Tuesday 21 May 2013

Tortoise Porn

I would like to give a shout out to Active South America and Galakiwi. This has been my second trip with Active and they have exceeded every expectation thus far with their partnership with Galakiwi.

In no particular order, the food, accommodation, GUIDES, activities, etc.... are fantastic.
By the end of each day, we are all so incredibly amazed by the work involved to put all this together and how happy we are to be in this group with this company.

The second shout out is to our guide, Pablo. Our whole group swears, that when Pablo is around, magic just seems to happen for our group. 
Please check out his page on the Galakiwi site here

Leaving the quietest island today to head to Isla Isabela.
But first we had to explore just a little bit more.
After breakfast, we headed down the trail called La Loboria.
I got to chat with Ivan along the way and nerd out about books and photography lol.

The walk was wonderful, and the spot we stopped at over looked the bay and a Sea Lion colony. Some Sea Lions were all tanning, but there were a handful that were body surfing or being very playful in the water.
**Note: These are Sea Lions, not Seals. 
Although the Latin name 'Pinniped' means "Fin Footed"; the Seal Lions are: 
1 - Louder 
2 - Less fur 
3 - Are more social and like to live in large colonies.
4 - Have flaps for outer ears

In the water, a large group of Sea Lions is called a "Raft". Lol, just a little useless knowledge for the day :P

Tough life

The Sea Lions were very playful on our morning walk on the beach


Marine Iguanas



Usually I have seen broken glass, but in Floreana, whole wine bottles is good enough? LOL

One of my favorites.
Shows the lava flow and the beautiful landscape, 

we hung out here for a while and watched the wildlife <3 <3

The view of our beach walk.
The Canon didn't have a break, poor thing :P

Random goat skull in the vegetation. Interesting? I think so ;)



Sally Lightfoot Crab

No matter where you go, the Sea Lions will be around ^_^

This guy nibbled on Karla's toe a little, haha

Around 11am, Pablo was able to herd all of us cats onto the boat for our 2.5 hour ride to Isabela. This time, we were all prepared and had a great sleep the whole way. We did get up once to view a small bird inhabited island, trolled our boat around it to view the Frigits, Boobies, and Marine Iguanas hanging around.

Boobies!


Arriving at Isabela Island, we stayed in a beautiful small town called "Puerto Villamil". Our hotel "La Laguna" overlooked a lagoon with one lone Flamingo. 
Our rooms in this hotel were a bit cramped for Tanya and I, but as long as we have a place to sleep, it's all good!

We were given a couple hours to ourselves after lunch, then Pablo took us to the Giant Tortoise Breeding Centre not far from town.
Pablo previously worked at this breeding centre in the 90's and was able to do some pretty amazing things to help bring the population up and bring them back into the wild.
To prevent rats, goats or other animals from getting to Tortoise eggs in the wild, he (and his team) went out in search of nests to be able to bring the hundreds of eggs carefully back to the Conservation Centre for incubation. This increased the odds of their survival for sure!

Each section housed a different age group of tortoises... From months old, to decades old, to a few  suspected centurions...
Aaaaaand then we came along to this lovely pair all ready to give us a show of how Giant Tortoises make babies.
I was unable to get video, so watch the BBC version here
FYI, the male tortoise penis is IN the tail and the females will store the sperm to up to a year! :0

Viewer Discretion Advised



Babies!

HAHA, this guy is out cold

Peek-A-Boo


"Yo, Gringo, lemme out"


The Wall of Tears was next on our list of sight seeing, and a unique site of the archipelago.
This wall was built by prisoners in the 1940's and 1950's under extreme harsh conditions... this lava rock wall claimed the lives of thousands of people.
The wall was put up, and taken down. Then ordered to put up, and taken down again. 
No point in the wall really, just something to keep the prisoners busy.
Ouch. Not a cool piece of history that is for sure.



It has been a busy day and everyone needed some alone time, a few of the group went walking along the beach.
I wanted to walk around the town and see what Puerto Villamil was all about.





The trekker of the day is my awesome roomie Tanya Miller!
She is 40 years old, grew up in an underground house in Spokane, and is the VP at NEXT IT 
(aka Computer nerd - Siri is going down!)
She has cycled across Iowa 12 times while being a part of RAGBRAI which is a week long ride with about 15000 riders. 
OMG! She is hardcore.
Her next vacation spot she would like to visit is Patagonia ^_^




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