I have not left the country in almost 18 months.
Life just starts passing you by and all of a sudden there you are, your passport glaringly devoid of stamps. My passport is not even taunting me because it's buried in a drawer somewhere. Drastic times may call for drastic flight itineraries.
I could use a little of this right about now:
The other night I had a dream that I took a trip back to New Zealand. I don't remember why I was there, but I do remember it was a very short trip (like 3-4 days actually in the country). The main thing I remember from the dream, however, was the pure happiness I felt when I was in New Zealand. I stepped off the plane and was immediately happy. Most of the dream consisted me walking around the streets of Auckland pointing out all the things I love about the country. Granted, one of the things I pointed out as loving so much was a giant slide that commuters could use to make their travel time more entertaining, so the dream wasn't exactly true to life. But the feeling of being so happy definitely was.
Although it's no giant slide in downtown Auckland, here is one of many reasons why I continue to love Kiwis. (Extra props for the Phil Keoghan guest appearance!)
Alas, we are coming to the end of my Ecuador pictures and stories. If you've actually read all my posts you may be sick of hearing how awesome our trip was. But not as sick as those people whom I forced to look at all ~1,000 pictures and video clips while I sat next to them babbling.
On our final day in the Galapagos, they managed to pack in one last excursion before we had to catch our plane. We had sailed all night from Espanola back to Santa Cruz and I was actually happy to get up at 6am given the poor night of sleep I'd had. I'm happy to report that neither Maura nor I got seasick at any point, but on night 3 the side-to-side rocking was so extreme that I had to splay myself out on the bed to keep from being rolled around. But I will take this over throwing up all night, which was the fate of some of our shipmates.
The early morning excursion took us to Black Sea Turtle Cove, a huge system of mangroves on the northwest side of Isla Santa Cruz. There, differing habitat meant a new array of animals. Here's the list of what we saw:
Note: the videos seem to be doing some weird cropping when they're embedded, so click on them for the full view.
Just in case sunning and swimming with sea lions wasn't enough for one day, we spent the afternoon walking around Punta Suarez on the western tip of Isla Espanola. By this point I was getting used to everything exceeding my expectations by infinite proportions, but I don't think I was prepared for what we were going to see at Punta Suarez. To give you an idea, soon after we got off the dinghies and started down the trail, our guide asked, "Does anyone want to see blue-footed boobies doing their mating dance?" I was ready to borrow binoculars from someone, but not only were the birds in plain sight, they were literally standing on the trail. Unreal. They kind of stopped by the time I pulled out the video, but you can get the idea from the beginning of the video where they're picking up their feet all cute-ly.
I should probably devote a little bit of text to the marine iguanas. They're not very cute and they're everywhere, so I've kind of left them out of these entries. It's like when you're on safari and at first you think, "OMG, there's a zebra! Let's take 100 pictures and look at it for a long time," but pretty soon it turns into, "Meh, there's another zebra. Can't they do something cooler than stand there and be all stripey?" (Yes, I am aware that I have led a privileged life.) Even Darwin was unimpressed: "The black Lava rocks on the beach are frequented by large (2-3 ft), disgusting clumsy Lizards. They are as black as the porous rocks over which they crawl & seek their prey from the Sea. I call them 'imps of darkness.'" But marine iguanas do something cooler than sit there like zebras: they are the only reptiles who swim. That's pretty sweet to be able to say you're the only one in an entire phylum that will submerse yourself in water. So that's the marine iguana for you: disgusting and clumsy, but also a kind of cool freak of nature.
Apparently we picked a good time of year because this is when the waved albatross come to Espanola to nest before their next journey around the ocean. More things to check off my list of things I never thought I'd see: albatross sitting on their nests, albatross chicks, albatrosses walking (which might be the funniest thing ever), albatrosses doing their mating dance, and albatross taking off in flight. And of course all of this happened within like 20 feet of me.
Once again, I've run out of words to describe how amazing this all was, so here are the pictures. As usual, click on something to see the full album.
