Marine Iguanas - Jurassic park in Galapagos

I had no idea marine iguanas can read?

They are amazing animals to watch... they seem ancient! The Galapagos Islands are the only place to find them on our planet. They are a subspecies to the land iguana and learned over many generations how to depend on the sea for food instead of the very arid land. They live mainly of algue... and still grow up to 1.5m in length and weigh up to 13kg! And they spìt! They are highly gregarious and huddle together to maintain warmth overnight, very sweet. They also have long chats with Sally Lightfoot crabs....

Watching Wildlife in GALAPAGOS

We are back from 9 wonderful days in the Galapagos Islands and had a fantastic time even though the weather now in the dry season was not great! It is almost always cloudy and therefore the seas are rough (thank God for seasickness pills) and the water is VERY COLD!

We joined a group of 6 tourists (from the US, OZ, Israel and Slovenia), one captain, one guide, one cook and one skipper on the beautiful sailboat MAREK and visited the islands on the southern loop - Santa Cruz, Mosquera, Santa Fe, Espanola and Floreana and then we spent a few days in Isabella Island relaxing on the beach and walking and the occasional snorkelling. It was brilliant!

The Marek with its 16 sexy meters is possibly the smallest boat in Galapagos offering cruises and it was great not to be stuck in a group of twenty or more when walking or snorkelling around with our guide Leonides. The boat was very comfortable (but hot showers would have been great) and we had fantastic food three times a day and everything we could possibly need.

We started in Mosquera with lots and lots of sealions - one of the biggest colonies on the islands. It was great to watch how they interact and how the cubs seem to be constantly begging to be fed. Very funny.

On the way to the shore in our little dingy we were suddenly surrounded by a huge school of golden rays just floating through the water and minutes later a school of friendly white tipped reef sharks! Ups was I glad not to be in the water!!!

On Santa Fe we saw lots of sea turtles while snorkelling and on the island we admired the rather ugly but unique marine iguanas (they like to hug and cuddle in order to warm up) and the equally unique upunia trees - like huge cactus trees. Feeding ground to numerous rare birds including the famous Darwin finches. We also admired colonies of the famous blue-footed boobies and albatrosses in Espanola. I will not bore you with any details but it is amazing to observe how well they are adapted to their harsh living conditions, each of them specialised in a specific plant or animal or other food source. More something for bird nerds really... lots of time for that later in life!

Snorkelling was great, especially in Devil´s Crown in Floreana. Huge schools of fish with maybe 2000 or more fish of each species. Quite intimidating to be stuck in the middle of one of those! And lots of green sea turtles, sting rays, sea stars, hogfish and moorish fish and sea urchins and lots and lots of colourful beauties that we do not remember the names of.

In Floreana I was swimming with a huge sea turtle once which was magical. I must have disturbed her in her afternoon nap and she tried to get away but I followed. We swam side by side for maybe 10 minutes and I really struggled to keep up with her! She just looked at me from the side and lazily moved her fins every couple of minutes while I was paddling like mad! Very cool! And then a sealion came to check us out and nearly gave me a heart attack! I think he was intrigued by my looks as I was snorkelling in my thermals (our boat had not wet suits...). I looked a bit unusual (especially as I kept having to pull my pants up!). But I shivered a bit less! Floating through the waters with a huge sea turtle and a little sealion was my absolute highlight of the trip and made it all worthwhile. It was magical and I barely noticed the cold...

(this is a picture that I did not take myself obviously, just wanted to give you an idea how big the turles are)

On day 5 we got off our boat and said goodbye to our crew and took a ferry over to the biggest island Isabella. We checked into a basic little hotel and took long walks along the endless beaches and into the highlands, some more snorkelling and lots of sitting in the hammock and reading our books, waiting for the clouds to lift. It was very relaxing - a totally different pace of life on an island with only a few 100 people and several active volcanoes...

