Collect Experiences. Not Things. :')

October 31, 2007

Animals and People – Galapagos, Ecuador

 
The most amazing aspect of the Galapagos Islands is the animals. There is immense symbiotic existence amongst the animals. They have all evolved in a manner where they can co-exist. And since many of them don’t have natural predators, they are not afraid of each other or humans.

 
The sea lions hang-out on the beach, yawn and sleep. The iguanas meander around posing for pictures. I do not have a telephoto lens on my camera; all the pics I’ve posted are from close range with a regular lens.

 
Highlighting the Galapagos birds symbiotic relationship, this is how Dr. Harris, a Galapagos researcher, describes the ways in which different birds can take the same prey: “Red-footed boobies caught flying in the air, great frigatebirds picked from them from the surface, swallow-tailed gulls caught them just below the surface, masked boobies caught them some distance below, and waved albatrosses took them while swimming on the surface. Similarly, brown noddies hovered to take the smallest fish, storm petrels made a quick pounce, and Audubon's shearwater pursued them underwater.”

October 30, 2007

Scuba Diving - Galapagos, Ecuador

My first three dives in the Galapagos were basically cold and not overly exciting. The highlights were the eagle rays, sharks and sea turtles. The visibility was good, but not great. I’m guessing my initial dives in the Galapagos where clouded by memories of diving at the Great Barrier Reef, where I dived last.
 
If I were to list the dive sites where I’ve dived, in order, it would go: 1) Great Barrier Reef, Australia; 2) Red Sea, Egypt; 3) Galapagos, Ecuador; and 4) Gulf of Thailand. The expansiveness of the GBR is what makes it so amazing. The bright vibrate colors, makes the Red Sea a close second. Thailand might have ranked higher, if I dived during the dive season and on the ocean side, instead of the gulf side. Since I dived off season, it was recommended to dive on the gulf side, which from what I’ve heard isn’t a nice as the ocean side.

 
Dive four, however, changed my opinion of diving in the Galapagos. It was by far our best dive. It started at 6 am, near the Island of Bartolome, searching for seahorses. Our dive master, after a little probing in the seaweed, found a very shy one. It almost looked plastic. Minutes later, a sea lion whizzed by. Diving with sea lions was a new and fun experience for me. They are very curious and fast. A small sea turtle sauntered by next. Personally, I’ve always been impressed by the grace and elegance of the sea turtle. Following the turtle, we were greeted by a school of Semela fish. When we swam in the middle of the school everything turned dark. The school was incredibly dense. It was a little uncanny and exciting at the same time. Outside the school of Semela was school of Yellow-tailed Tuna fish being chased by a couple of Galapagos Sharks. The dive master told us later that the sharks were feeding on the Tuna fish and the Tuna fish on the Semela fish. But most intense was swimming within the group of Semela fish. They were extremely dense and swimming very fast, yet none of them crashed into each other or us. The best way to describe them would be like in a cartoon when a swarm of bees would surround a cartoon character, creating a dark cloud and changing shapes. After this dive I gained a greater appreciation for diving in the Galapagos. On our fifth and sixth dive, we saw a few hammerhead sharks, another very playful sea lion, more sea turtles, and a very ugly moray eel. I’ve come to realize that each dive site has it own experience to offer and that people dive at different dive sites to gain these different experiences.

The Dive Master took a few underwater pics:
 

Moray Eel
 

Sea Lion (the bubbles to the left of the picture are mine)

 

Three Sting Rays

October 28, 2007

Itinerary - Galapagos, Ecuador

Day 1 - Baltra & South Plaza Island
Day 2 - Espanola
Day 3 - Floreana
Day 4 - Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz, Highlands
Day 5 - Genovesa
Day 6 - Bartolome, North Seymore
Day 7 - Santa Fe, San Cristobal
Day 8 - Return to Baltra

October 27, 2007

Rafting - San Domingo, Ecuador

Rafting trip on Toachi & Blanco rivers (class III - III+) was a lot of fun, but I running out of computer battery. I'll write more later. Then again I'll be leaving for the Galapagos Islands for a week tomorrow. I'm not sure if there is internet access on the boat/island. If not, I'll post more when I get back. Having a great time!

October 26, 2007

Volcan Pichincha - Quito, Ecuador

 

This morning, I rode the Teleferico (sky tram) to the top of Cruz Loma (4100m).

 
This picture is of the City of Quito from Cruz Loma (4100m).

 
From the top of Cruz Loma (4100m), I hiked another two and half hours to the top of Volcan Pichincha (4700m).

From the Top of Mt. Pichincha - Quito, Ecuador

 
While I successfully made it to the peak of Mt. Pichincha (pictured above) in two and a half hours no problem. I’m guessing, however, I might have went up a little too fast. I should have paced myself better, since I wasn’t acclimated to the altitude nor the heat, and I’m guessing I didn’t drink enough water during the assent, either. When I got back to my hotel, I started to get the chills and the dehydration set in. I drank two litres of water and a litre of beer to redehydrate, and crawled under the covers for two hours with the shakes. After that I was fine. The next day I went whitewater rafting.