We did two snorkels on Espanola. The first was right off the beach in Gardner Bay. I didn't get very good pictures because this was when my camera lens was at its foggiest. Boo. There was, however, a sea lion who decided to take an active role in my film, and inadvertently created a clip for my Galapagos blooper reel. It's a little embarrassing because you can hear me yelling as the sea lion swims up close, but in this case I'd say a little public shame is worth your enjoyment.
Our second snorkel was unquestionably one of the most amazing experiences of my entire life. The itinerary had hinted that we might get to actually swim with sea lions, and I was already more than satisfied with the ones I'd already been underwater with. As usual, the Galapagos had more in store for us.
There was a little inlet on Espanola where I guess sea lions like to hang out. And play. If there was ever any question that animals can have emotions around leisure activity, this cleared it up. I felt like a pet, and the sea lions just wanted to play with me. They're obviously better swimmers than people could ever be, so they glided around the water doing flips and teasing us. My favorite thing--that I definitely had to get used to because that's what scared me in video posted above--was that they would swim up close to your snorkel mask, and then right before they touched you would flip away. I was definitely as dumbstruck and clumsy as a little puppy who's still falling over his own feet. I don't say this kind of thing very often, but swimming with the sea lions was almost spiritual in the way I felt connected to creatures from another species. If this is what it's like to commune nature, sign me up for the next hippie retreat.
And on that note, here are the pictures. Click to look at the full album.
Note how graceful the sea lion is in the water compared to on land.
Just in awe.
After only a day and a half in the Galapagos, we had already seen a good share of sea lions. They were hanging out on buoys and boats in Puerto Ayora, basking on the rocks and beaches of Floreana, and one even swam close enough to me that I got a picture during our first snorkel.
But we should have known by then that everything in the Galapagos ends up better than you ever imagined. You want pretty water? Oh, we have endless stretches of technicolor blues and aquas. You want tortoises? We have every baby tortoise on the Islands. You want stingrays? We have them in all shapes and sizes, on the beach, in shallow water, and following you as you snorkel. You want sea lions? How about sunning yourself on the beach with them. When I look through guidebooks and postcards, they always have the best shots of cool things you know you'll probably never actually get to see. In the Galapagos, I ended up with experiences that topped the guidebooks and pictures more beautiful than any postcard I could find.
There's not much to tell about Gardner Bay--the pictures show its magic. It's a long stretch of white sand beach on Isla Espanola (alternate name: Hood Island). And it's covered in sea lions. They're just chilling on the beach, more or less ignoring all the humans oohing and aahing over them. These are not the fat smelly sea lions of Pier 39 either. They're a little bit smaller, a whole lot cuter, and significantly less smelly. I guess that open sea air in a highly protected national park is a little more ventilated than the tourist-packed San Francisco Bay.
Anyway, the pictures show it best (remember to click on the slideshow to see the full album). One note on why some of the pictures look funny. My "great investment" of a camera (which really was a good investment just for the few underwater pics I got) decided that it would be really funny if the lens cover fogged up. I have no idea how the water got in. Fortunately it did not completely destroy my fifth camera in five years, but it does make some of the pictures look foggy and/or really artistic because I messed with them on my computer.
Of course I took video. There might not be anything cuter than walking sea lions.
Oh wait, there is something cuter: walking BABY sea lions.
This guy was one of my favorites. He just wanted to hang out in the waves and roll around in the sand. Note to self: if I can't come back in my next life as a house cat, Galapagos sea lion would be an acceptable second option.
Before I get into any descriptions, let me make one comment: an underwater digital camera was the best investment ever. So worth it.
We went snorkeling twice on Floreana--another example of how well GAP Adventures, our highly recommended tour company, packed so much into a very short period of time.
The morning snorkel was in a rocky area near the shore. Check out the pictures of the rocks because they fascinated me. They look like large, well-stacked bricks. I had to remind myself a few times that this area was not man-made.