We visited the giant turtoise breeding station and what bizarre animals they are! They have no natural predators in the Galapagos (once the whaling stopped) and are huge! The oldest one we saw is supposedly 175 years old and weighs 270 kg! I wonder what they talk about! The one here in the picture is a very unhappy female...

The Galapagos are definitely a unique and unforgettable experience and a once in a lifetime experience. I would not pay all that money again to go back because it is very overpriced and unless you are seriously into birdwatching, not as diverse as I expected it to be. But observing how the animals which are unique to the islands have managed to adapt to their living conditions is really impressive. I totally understand how Darwin was obsessed with the place!

Whale watching in Puerto Lopez

While waiting for our trip to the Galapagos we took a bus all the way to the coast west of Guayaquil to see if we can spot some whales. Puerto Lopez is famous for whale watching this time of year but we still got on the little fishing boat somewhat reluctantly, wondering whether we wasted 50 Dollars on yet another tourist trap.


But we had not left the harbour for more than 5 minutes when we spotted a massive Mama Whale with her newborn and followed her up North for 2 hours. It was the most magical experience. The huge whale peacefully swimming along, coming up for air every couple of minutes and the little baby whale (which is born weighing about 2 tons!) jumping around happily, every few minutes he would do a huge leap in the air and then quickly side up to his mother again. Absolutely amazing.

They are so huge, yet so graceful and in spite of all the exitement (we were about 20m away from them and got splashed from time to time!) I felt really peaceful suddenly. The world cannot be such a bad place if those creatures can still cross the oceans twice a year like they have always done. I am still walking on clouds.... Can you tell?

We are off to Galapagos tomorrow, Monday 16th and will not be online for about 10 days.
Muchos besos! T and C

We are going to Galapagos!

(this is obviously a picture I downloaded off the internet)

I am so excited!! This morning bright and early we got confirmation for our Galapagos Tour on the Marek. We are leaving on the 16th July for 5 days and will then spend a few days snorkelling and diving on Isla Isabella. I am so so so relieved!!!

The boat is tiny and a real budget version and I will probably be terrible seasick the whole time but I am sure it will be worth it. See this link for more information on the boat: http://www.happygringo.com/EN/?id=17767

So looking forward to swimming with sealions, sea turtles, marine iguanas and dolphins and oh yes, lots of reef fish!

The Santa Cruz Trek

We are back from the fabulous Santa Cruz Trek near Huaraz. This is a picture of the Taulliraju who I totally fell in love with - see below. The trek was an exciting 5 days in the most amazing mountain landscape, really totally stunning! Almost as beautiful as Patagonia... and lots lots higher obviously. We cannot get enough of the trekking in South America!

Although it was a long long way to get to the starting point of the trek. After 10 hours in the bus from Lima we had another two hours in a ridiculously overfilled collectivo minibus to Caras and then another 4 hours to a tiny little hamlet at the start of the trek. In yet another collectivo with about 20 people, all of them mothers with little babies happily breastfeeding away... very impressive! And of course the bus had a flat tire in the middle of nowhere which needed replacing... oh well! More time for Craig to admire the breastfeeding ladies.... :-)

In Caras we had our last proper meal before the trek and were looking forward to the usual starter soup which seemed to be full of pasta! Yum! But... the pasta seemed very very chewy... and after observing the confused look on my face for a while Craig informed me that the bits that look like penne are actually pieces of intestines... PFUISPINNE! (=German for yuk, sounds much better I think!) So much for the soup... the main meal was the usual mountain of rice accompanied by a mountain of potatoes! I have to say... the food is getting a tad predictable!!!

We spent the first night at the start of the trek in our little tent, fell asleep at 6 pm and woke up at 8 am!!! That is clear moutain air for you! The first day of the trek was fairly easy, we climbed into the Santa Cruz valley and walked along it by a river, admiring the mountain views right and left, the wild horses running around us and a sea of wild flowers in all colours. Very peaceful.

