There was an all-night party next door last night. I am talking loud music, loud voices. Too much cane sugar alcohol, I think. I think it was a direct reaction to someone (I heard it was a research scientist) complaining about the last night loud noise in our area.
Mari and I tried desperately to sleep, and we ended up closing the wooden door to keep the sound just a tad softer. It made the room warmer (no cross-vent) plus the noise, and it was a pretty rough night for dreamland.
I’m up at 6:00 and the day is yet another picture perfect morning in paradise. It reminds me so much of the morning sun in Arizona. It hits the cacti and other vegetation with that rosy-orange-pink brightness at sunrise. Gorgeous. I lie in bed and read from a book that I checked out of the library last night called A Traveler’s Guide to the Galapagos Islands, by Barry Boyce. It is the 3rd ed., 1998. It has contents like Choosing a tour, and Tour Operators Index. Good stuff to read and learn about, esp. if you haven’t booked a Tour, which of course, I haven’t.
I know that breakfast is served later this morning than weekday mornings so I take my shower, fighting the mosquitoes for the showerhead. I tiptoe around the room as Mari is asleep and I don’t want to wake her. Today is her only day off, and she needs her rest.
I decide to follow one of the group tours to the torguas and listen in as the Guide or National Park Ranger tells of the tortoises here. I listen in at an interpretation building to the tortoise history. There used to be 14 species, now there are only 11. National Park Galapagos (NPG) staff go into the field and take the tortoise eggs and bring them here to incubate and hatch. There are too many introduced predators for them to survive in the wild (really inside the Park). We will see the hatchlings later. I feel like an intruder, plus the insects have found my just-showered body and I decide to walk further up the path to the next pen.
In here, there are 6 giant male tortoises. The guide says that the group can walk in, but don’t walk on the cement platform that these 2 tortoises are on. You can walk around them, don’t touch them, great photo ops here. These are the ones that I saw on my first day here, but I learn that the males and females are only brought together during mating season. I have no idea where the girls are, and never did learn when mating season was. It is hot and windless. I am swatting flies and mosquitoes, and I know that it is time to go. These tour groups are backed up, two are in the tortoise pen, and another just came up the path to get in there also. Whew! Just for the heck of it, I snap a picture of the tourists! I will try another tour another day, to (hopefully) see the hatchling. I regret that I didn’t visit Lonesome George, but he was going to have lots of company today without me.
I go to the Library instead of typing at my laptop in the room. Being a good do-be, I dump the dehumidifier water on the plants as previously directed. It makes me happy to do this; my little part of preserving a piece of Darwin’s Galapagos.
Being in the Library means that I am in air conditioning and I have Internet access. Being a librarian does have its perks. I read and write some email. At 8:45 AM, I lock up the Library and head for breakfast. Fernanda, a tall slender beautiful student from my dorm, is already there and I sit with her. We make conversation, not the least of which is, Did you sleep last night? I say, Some. How about you? Not too much at all.
Seems the boys next door kept everyone around us awake last night. She says that the party ended at 5:20. This morning? Yep, this morning. Whoa! I know that I awoke several times last night, but never realized that the party lasted until dawn!! Fernanda and I watch Porky Pig cartoons as her roommate comes in and joins us. Breakfast is now always the same for me, and the waitress knows it, so I don’t have to order any more. The juice, hot milk and fruit salad come first. Then the same round ball of whatever it was just as last Saturday. I tell the waitress, No thanks. Fernanda says, You don’t like it? I ask, What is it? She says that it is plaintain. Raw? No boiled and then ground up and fashioned into this ball, with pieces of cheese rolled in for extra protein (and calories). Hmm. Maybe next Saturday I will try it again. Right now I am asked if I want a tostada or a roll. Tostada, por favor. The cook is very accommodating, and I am very spoiled by the service. What will it be like to back to eating oatmeal and coffee every morning? Hard to say. Anyway, I eat pretty fast because I am hungry!
Fernanda tells me that the group is going to Las Grietas this afternoon, if I want to come. I thank her, tell her that I was there last weekend, and I will stay here today. I want to call about the bike and maybe go to town to see it. I have to wait for my encebollado delivery at the circle between 10 and 10:30. I want to take out my camcorder and see if I can figure the darn thing out. I want to surf the net and find some Galapagos Tours that aren’t too expensive (as if that was possible!) So much to do, and so little time! Not to mention that it is a glorious day, and I am thinking of spending much of it inside.
I go back to my room. I grab my new library book and my Stephen Fry book (not knowing what I am in the mood to read) and head to the circle to await delivery. I read Boyce because it has info that I am going to need and use to either book us a Tour, or not. Time might be of the essence. Boyce says that most of the big boats are booked a year in advance. If that is so, then George and I are so completely out of luck, it is scary. The prices in Boyce are from 1998, and I know that everything has gone up dramatically, probably three-fold if not more. Too bad too because I really like those 1998 prices!
Every time a taxi pulls into the circle I look up. Nope. No delivery. Then Mark Gardener bikes in with his daughter Molly in the bike baby seat. I say Hello. He says that it is moving day for them, and I know from Mandy (his wife) that the woman, Graciela, who is selling her bike lives only a few doors down from their new house. I ask Mark for directions. He draws me a map and explains the directions. I will find it now, if I ever get connected to Graciela. He is riding off, and I go back to reading and await delivery.