The only issue with snorkeling was the temperature of the water. They encouraged us to rent wetsuit, an offer I jumped at. Speaking of jumping, getting into the ocean felt like jumping into an ice bath. Every time I got in I had to spend a few minutes just catching my breath from the shock and working up the courage to put my non-wetsuit-covered face into the water. So cold.
But of course totally worth it. I judge those people who didn't go in every time for the entire time because really, when will you get another opportunity to snorkel in the Galapagos? This trip wasn't billed as YOLO style for nothing. Once I finally put my face in the water, I found that it was like staring into an aquarium. I am spoiled to have been snorkeling in many exotic, fish-stocked locales, but this was by far the best (sorry Great Barrier Reef). On recommendation by the internet, I took some video because it is much more difficult than you think to steady your camera for good underwater shots.
Here, some white-banded angelfish.
And a big old parrotfish.
The most exciting part of the morning snorkel was--and I don't know the proper way to describe this--a giant cloud of fish. A couple people from our group summoned us over and below us were more fish than I'd ever seen in one place. Again, this is not a very scientific description, but it was like those silver fish in Finding Nemo who make all the little faces and pictures. I took video because still photos just didn't capture the size of the fish cloud.
The afternoon snorkel was at an area called Devil's Crown. It's the top of a sunken-in volcano, so you just see a circle of jagged rocks sticking out from the water. The snorkeling was good here, but I got fewer pictures/video because the current was a little stronger so I was busy trying not to drown. One highlight (captured in the photo album) was seeing a puffer fish. Ton, a Dutch guy from our group, tried to swim down and poke at him so he would puff up. I was tempted to do the same. Fortunately this bad, bad idea did not come to fruition since it turns out that these fish are highly poisonous and their spikes put out deadly neurotoxins.
Here, not-so-dangerous yellow-tailed surgeonfish.
Beating out the pufferfish, the biggest highlight of Devil's Crown was a sighting we made right as we were about to leave. As we were being called to get out of the water, someone shouted to look down. There was a massive eagle ray, gently gliding through the water. The video doesn't capture its size, but I would estimate its wingspan to be 5-6 feet. Rays aren't necessarily the first thing that comes to mind when you think "beautiful animal," but this one was so graceful that it was hard to think anything else.
Overnight from Isla Santa Cruz we sailed to Floreana. We were advised that the ride should be smooth, with little chance of seasickness, but that didn't actually help me sleep any better. Instead, I spent most of the night hearing every little creak and clack and clang caused by the boat's movement and trying to figure out if we were moving and if so, how far we'd gone, and did I accidentally leave the bathroom door open? None of this was helped by setting my alarm for the wrong time because I'd forgotten to change my clock to Galapagos time (an hour behind Ecuador).
But a restless night was a small price to pay for this view out our window first thing in the morning.
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| From Floreana |
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| From Floreana |
Did I mention that it has been a life-long dream of mine to visit the Galapagos? This has been up there on the list with, well, nothing really because it was basically the top of the list. And oh man did it live up to (and exceed) every expectation ever. And almost two weeks after leaving this dream destination, I've finally gotten around to getting pictures on this blog.
I probably would've been satisfied just with our first day. Even the plane ride was an adventure in itself. Flying domestic in a foreign country always seems to be. At the Quito airport they thoroughly searched our bags for invasive species, but never actually checked any kind of ID. At least I know that if I'd brought some sort of marine iguana mold in my backpack they'd never know it was me.
First stop: Guyaquil. Because our plane was continuing on to the Galapagos we were told to stay on the plane. Then after 15 or so minutes we were directed to unfasten our seatbelts. I am not sure what kind of safety regulation this relates to. Another 15 minutes and they sent us off the plane, handing out green laminated "tickets"--the only thing that would allow our re-entry to the flight. Again, no check of IDs or tickets or anything. Makes sense to me. I must say that the Guyaquil airport provided extensive entertainment. There was a duty free shop with overbearing salespeople where Maura and I played "The Price is Right" with American snack food imports. Also on the snack food tip, Ecuadoreans (or at least Guyaquilenos) have interesting ideas about what constitutes appropriate airport food. See my pictures for more detail, but here's a preview: Giant hunks of meat, cheese platters, and 1-liter bottles of salad dressing.
