Swimming With Sharks, Oh, My!

How would you feel swimming with White Tipped Reef Sharks and Galapagos Black Tipped Sharks? I will share with you how I felt! I looked down and there on the bottom of the ocean floor was a shark! Honestly, I know enough about sharks, that I was ok. I know that in the Galapagos area there are large schools of Hammerhead sharks and they are known to attack people. They can be aggressive and dangerous to humans. If I would have seen any Hammerheads I doubt I would have remained calm. The sharks I saw were not aggressive and showing no signs of aggression. Also, there were plenty of food sources around for them that were much more palatable than I was.
When I tell students in Kansas that I have swam with sharks they always look at me like I am crazy. A good analogy is like saying I pet a dog! There are varieties of sharks just as there are types of dogs. If you pet a poodle you get a visual image. If I say I pet a pit bull you get another image. The same is true with sharks. You can learn about the types of sharks and which are most likely to harm people. Most are not dangerous anymore than dogs are dangerous to people. There are however certain dogs that have been known to attack people. Does that mean all dogs are horrible and should be killed? Or is this a ludicrous statement?

Here's a great shark website http://www.sdnhm.org/kids/sharks/index.html

Snorkeling in the Galapagos

I heard one of my fellow travelers comment about how disappointed he was in the Galapagos. I thought to myself it was because he did not get in the water and go snorkeling! I have snorkeled extensively on some great reefs and seen some tropical waters that have taken my breath away. I have to say the water around the Galapagos was very cold. The humboldt current runs through there and it creates a marine environment that is conducive to fish and marine life that is some of the most interesting I have ever experienced. However, I would venture to guess that the real reason why the waters were so alive with marine life was due to the conservation efforts of the Charles Darwin Foundation. The Galapagos are a protected Wildlife National Park. This includes the water around the islands.
Most islands such as those in the Caribbean are fished heavily and so the reefs tend to have small schools of fish. The fish tend to be fairly small and the fish are not allowed to mature to their full size. They are caught and eaten before they grow to their fullest potential. Often the largest predators such as sharks or barracudas are viewed as competition for food sources by local people in those island areas and so they are also killed or eaten.
The Galapagos waters, due to the extended protection, had schools of fish that numbered in the hundreds! The fish were huge. I am used to seeing parrot fish that are beautiful and diverse in colors and sizes. There was no comparison in the Galapagos waters. The parrot fish were the largest and most diverse I have ever seen.
When I was snorkeling, I saw something flash beside me really fast. I glanced quickly to see what it was and it was a Galapagos Penguin! They are so fast and agile in the water. I tried to swim to follow but there was no way to keep up. They are very quick in the water. I actually saw three penguins while in the water.
Snorkeling in the Galapagos was an experience of a lifetime. I would strongly recommend you try it.

Animals of the Galapagos

Land Iguana: The islands are home to the Land Iguana with their smiling, greenish face. They just laze around in the sun. They did holes in the ground and live in large underground communities. We saw their snake-like trails everywhere in the sand and dirt. You can see the tail trail and where their claws dig in.
Marine Iguana: The marine Iguanas are everywhere. The males are larger than the females. You will see a large group of them together just laying in the sun. They are a dark grey and look like a prehistoric reptile! They just are freaky! We had to step over them and when I was snorkeling, I would see them swimming in the water.

Galapagos Giant Tortoise: The first thing we saw as we drove across the country side on the leeside of the island was the Giant Galapagos Tortoise. They were in the wild and they had cruised onto a local farm. There were two of them in a large fenced in area with the local farm stock. They seemed more active than the tortoises at the Sedgwick County Zoo. You need to take a moment to learn more about the Galapagos Tortoise. They are such fascinating animals.

Blue Footed Booby: Ok…I know what you are thinking! The name of these fascinating birds just is too funny. The Galapagos tourist Department realizes this as well because there were more T shirts with silly sayings regarding the Blue Footed Booby than any other animal on the islands. I was just laughing. I could not purchase a T shirt for my teenage son because I knew he would get into trouble by trying to wear a T shirt to school. The Blue Footed Booby is a bird that can turn his head around to face the direction of his back similar to an owl. It is the strangest looking bird. There is also a Red Footed Booby.

