Ecuador-Day Five

The fifth day of the trip was an exciting bird day for me.  I saw a phalanthrope, some brown noddy, a whimbrel and pink flamingoes.  The most exciting bird was the albatross. Earlier I had asked Pablo if we would see an albatross and he said, "Maybe."  We got up early, packed all our belongings into the boat, and headed out to sea.  We boated around Elsmere Island to see the nesting frigate birds, pelicans, and others.  We snorkeled at Elsmere and at Devil's Crown.  The sandy bottom made the water turqoise.  We spotted a chocolate chip sea star, 2 manta rays, sea turtles (see photo), a blue star fish and a yellow starfish.  Back at sea, the boat motors suddenly stopped.  Pablo said, "Susan, luke, luke."  I love the way he says my name.  He accents the second syllable and now I want everyone to say my name that way, thank you very much.  He pointed to a large bird gliding just above the waves.  He said it was an albatross.  I got very excited. I've heard about these birds.  I went to a lecture on the mechanics of bird flight.  More than any other bird, the albatross has a hard time getting airborne because of their huge wingspan and heavy body.  Once airborne, they can lock their limbs and glide for days at a time.  And one of my former bird teachers talked about seeing albatross when he was a pilot in WWII.  So I was excited to see an albatross.  I turned to him and said, "Thanks, Pablo" and went to give him a little side hug of appreciation.  The boat lurched and he got a much more enthusiastic hug than I intended on giving.  What can I say?  I got excited.  You think about seeing a bird for years and then you see it - it's exciting.  An hour later he spotted another one.  This albatross was sitting on the water and as the boat approached it took flight.  I really enjoyed watching it take flight.  And then we saw two orca whales playing in the water.  The boat followed them for quite a time and once we saw both of them breach the water at the same moment.  Pictures don't do the moment justice.  We stopped at Floreanna Island, population 70. There is a very interesting story about the early settlers at Floreanna that is worth another post later on.  We met a granddaughter of one of the originial inhabitants.  We had a picnic lunch on the veranda of the visitor center. This center was in front of a inorganic black sand beach.  After lunch I walked the beach for a while.  The black sand was coarse and reminded me of coffee grounds. Soon we were back in the boat and headed to Isabella, the largest of the Galapagos Islands.  This island is only a quarter of a million years old where the other islands are two million years old.  This is the island where Pablo lives.  In contrast to the other islands we saw, Isabella was green and lush.  The town was small and did not have cobblestone pavement.  Here the roads are sand and the town felt more like a small town than a city.  We went to our hotel, La Laguna.  We had time for a quick shower before we got a walking tour of the town.  Across the street from the hotel was a brackish pond.  Pink flamingoes hang out here with their heads upside down eating in the water.  Ruddy turnstones walked on the shore.  We walked around the town and along the shore.  We ended up having a drink at the Endemic Bar and watching the sun set over the sea.  I had a coke light (it's the same thing as a diet coke). Four flamingoes flew by.  Marine iguanas crawled over the rocks at the side of the bar.  The Endemic bar has unusual decorations on a tree in the sand on the beach, just beyond the hammocks (see photo).   The last photo shows a view from the rooftop deck area of our hotel.  I feel a little dangerous up here.  After spending so much time in the boat, I still don't have my land legs.  You can see the flamingoes in the foreground.  In the background is a volcano.  This is Sierra Negra volcano and we'll be hiking up there tomorrow.