Arrival on Baltra (the airport where we landed in the Galapagos) was amazing. There you are flying over miles of ocean and all of a sudden there's a little piece of land. The insanely blue water is punctuated by strangely barren alien landscape. Again, pictures explain more.
From the airport we took a ferry to Isla Santa Cruz. Even waiting for the ferry was a virtual safari. Our guide pointed to the bird in the sky: "That one's a blue-footed booby, that one's a frigate bird," so on. Bright red Sally Lightfoot Crabs dotted the rocks around the dock. The water was so clear you could see the fish darting around. Sea lions lounged on the buoys. We'd been on the Islands for about a half hour.
After reaching and settling into our temporary home (a beautiful yacht with private ensuite rooms that made me wonder what the non-"budget" boats included), we visited the Darwin Research station. Impressive work those folks do. And impressive displays by the tortoises of island gigantism, my new favorite phenomenon. Scroll down to check out the video of one of the tortoises walking (she was one of the few tortoises we saw who actually moved). It will give you an idea of why Darwin decided it would be a good idea to ride them. Honestly, I would've too if I knew I wouldn't be yelled at by the guides and probably kicked off the islands. It was at the Research Station that we got to meet Lonesome George, a poor tortoise who's the last of his species. And he's just not interested in mating with any of the ladies they put in his pen. Poor fellow. I think I'd be sad if I were the last of my kind and had been plucked from my home, shipped to a weird enclosure and forced to make friends with people I didn't really know or like.
Then we had some time in Puerto Ayora, the town on Santa Cruz and one of the few points of human civilization in the Galapagos. A lot of souvenir shops selling crappy t-shirts (how many ways can you design a graphic to match the words "I heart Boobies"?). But I did get to drop off some postcards that hopefully ended up with a Galapagos postmark.
A pretty phenomenal first day, for sure. Who knew that it would only get better from there?
(Remember to click on the slideshow to access the album and captions)
And some videos to enhance your experience:
Got back from Ecuador late Saturday night and have spent most of the last two days dealing with my pictures. Anyone want to place a bet on how many I took? Two categories: (1) How many pictures did I take overall? (2) How many pictures were left after deleting the bad ones? The winner in each category gets a giant tortoise or exotic sea bird of his or her choosing.
In short, the Galapagos adventure was unreal. Exceeded expectations by all measures. Nowhere will ever be better than New Zealand, but this ran a very close second.
Pictures are coming soon, but given how many I took (seriously, place your bets) it might be a slow process. But here is a teaser from the Equator.
After some more sketchy details about when the beautiful waterfall would be open, the final conclusion was that the only way to find out would be to just go down there. So on Wednesday afternoon we drove down to Julia Pefiffer State Beach again and fate was more on our side this time (although it seems fate was on our side before, given that it sent us on the amazing Ewoldsen Trail).
The best word I can think of to describe McWay Falls is "magical." I'll let the pictures say the rest. 
The view in the other direction wasn't too bad either. 
I wasn't sure I'd gotten enough pictures, so I took some video too.
When we were trying to figure out what we should do on Tuesday, Mary pulled out a list of recommendations she'd gotten from her brother. One description read: "There's beach with purple sand. Purple sand!" Purple sand? How could we resist?
There were also some not too shabby rock formations and crashing waves: 
I couldn't resist the video:
Check out this video of some Mission students commenting on the upcoming election (there are also come cool shots of our school). None of them are actually in my classes, but I am fortunate enough to know Cedric and Sandi, two truly amazing kids (as you can probably tell).
Two of my favourite things in the whole world are (1) New Zealand and (2) The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. So what happens when something from New Zealand makes it on to the Daily Show? Pure genius.