The second day we continued walking along the valley watching the river getting smaller and the mountains around us higher and higher with most peaks around the 6000m mark and covered by pristine white glaciers. The combination of colours was spectacular - the green valley with dots of yellow, blue and red flowers, the emerald green lagunas, the big grey granite rock faces covered by blinding white ice caps in a cloudless blue sky. Absolutely perfect! After the second night we arrived at my favourite mountain - Taulliraju 5830m. I just sat there in the sun and admired it.


The picture at the very top of this entry is taken from the tent. I took about 50 of them and they all look the same!!! Here is the little camp site at the base of the mountain, you can see our little tent on the right, the little blue one. I could have stared at this mountain all night (and probably the following week). It also looked stunning in the light of the full moon. Unforgettable.



The third day was the hardest day with a climb up to the Union Pass at 4750m. Big sigh! Unfortunately, we woke up and there was a big cloud wrapped around the mountain, we would not see it again. Climbing up to the pass felt like climbing into the clouds. Higher and higher in endless zigzags - I was not impressed! But we got there after only 3 hours and the view in spite of lots of clouds was literally breathtaking. We then had to decend almost 1000m into the next valley which was also green and lush and pretty.

On the way up Craig was studying the Alpenvereins Map while waiting for me to catch up and discovered - can you believe it? - a mountain that seems to belong to his family!!! Beautiful Millisraju was smiling down at us - here are picture and map to prove it!!! Craig was so excited and proud. We tried very hard to fit another summit in but frankly... I was running out of steam! Craig gave it a go and disappeared for a few hours (while I sat gazing at the mountains and wondering what I would do if he would not be back by dawn!) but as usual those mountains are much further away than they seem! Even if they are family! Back came my little explorer very exhausted and feeling a little rejected by his big uncle!













I was absolutely freezing that night in spite of our superwarm sleeping bags and in the morning discovered that the tent was covered in ice and the ground in frost, the water in my bottle was frozen and it was just grim grim grim to get up at 7 and pack up our stuff. I swore this would be my last ever trek!


Brrr..... I was wearing all the clothes I brought on the trek for 4 days! But once the sun came up over the top of the mountains it warmed up very quickly. I had to disappear behind trees several times to shed some layers. Hee hee!!! The walk back to civilisation took us through several typical Quechua villages where people live without running water and lots and lots of pigs, guinea pigs, hens, cows and turkeys running around everywhere. It felt like stepping back in time and we looked quite out of place in our Goretek kit! But everybody was very friendly, the kids giggled and giggled pointing at us, not sure what is was: our funny clothes, the way we smelt, Craig´s enormous backpack, how greasy my hair was...

We got to the end of the trek around lunchtime and had another couple of hours on the bus with fantastic views over the Cordillera before we got back to Huaraz and into a shower!!! First time in my life I went without one for a week! Quite horrid!!! My hair was staying put in its ponytail even after I took the rubberband out... lovely! But oh how much I enjoyed that first hot shower and sleeping in a soft bed!! I was almost too excited to sleep! Almost... Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh!

Huaraz and the Cordillera Blanca

We have arrived in Huaraz at 5.30 this morning... YAWN! Am feeling very tired after one night on the bus and the night before we were in a dorm with some madman who kept falling out of his top bunk and crash on the floor screaming! Thinking back to it now it was hilarious but at the time.... Very bizarre! Especially as he kept climbing back up instead of sleeping on the floor?!?!?! I would have done!

Anyway, we made it and Huaraz seems like a lovely town once it has woken up and the sun is out and we are surrounded by the beautiful snow covered peaks of the Cordillera Real. Wunderschoen!

We are going on the Santa Cruz Trek tomorrow morning for 4 days of trekking up valleys and mountains to get a better view of the over 60 massive peaks around us. This is the mountain range where "Touching the Void", the Joe Simpson drama happened. Am very excited after I read the book about 5 times! But still refused to try and summit the Siala Grande...

Right then, we are off into the wilderness and yet another experiment on how greasy my hair can get! I will report back :-)))

Muchos besos!