Galapagos, the final days

OK, so it's been a hectic few days, what with coming home from the slope and being sick since, but I need to finish this up. I appreciate all of your compliments on my blog entries!

After cruising from Wolf Island back down to the main cluster of islands overnight, we arrived at Isla Santiago. Off the eastern side of the island is a small islet called Cousins Rock, which is where we'd dive twice, in search of micro-life. The water temperatures here were at least 5 degrees less than those up north, so wearing a hood was a good idea. We saw literally thousands of these little fish schooled up under outcroppings. I think they were Goby's, but don't quote me on it. There was a pretty playful Sea Lion here, as well as a few stingrays, and a school of Needlefish. We saw a couple of Scorpionfish, which are not fish to be trifled with. They have poisonous barbs on their backs that will kill pretty quickly. Marty, or as we all now know him as, Galapagos Superman, saw two Frogfish, which is apparently pretty rare. Galapagos Superman has some kind of sonar for that kind of thing.

After lunch, we went down to Isla Bartolomé, just a few miles to the south, and went on a shore excursion. We hiked up this preordained path to the top of the island and got a pretty astounding view. This was by far the best views we had of the islands all week. In fact, the movie Master and Commander used a clip from the top of Bartolomé, which is the picture at the top of this page.

Bartolomé is where we saw the only Penguins on the entire trip. Just a couple little ones hanging out on the rocks, not a care in the world. A couple more Blue Footed Boobys were perched up on a cliff, and Sally Lightfoot Crabs were everywhere, as usual. Not to many Sea Lions here, but again, as usual, there were some there.

The next day, we did one dive at Gordon Rocks, just off Santa Cruz Island. Our last dive. Didn't seem real. After all the build up, all the excitement, all the training, the week flew right on by, and I wasn't happy about it.

The Gordon Rocks dive was pretty uneventful for me, but Marty and Erin saw a Manta Ray. I was jealous, but glad that someone on the trip got to see one. Later that morning, we did another shore excursion at South Plaza Island. Lots of Sea Lions, more fat Iguanas, and lots of birds. The south side of the island was basically a cliff, and the birds took full advantage.

We spent the afternoon in Puerto Ayora, a small community on Santa Cruz Island. The Darwin Research Station is located there, and there is where we would see the very famous Giant Tortoises. Lonesome George, who is believed to be the last survivor of his subspecies, has his own setup here, as well as at least a dozen other tortoises. They even have a breeding program, so we saw some little ones.

We walked down through Puerto Ayora, doing the tourist thing. It was our last stop before heading back to San Cristobal. It was the perfect way to wrap up such an amazing week, but one thing was for sure... I knew that I'd try to come back someday. On Thursday the 18th, we packed all of our gear, did one more walk through San Cristobal, and boarded our plane back to the mainland.

Tomorrow, my last days in Quito.