It is 11 o’clock now, but I am patient. A man comes from la tienda, carrying a plastic container and asks me if I am Kris. Si, gracias. He hands me the container with a slice of lime and a plastic spoon. The fish stew is still warm. I thank him again and head to the room. I find a plastic bag and put everything in (even the spoon) and walk it to the refrigerator in the kitchen. I have to say that having it in a bag keeps anyone from seeing it, taking it and eating it. Plus you wouldn’t want it just out on this refrigerator’s shelves!
I am free to do what I want for the rest of the day. I tell Mari that I will go to the Library and read/write email etc. I will see her in the cafeteria for lunch. And I’m gone.
I hit the Amazon.com and Alibris.com websites looking for two books. Boyce’s latest ed. (2004) and Lonely Planet Galapagos Guide. The Lonely Planet book is selling here for $36. I can buy it on-line for $17, but then it has to be shipped! The cost of shipping to an international address is $18.99 for the first book and every book thereafter on Alibris. Darn. No savings there unless I buy them and have George send them FedEx, which is a good possibility. Wonder if Puerto Ayora has (or needs a bookstore)?
Anyway, it’s time for lunch and I don’t want to spend all of this beautiful day in the Library. I see Mari as she is leaving the cafeteria. She already has on her bathing suit, and is going with the gang to Las Grietas this afternoon. I eat lunch (cerviche) on the porch facing the harbor. Again, it is a fabulous day, and I am NOT going to spend it in the Library… but I go back to the Library to do more research.
I have a Google alert set up to come to my Gmail account whenever there is mention of the Galapagos on the Internet or in a blog. This is why I have so many Gmail messages. I search my Gmail archive for emails having to do with “Baltra,” which if you remember, is the island where my Quito flight landed. I read several entries and go to their Travel blogs to see if any mention the boats they were on. Several mention different boats and between their blog entries and good old Boyce, I find a few decent Travel tours. Many, many include the flight from Quito or Guayaquil to Baltra and return. I don’t need this. Mostly because I am here already, and George will travel to join me here. Some packages include the international flight too! Aiyee! Boyce says that it is hardest to be in Puerto Ayora and book a good tour. Great, like I need this!
I find a great tour that lasts for 7 days and tours 9 or 10 islands. Now we are talking! I review the itinerary online and it starts on a totally different island, and not on Santa Cruz, where I am. Of course, the cost is upward $2,700 per person. A lot of cash, actually. Coming in around $350 per person each day. I suppose if you consider the boat, the crew, the staff, the berths with private bath, the food and the guides for only 16-20 persons in one week, I guess that it’s not too bad, just expensive.
If we stay in a hotel, eat and drink, and do day-trip touring without guides, etc., it would be cheaper, but not as tidy. The idea, I guess, is the “package,” not the Chinese menu that we would get if we just made it up as we went along. Plus, if George and I tour for the first week, we’ve blown all of our (non-existent) money, and what do we do the second week (that won’t cost us anything!)?? Such is my dilemma.
Lolly writes me about the snowstorm, and I answer her email and tell her that I am going to the beach today, come hell or high water. George has written me also of the Friday snowstorm. He stayed home from work and will work on Saturday to make it up. He also wrote to say that my daughter, Ali, was in a car accident. She was not hurt, Thank God! But there is some damage to her car. Poor kid! More adult responsibilities to take on, and this, an unfortunate one.
It’s 2 PM and I shut down the computer. Hooray! For me. I go back to the room and Mari is sleeping. Hmm. I thought that she would have already left, but maybe she didn’t go with. Unlikely, but possible. I quietly organize my beach bag and change into my suit. The beach that I go to is very close to the dorms. It is like a giant tidal pool with sand (instead of volcanic rocks) leading right into the water. There is a family of five, and a mother and her two children already in the water. I’m sure they are wondering why I would choose to come here. I don’t have a little child, so it’s a rather peculiar choice.
I don’t care, I just want the sea, salt and sun for a half hour. Against all of the advice from all of the professionals, I don’t wear sunscreen. I won’t stay long as I can see the storm clouds building over the central mountains behind me. It will definitely rain soon. I peel off my Tee-shirt and shorts and sit in the water. It is heaven. The waves crash just enough over the rocks so the pool is calm but moving. I sit and watch two kids on surf boards out in the bay riding any wave that looks good. The young boy is having a great time just being in the water with his mother and father, baby brother and big sister. The big sister is 8 or nine years old and is trying to shore up some cute little fish that doesn’t want to be caught. I join in. Every once in a while a bigger wave will crash, and the water will rock me. This is what I am talking about! Heaven.
After 40 minutes of unprotected sunshine, I stand to dry off and walk the little beach looking for shells, but finding only fragments. I dress and walk back to the dorm. Mari is gone, and so is everyone else. The place is quiet and I have it all to myself. I hang my bathing suit, Tee-shirt, and wrap around on the clothesline, knowing the final rinse will come with the anticipated rain. And I start to blog this entry.
The rain starts with a little shower at 5:30, and continues with a light rainfall. The temperature is a bit lower with the rain. Not cool by any stretch of the imagination, but feels cooler. It is 7 PM, and Juan Carlos is back, and singing. Other bikes arrive and so too will the rest of the group. I will go to have my famed cereal dinner and read tonight.
Tomorrow I am off on an adventure with Frida.