Maybe the best part is that I heard about this because it was one of the top stories on New Zealand's Prime News, one of three nightly newscasts in NZ. I listen to it as a podcast everyday to help deal with my homesickness (can you call it homesick when it's not really your home?), and this was the perfect example of the kind of Kiwi news reporting I miss so badly.
Oh man, Cook Islanders can DANCE.
The first performance we saw was a fire dancing show at one of the resorts. 
I can't help but wonder how someone learns fire dancing. In particular, how they learn it without sustaining severe burns. I'm sure you practice a lot without the sticks actually being lit on fire, but there's still gotta be a first time when you throw a flaming stick into the air and hope to catch it, all in time with the drumbeat of course. Rhythmic gymnasts, eat your hearts out.
April in the Cook Islands brings the annual "Dancer of the Year" competition, and we were fortunate enough to see the finals of both the junior competition (approximately ages 10-14) and the "Golden Oldies" (over 50?). This is a serious event, with people flying in from the outer islands and even from New Zealand just to compete. The juniors were extremely impressive, with spectacular costumes and hip shaking that would probably sacndalize some Americans.
The Golden Oldies were just as impressive, again for the costumes and hip shaking, but also because you could tell that they were loving every minute of it. If this is how good these dancers were now, I can't imagine what they must have been like in their heyday. My favourite was a guy who reminded me of one of my old professors. I'm not sure if I liked him because he was such a good dancer, or because it was hilarious picturing Dr. Akutsu shaking it like that. Unfortunately these aren't the best pictures, but I'm still trying to salvage some pics that I burned using Windows Vista and can't seem to recover. 
Good dancers, breathtaking scenery, delicious food, crystal clear water... what does Rarotonga not have to offer?
Very high on my "must do" list in New Zealand was another uniquely Kiwi activity: zorbing. I don't really know how to explain it because I certainly couldn't figure it out until I was actually there doing it.
A zorb ball is three metres (about 9 ft) tall, and looks like a giant golf ball. It's inflated, and there's a little pod in the middle that's maybe a metre and a half high--enough space for three people to fit. You get into the pod into the center, they throw in some warm water to make it slippery, and then push you down a hill. 
Erica and I did it together. When we got in the zorb, the staff told us to stand up, and when they tapped the outside we should start running like hamsters. We could stay standing if we wanted, or sit down and enjoy the ride. What they did not explain was that standing or sitting were not really options because pretty much immediately we both fell down and spent the entire ride sliding around, rolling all over and crashing into each other.
I have never laughed so uncontrolably in my entire life.
Unfortunately the zig zag course was only for solo riders, but I still couldn't stop laughing. Check out the silhouette of my legs flying in the air as I go down the hill.
Hoiho (yellow-eyed penguins) are one of the rarest penguin species in the world, with numbers at only around 4,000. I think they're found only in New Zealand. So when I got to see some in Oamaru, I was floored. But I did not realise that it was only the beginning.
During my day on the Otago Peninsula, I went out to an area called Allan's Beach because my guidebook told me it was one of the best places in the area to see sea lions. The beach itself was really amazing. To get there, I took a long dirt road that curved around an inlet, and the parking was next to a field of sheep. From there, I had to climb a fence (yes, that's what the sign told me), walk across the sheep paddock, and then through some sand dunes. I was promptly rewarded with a stunning stretch of sand, complete with giant waves. And I had it all to myself. 
Well, not quite all to myself, as I soon discovered. I started to walk down the beach towards some rocks where I hoped to find some sea lions. A little ways down, I saw strange looking rock--it was white instead of brown like the rest. I kept walking and discovered that it was not a rock, but a hoiho. He was just standing there, preening himself.
