DAY 4:
Having spent 2 days in or on the water constantly, today was a welcome change of scenery. We were going to power hike up in the highlands of Isabella and visit the Sierra Negra volcano. Before we arrived at the trail head for our hike, we stopped off at an amazing breeding centre for giant tortoises. The biologists and organisations looking after Galapagos were putting in a lot of time and effort to breed tortoises and then introduce them back in to the wild once they were strong enough to survive. In this way, they were helping several endemic species from not becoming extinct.
You see until 1960s, tortoises had almost been hunted to extinction and it was only then that restrictions and conversation work was put in place. It was remarkable to see such dedication and work - not to mention 1 year old tortoises crawling and eating... they are so cute! To give you a sense of size: 1 year old tortoises are about the size of your fist; by 20 years (reproductive age) they are 75cm-1m long (males are always bigger) and as tortoises get closer to 100+ years they are very slow-moving because of their massive size! Whilst at the breeding centre, we were lucky enough to winess 2 tortoises mating, grunts and all and Alkesh took this postcard picture for you all... nice!
Alkesh tried on a tortoise shell for size!
After the breeding centre, we headed up to the trail head to start our gruelling 6 hour trek up and down the Sierra Negra volcano. During the hike, Carlos told us lots about the geology and history of the land we were hiking through. Sierra Negra has the largest crater of all active volcanoes in the world. The last eruption in 2005 created a massive ´lava field´of lava rock as far as the eye could see, stretching almost from coast to coast. It was a tough day´s hike, during which we encountered plenty of showers, hot and cold weather and relentless mud, but we were rewarded with some spectacular sights of vast volcanic history, lava tunnels, amazing landscapes and some steam flues to boot.
That evening over dinner, Carlos showed us pictures and video footage of the 2005 eruption at Sierra Negra. Fortunately the town at Isabella coast was not affected, and indeed the eruption was deemed ´not violent´, but boy oh boy was it a spectacular explosion of red hot lava. Upon hearing and feeling the eruption, Carlos and some others went up to the highlands to experience the explosion first hand. He told us that the sulphur smell was unbearable, and he had to move away every 5-10 minutes or so because the heat was so intense even though he was still quite far away from the source. Incredible!! Seeing the photos was quite humbling, esp. as we´d just been hiking through that spot a few hours earlier!
DAY 5:
With eager anticipation, today was the day we were going diving with 2 other people from our group (whilst the rest of the group visited another attraction on Isabella). We´d sorted out the kit the night before, so at 7.30am we met at the shop to pick up our gear and drive down to the docks. From there we went on boat to the marina - here we did a shallow (2-3m) dive just to check all our kit and buoyancy was ok. I was a bit anxious as it had been almost 2 years since we last went diving in Mauritius for our honeymoon. Fortunately, our dive master was very patient and understanding. Whilst doing these ´check´dives, we were treated to another one of those spectacular ´Galapagos photo´moments where we saw a sea lion on the pier with a pelican swooping down to the water to catch a fish and a penguin floating by. All 3 at the same time, in the same place... amazing! After the ´check´dives, were sailed on in the boat to Isla Tortuga (see day 3) - the site for our 2 dives. Isla Tortuga is so called because of its uncanny resemblance to a certainlarge marine animal.
Our first dive took us to a depth of c. 18m with reasonable visibility. We saw several sea turtles, an eagle ray, huge shoals of barracuda and other beautiful tropical fish (some of which are unique to the Islands), like dancer fish, parrot fish and angel fish. Unfortunately due to our inexperience, Alkesh and I were low on air and had to surface after about 30mins below but it just so happens that as we were surfacing, the other 2 people saw a couple of hammer head sharks! Such a shame we missed out on these prized sightings.
During our surface interval inbetween the 2 dives, we were offered some snacks and refreshments. Alkesh was a little foolhardy (as he often is with food!) and gobbled down crackers which when combined with very choppy waters made him sea sick. I felt a bit sick also even without eating anything. Fortunately as soon as we entered the water for our 2nd dive, we both felt much better. This time, we were were greeted with 5 white tipped sharks, each about 2 meters long, slipping through the water and looking so elegant with their sleek grey bodies and small white tips. We also both felt and saw some thermaclines in action - thermaclines are the barrier between warmer water and cooler water. When you swim through a thermacline, it looks as if there is gas escaping under water producing a strange shimmering effect under the water - for a moment, I thought one of my contact lenses had popped out! Once you pass through the thermacline barrier, the drop or increase in temperature really catches you out. All in all it was a great morning of divng and we really enjoyed ourselves! We´re fortunate to be having the chance to do more diving later on in our travels: Great Barrier Reef in Australia, Bali, Thailand etc. Can´t wait!!
After hungrily devouring lunch, we rejoined the rest of our group for the afternoon. We went snorkelling just of the shore of Isabella town, near some mangrove swamps. Although not quite the same as diving, I was struck by the abundance of wildlife. A classic moment which Alkesh really enjoyed was when he poked up his head from snorkelling to be greeted by 10s of penguins, pelicans and blue footed boobies (yes, they really do have bright sky blue feet) and then just ducked his head back underwater to see a large turtle swim past in the same line of sight. That one moment was a top highlight for the trip!
After snorkelling, we stopped at Las Tintoreas - a lava rock and sandy area known for its iguana breeding. Here we learnt about how iguanas mate, produce eggs and then the females bury the eggs in the sand and protect them. We also witnessed a perculiar head shake that the female iguanas do (much like a jerky head nod), designed to warn off other females from moving into their nest area in the sand. Further down from the breeding grounds, we found the male iguanas hang out. Closer to the beach area and facing the last bits of afternoon sun, with their hoards of females, the very large males sat still occasionally spitting and clearing their throats of salt water.
As we walked around the lava rock area, we came across a protected pool of shallow water with a warning sign saying 'shark resting area - do not swim'. Carlos was just telling us it was the wrong time of year (water too warm) to see sharks here, and no sooner had he finished saying it did we then see 3 white tipped sharks swim right below our feet! We were very lucky to have seen all these sharks today. It was for sure the best day of our trip: diving with sharks, snorkelling with turtles and penguins, and seeing iguanas and their behaviour.
On the boat journey back to the town, we saw our first alpha male sea lion... he was massive! He had hauled himself on to an old tug boat and was lying their basking in the late sun. We also got to see several blue footed boobies right up close. Oh and if we hadn´t seen enough already, we saw a giant eagle ray as were climbing off the boat on to the pier. Amazing! And how very Galapagos, darling!
It was Thursday night and the week long trip was more than half way over. We were having such a great time, we really didn´t want the end to come. Fortunately the next few days still had lots to show us...
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