Sally Light Foot Crabs: The brilliantly red and orange crabs were evident on all the rocks along the shorelines. They clung to the rocks and appeared as red dots from a distance. They are beautiful!

Sea Lions: The Sea Lions were curious and every time we would go snorkeling, we would find a couple of Sea Lions joining us in the water. They appear awkward, laborious and clunky on land but in the water, they are graceful and lithe. The Sea Lions would swim up beside us really quickly and then slow down to match our swimming pace. They would swim up and ‘eye’ us with curiosity. We would swim down and swim around with them and imitate their movements. They would get close enough to touch! During my very last dive, a female swam up and was beside me for quite awhile. I was diving down under the water and imitating her movements. I got brave enough to reach out and stroke her large, brown fur covered body. She quivered all over. When she jumped, I gasped. This is not a good thing to do when you are snorkeling underwater with a J-tube in your mouth! I choked, gasped and coughed. I had to surface to breathe. I loved it though! I had to laugh at myself and my own excitement.

The Sea Lion bulls take over a group of females for a period of about two weeks. He has to remain vigilant because another bull that will try to contend for his position. Therefore, he doesn’t eat while he is in charge of the herd of females. After awhile of not eating and sleeping, he begins to lose weight and stamina and another healthy bull will challenge him and win. So, the next bull takes over as the leader of the group. Read more about the Sea Lions and their smaller relatives, the Fur Seals.

Galapagos Penguins: Think about this one: Penguins on the equator! We usually associate penguins with cold weather. There were penguins at the equator. They were adorable. They are the second smallest penguins in the world.

Santa Cruz, Galapagos

How do I even begin to describe a place that I have waited a lifetime to see? I was totally taken aback since I have studied and learned so much about the islands of the Galapagos and my first impression was absolutely nothing like what I had envisioned. We landed safely (Thank God!) in Santa Cruz and it was arid and dry. The vegetation was full of prickly pear cactus. I envisioned a more lush, equatorial, tropical island chain but with some of the islands reflecting more of the volcanic beginnings. Instead, I saw the harsh environment of being out in the middle of the ocean having a huge impact on the islands.
Santa Cruz was in fact arid and appeared desolate and remote. It was covered with Prickly pear cactus and then we drove to the other side of the island. It was almost as if you could draw a line and see the differences between the island botanical differences. As we drove, we could see the change from arid and dry to green and lush.
The wildlife in the Galapagos enjoy a unique existence of being protected. You notice this in their reaction to people. They do not move out of the way or run away from humans! We could get very close to the wildlife and it is so wonderful to see that people have not destroyed such a beautiful habitat.

Troubled Landing on December 12, 2008

How do you even describe a time in your life when you are faced with the reality of this may be your last few moments to live? I have flown on many airplanes and love the experience. My mother always shared her philosophy of flying with me, “I will never be as close to Heaven as I am in an airplane until it is my time to go.” That is what went through my head as we were preparing to land in Guayaquil (pronounced [waya-kil]), Ecuador enroot to Galapagos.
It was rather surreal hearing the panic in the pilot’s voice coming across the PA system stating “Pay Attention” in Spanish. You could tell he was upset. Then we saw a steward running up and down the aisle and the stewardess stop the service for drinks. Everyone appeared tense and nervous. The pilot declared that everything was under control but that we were going to prepare for an emergency landing. It was frustrating not being able to understand the words that were spoken in Spanish. I just knew the ‘vital’ information was probably being provided in the first statements in the native language and then the abbreviated version was provided in English! I doubt that was the case, however, I certainly felt a disadvantage to not being able to understand Spanish in the emergency situation.
The stewardess then demonstrated how we were to remove our shoes, eyeglasses and our watches, bend over and grab our ankles and brace ourselves to prepare for the emergency landing. We all did as we were told. I took out my cell phone and put it in one pocket with the logic that if I survived the landing, then I could perhaps call either my family or emergency services. In my other pocket, I added my passport. I did this so they could identify who I was if I did not survive the landing. Frightening thoughts but that is what went through my head at the time. After completing the tasks of preparing for the landing, there was nothing left to do but pray silently. I then thought of my family and realized they would know that at least I was doing what I really love doing; traveling and seeing new and wonderful places. I also have faith that they would continue on with their lives and know that I loved them very much.
The plane made the descent and we had no idea what the problem was. I figured that it had something to do with landing gears or something that happened after the pilots took the plane off auto pilot as they began their final descent and discovered there was a problem. I could tell the plane had made it to the airport and was landing on a tarmac. This was a great relief. We were not landing in the ocean or in some other remote area. The pilot set the plane down and did a series of three bumps.
We had landed safely! Everyone was hugging each other and laughing. It was a great day to be alive.