October 25, 2007

Quito, Ecuador

I’ve successfully arrived in Quito yesterday. The weather last night was a little cooler than I expected, but today it warmed up considerable. Today, I spent the day taking it easy, waking around the city, visited a boring museum, practiced some Spanish (I downloaded a couple of lesson to my iPod), and read a few chapters in the Galapagos Islands book.

Tomorrow should be similar, sightseeing, wondering, reading and listening to Spanish lessons. I scheduled a whitewater rafting trip for Saturday, which is a GO provided they find one more participant. They need a minimum of four; currently there are only four of us.

On Monday the boat trip around the Galapagos Islands begins. It will be for eight days, including underwater six dives. I tried to schedule more, but because of time limits I couldn’t. Most of the time, we’ll be sailing between the islands, hiking on them and visiting research stations.

I met the group leader for my South American Explorer trip on my flight over yesterday. That trips starts on Nov 8 in Quito. The group leader said the truck is at capacity, meaning there are 21 participants (strangers) and all the participants (strangers) will be on the truck for the entire duration of the trip. That is from Quito on Nov. 8th to Rio de Janeiro on Feb. 1st. Three months with the same strangers, after which I sure will not be strangers.

Time to go find some food and a bottle for later, while watching Spanish language TV in my hotel room!!

October 24, 2007

All Set

Having finished putting a vacation hold on my gym membership and netflix accounts, downgrading internet service, washing clothes, packing, changing phone voicemail message, unplugging miscellaneous appliances, locking the windows, turning off the refrigerator and hotwater heater, setting the thermostat to 50 degree, confirming my flight, I'm ready! All I have to do is call a cab and lock the door behind me. Sometime this evening I'll be in Quito, Ecuador.

The hardest part yesterday was sorting out my electricity, minimizing cords and finding the correct adaptors. With a laptop, iPod, SLR still camera, video camera, and iPod speakers in tow, I think I've done that. While energy is always available, typically there aren't many outlets in the hotel rooms. Optimizing outlet usage is essential, especially when sharing with two and sometime three people and their power needs.

Last night I also downloaded some Spanish language lessons to my iPod to listen during the flight. However, I'm sure I'll just watch movies.

When I arrive in Quito, other than a whitewater rafting trip on Saturday, my schedule is basically free until Monday when I board the "yacht" on sail around the Galapagos.

October 20, 2007

New Arena


According to the arena's parking scheme my house is an eight minute walk to this arena. It appear that I could be a becoming a NJ Devil's Ice Hockey Fan.

October 08, 2007

Travel Update


As always, the pre-trip guilt is setting in. Why am I going? I shouldn’t be going: with two screenplays 90% complete and a third one 50%complete, I feel like I should be spending the next couple of months completing them, instead of traipsing around South American.

Nevertheless, I depart Newark, NJ on October 24 and arrive in Quito Ecuador the same day, where I’ll have five days to hangout and practice my Spanish before venturing aboard a charter boat for an eight day sightseeing and scuba diving excursion to the Galapagos Island. After the Galapagos excursion, I head back to Quito for a few more days before boarding an Overland Truck and heading south to Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, with side trips to Uruguay and Paraguay eventually reaching Brazil on February 1st to partake in Carnival in Rio de Janeiro for six days. After which I fly back to freezing cold NJ on February 6th.

As for preparations, most is complete. I've had all my vaccinations (Polio, Tetanus, MMR, Yellow Fever, Typhoid, Hep-A, Hep–B, Meningococcal); passport and extra photos are in order; I don’t need any pre-trip Visas; I purchased travel insurance that covers me for extreme sports (motorcycling, scuba diving, jet, and water skiing, mountain climbing, sky diving, bungee jumping, spelunking, whitewater rafting, surfing or parasailing)* and emergency evacuation; and I’ve also reviewed my check list from my previous travels. Everything seems to be in order. I’ll be taking my computer and camera once again and blogging along the way.

My reading list, with a South American flavor, includes:
“The House of the Spirits” by Isabel Allende
“The Machu Picchu Guidebook: A Self- Guided Tour” by Ruth M. Wright & Dr. Alfredo Valencia Zegarra
“The Conquest of the Incas” by John Hemming
“Love in the Time of Cholera” by Gabriel Garci’a Ma’rquez
“100 Years of Solitude” by Gabriel Garci’a Ma’rquez
“Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter” by Mario Vargas Llosa
“Galapagos: A Natural History” by Michael H. Jackson
“Blue Blood” by Edward Conloan
“Weaving the Web: The Original Design and Ultimate Destiny of the World Wide Web” by Tim Berners-Lee
“The Magic Lantern” by Ingmar Bergman
“Fellini’s Films” by Frank Burke
“Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed” by Jared Diamond

* I won't be participating in all these activities but they sound impressive so I included them.