The books and brochures all warn that hoiho are very frightened of movement and sound, so I kept very quiet and moved slowly. He didn't seem to notice me. There were some big rocks near him, about 20 or so feet away, so I made my way over there. I managed to position myself sitting against one of the rocks (I like to think that my dark jacket camouflaged me a bit), with the hoiho in plain sight. He looked at me once or twice, but mostly just preened. He and I hung out like that for a good half hour or more. Me (quietly) snapping pictures, him preening. The pictures and video will be posted soon. I was going to wait for him to leave first, but I eventually got so cold that I took off (quietly, and as far away from him as possible so as not to disturb). 
I wandered down the still empty beach some more, trying to find the sea lions. But all of a sudden I noticed that the brown rocks were moving, and that there were some seals basking around. I realized that I was between the seals and the sea--which is when they're most likely to attack--so I quickly turned around. 
I'm still kind of in shock that I was able to see the endangered hoiho in the wild, and that I had such a good view. He was so beautiful, and so stunning. The thought of seeing endangerged animals anywhere but a zoo never really occurred to me, but in New Zealand, it seems I encounter the impossible on a daily basis.
As I think we all know, I have thing for eating strange animals. So when I heard about the Wild Foods Festival, long before I even got to New Zealand, I was determined to attend. With stalls featuring everything from possum to crickets, it was an obvious must-do.
The crown jewel of the Wild Foods Festival is the huhu grub, so sampling one was obviously how we kicked off our day. While Sarah and Tal chose (wisely, I'd say) to go for the BBQ'd ones, I figured that if you're gonna do it, you've gotta do it full on, and ate a live one. The huhu grub stall was actually just a a pile of decaying wood. The people running the stall hacked away with their axes and pulled out the fare. 
I have to say, the whole experience was actually kind of horrifying. The grub was squishy, but the head was crunchy. I can't say there was much of a taste to it, but in any case, any taste was distracted from by the fact that I could feel it move inside my mouth. Sick.
Some of our Kiwi friends said they actively liked the BBQ'd ones, but Tal and Sarah reported differently.
The cricket was a little disappointing in that you couldn't actually taste it. It was served on a little savoury pancake, and the cricket itself was tiny, so there wasn't much to taste. On the other hand, given the huhu grub experience, maybe that's a good thing.
The ponga tree is the plant that grows the awesome koru, the uncurling fern fronds. The flesh of the plant looks kind of like a water chestnut, but is not as crunchy. I had one that was marinated in honey, and it was delicious.
I've had paua before (at a work party here in NZ), but wanted to try it again. Paua is actually just abalone, but when it's exported, it's bleached white. Some people do not like it (Tal was not a fan of the texture), but I thoroughly enjoyed it.
The "Crouching Grasshopper" stall frightened me, but I was determined to try something there. The novelty of the grasshoppers and giant beetles could not outweigh how gross they looked. 
So I settled for some ice cream topped with baby wasps. They kind of tasted like nuts that had gone a little soft. At first they weren't bad, but when I accidentally got a bite that was more wasp than ice cream, I had to wash it down with water. And some ice cream sans wasp.
The worm truffles were fantastic, probably because you couldn't even figure out where the worm was. And there are very few chocolate things that I dislike. Check out the worm sushi that was on offer too. 
The possum pies were not bad, but not amazing. They tasted like chicken (of course). But overcooked chicken. It should be noted that possums here are not like the disgusting hairless-tailed opossums we have in the US. Instead of being dirty rodents that root through your trash and are most often seen as roadkill, they're dirty marsupials that root through your rubbish and are most often seen as roadkill.
The ostrich pies were much better. You'd think that they would taste like chicken too, but they actually tasted more like steak.
Shark was very delicious, although it just tasted pretty much like any good fish you'd get from a fish and chips shop. On the other hand, maybe the good taste came from the satisfaction that I was eating a shark rather than the other way around.
Nothing else I ate was really of too much note (donuts, green-lipped mussels, beer, gin). There was SO much good food there that I didn't sample because I was too full from eating weird stuff. I should note, however, that while I'm keen to try strange animals, strange animal parts are something I avoid altogether. I've had lamb, pork and beef, so I'll pass on the mountain oysters, pig eyes, and cow udders. There's a limit to my adventurousness.