Myleene and I followed by all our wonderful traveling companions from the flight from AeroGal feeling blessed to be walking across the landing strip!

After we landed I learned a few things about our landing. I learned they asked us to remove our glasses, shoes and watches in case we had to exit the plane using the emergency shoots. They would be easy to rip from shoes and sharp objects. Here you can read about the landing and why they had to do a series of three bumps to determine if the landing gear was down and could lock into place and hold the plane. Read the article

Wooly Monkey~ Curious George

I have to tell you about the Wooly Monkey that was in the Yarina Lodge. There was a guide named Gonzolo that on the way back from one of our hikes stopped by one of the cages in the Yarina Lodge compound to show me the Wooly Monkey in the cage. Gonzolo showed me how to give the Wooly Monkey a drink of water out of my cap on my bottle of water. I would hold out my hand and the little Wooly Monkey would gently put his little palm in my palm. He would grip my hand and pat my leg. He would scratch my leg and rub my hand. It was just adorable. I had a new friend. I was gone a long time and everyone asked where I had been. I explained about my Wooly Monkey. Marcia came to see him and soon Julie, Karen and Marleene joined in to play with this adorable little guy. He was full of energy and a little ornery. So we decided to name him Curious George. At one point he stole my sun glasses off my face and pulled them into the cage. Byron had to come and rescue them.

There was another smaller monkey in the cage as well. This little guy was a Golden-Handed Tamarin. He was very timid and affectionate. He would come close to the side of the cage, lean in and close his eyes. He loved nothing better than to be scatched behind his ears. However, he was intimidated by Curious George, so he had to keep an eye on the other monkey since the Wooly Monkey was jealous and would not let the Tamarin get affection and not him! It was just too cute.

We loved the monkeys! I miss seeing and spending time with them. I wanted to bring them

home with me.

Amazon Rainforest

Rolling on the River......

Dec. 9th and 10th

The rainforest is absolutely full of wonderful animals, plants and humidity! We canoed down the tributary our lodge was on. I had a great time with Parviz and Myleene. We enjoyed the adventure of exploring the waterway via canoe.

We also went to visit a typical Ecuadorian Quichua tribe home along the Napo River. The mother, Christine demonstrated how she dug up roots for their dinner with a machete, cooked in their primitive kitchen, harvested plaintains and other foods they grew around their home. Their daughter Ruby was four years old and was not in school yet. Her older daughter was seven and attended the school we visited a couple days later.

Christine using a machete.

See the plastic they use to collect the rainwater for drinking?

Christine and Ruby in the kitchen cooking over the open pit fire.

Christine chopping down the plantain.

Byron showed us how to use a blow gun. I am trying to blow a dart at a melon on a stick. I am not very good at it! The Quichua tribe use this weapon to hunt monkeys. Three Quichua hunters will shoot the darts simulaneously at a monkey. The darts have the poison from a poison dart frog . They will roast the dart frog on a spit of fire and the poison will come to the surface of the frog. They roll the dart on the frog's skin and the poison is transferred from the frog to the dart. Then when the hunters shoot the monkey the poison will paralyze the monkey's heart. It does not kill the monkey but rather stuns the monkey and then the monkey will fall out of the tree. The hunters then kill the monkey when it lands on the ground. Sad but that is how it is done. This is a picture of a poison dart frog.

We also went on night hikes to see the wildlife at night. We were able to see owls, caiman, birds, irridecent bugs, toads, and many more animals. The most fascinating were the caimans. We could see their red eyes reflecting back in the water. We then went closer to look at them and you could see their entire body reflected in the shine of our flashlights. They were not as large as aligators but it was still erie being that close to reptiles in the wild at night.