so, our boat anchored off north seymour ... the island seemed flat like baltra, which means (i think) that it isn't a volcanic spot, it formed from movement of tectonic plates pushing up .... so, flat north seymour was ten or fifteen feet above sea level, with a super rocky coast ...

sophie, as always, wanted to be in the first load on the zodiac so was the first one in a life vest and holding one out for me .... we went along the rocky shore and arturo steered our boat close to the rocks so we could get pictures of sealions, marine iguanas, boobies (seriously cool birds), and giant frigate birds .... that alone was totally cool ...... in a five minute boat toodle we'd seen nearly everything that my travel books had said i would see on this island ... all before i was actually even ON the island .... all i needed was to spot a land iguana and a snake and i'd be good to go ... little did i know how much i had to see ON the island ....
our landing was to rocks ... sophie and i got off ... the landing was quite splashy and exciting ... i was worried about sophie getting off ... but alejandro helped her ... i think alejandro was more worried about me getting off ....
we walked up about ten feet of rocks to the flat top of the island ... arturo went back to the rest of our boat people, including a, d and jj .... and arturo took them by the coastline up close so they could photograph the various animals on the rocks and in the crevices ...

once the other panga group arrived ashore, alejandro gathered us and explained how the park service had made a single, narrow path around and through the island ... you have to stay on the path ... i absolutely understand why that is ... that it protects the wildlife from the heavy footed humans ... but it sure seemed like we'd end up missing good stuff that way, if we weren't allowed to explore ... boy, was i ever wrong!! ... we missed nothing ... in fact, we passed by so many startling things, that some of the started to seem usual ... oh, there's another four foot long lizard eating a cactus, been there, done that ...




so, the best way to tell you about north seymour, will be to devote a day to each species we saw ... ok .... maybe the snake won't get a whole day's worth of blog post .... and maybe the blue footed boobies deserve two days ... you'll have to come back to see how i solve my blogging dilemma ...

No comments: