[At the start of July, we’re in the middle of a trip to Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands. If you want to read about the whole trip, start with our June 2018 journal entries at http://family.cozi.com/miksovsky#201806.]
Galapagos, Day 3 — Santa Fe and South Plaza Islands. Our morning excursion is led by Maricarmen again. There are lots of sea lions on the beach, as usual. The island’s highlight are the Santa Fe land Iguanas, and we soon come across several of them, including one right in the middle of the trail. The island is also home to giant prickly pear cactus, which evolved into tall trees to avoid being decimated by the iguanas that feed on them. There are also incense trees, whose scented wood is used as incense in Ecuadorian churches. We see a number of mockingbirds and a swallow tailed gull. The latter have bright red rings around their eyes.
Later in the morning, we take out sea kayaks for a short paddle around a bay. Angela and Anya go together, Jan and Bree go together, and Liya goes in a solo kayak. Young sea lions keep coming up to the back of Jan and Bree’s kayak. Jan eventually concludes they’re interested in the rope that’s dangling from the back of the kayak. When the next sea lion comes along, Jan swishes the rope back and forth. The sea lion playfully chases it, eventually chomps it, then lets go so he can play again. In other words, the sea lion acts just our cats at home. We also see a darker side of sea lion play: a sea lion chases a marine iguana out of the water, snapping at the iguana’s tail. The sea lion’s just playing around — they don’t eat iguanas — but the iguana’s running for its life.
In the afternoon, we explore small South Plaza Island with naturalist Sebastian. This island has many Galapagos Land Iguanas. We get to see one eating a prickly pear: it paws at the fruit to remove the thorns, then slowly chews the fruit.
We come to a sea cliff surrounded by swooping, soaring birds: frigate birds, blue-footed boobies, swallow tailed gulls, storm petrels, Nazca boobies, pelicans, and the graceful red-billed tropicbird. Out at sea there’s an enormous school of hundreds of fish (yellowtail mullet, Sebastian may have called them). On land we see some smaller birds: black finches and yellow warblers.
At the top of the cliffs, we’re surprised to see sea lions. Sebastian points out a sort of rock staircase leading from the water’s edge to the top of the cliff. The sea lions climb the staircase to sun on the clifftop. The passage of the sea lions of hundreds of years has polished some of the rocks to a marble-like sheen.
Galapagos, Day 4 — Santa Cruz Island. We land at the municipal pier in Puerto Ayora, the biggest town in the Galapagos. There are sea lions sleeping on the benches, and marine iguanas crawling around.
We spend the morning at the Charles Darwin Foundation research center. The foundation pursues a range of research projects that help inform the national park’s management of the Galapagos. The foundation must be hoping the Stanford alumni will sponsor their work, because we get a welcome greeting from the foundation’s director, followed by guided tours of the facility. Like the facility on San Cristóbal Island, the foundation also breeds giant tortoises, so we get to see a bunch of them at once.
Afterwards, we have the chance to make a short but challenging bike ride. We spend about as much time picking out helmets and bikes as we do actually biking. The road goes mostly up, and it’s hot and humid, so the 30-minute ride was actually plenty long enough.
The ride ends at a farm that grows sugar cane, cacao, and coffee. They serve us sugar cane juice with orange lime squeezed into it, which tastes fantastic. They have some very low tech food processing operations: an old sugar cane press, a primitive coffee roasting pan, and a still for making moonshine from sugar cane juice. The moonshine is a high octane beverage.
We have lunch at a second farm. We eat outside, and can see giant tortoises walking around the farm grounds. From that farm, we move to a third farm for a tour of an area that tortoises like to frequent. The farm’s owner digs muddy ponds to attract the tortoises to attract the tourists to get their tourist dollars. This operation works pretty well. We spend some time walking across meadows being grazed by huge, dome-shaped tortoises.
Jan and Anya watch one huge monster of a tortoise lying on his belly. He mows all the grass he can reach with his long neck. When he runs out of grass to eat, he wheezes, lifts himself up, and slides forward a bit, then rests himself back down and resumes eating. Anya points out that he’s cleared a three-foot wide swath of low-cropped grass that stretches far behind him.
The farm also has a lava tunnel we spend a few minutes exploring.
Back at Puerto Ayora, we have some free time to explore the town before we need to return to the ship. Earlier in the day, the girls ate some prepackaged ice cream cones, but Jan demurred in hopes that he could find real ice cream in town. So he goes off in search of ice cream, accompanied by Anya, Liya, and their shipboard friend Janae. For a while, it looks like he’ll be disappointed, but Janae and Jan finally spot a small ice cream shop. Jan gets the maracuyá (passion fruit), and it’s pretty good, but not as good as the gelato we had in Quito.
The town has a small supermarket that the girls want to visit, so Jan takes them there. Inside, Jan sees that they sell “tomate de arbol” (tree tomatoes), a vaguely tomato-tasting fruit. Angela and Jan had wanted to try one in Quito but didn’t get the chance, so Jan buys one. (We try it later on the ship. It’s just okay.) Anya, Liya, and Janae have fun picking out candy and snacks.
Galapagos, Day 5 – Española Island. We make a dry landing at a tiny rock jetty at Punta Suarez. Two sea lions block the path to the mainland. Our naturalist guide tries to walk around, but the sea lions bark at him. He finally gives up and says we’ll need to get them to move aside. He tells to clap our hands. The sea lions, interpreting this as a sign of aggression, move off.
We see marina iguanas lying together in big clumps for warmth. We see marine iguanas in a row along a rock wall with their tails all hanging down. We see clumps of marine iguanas block our path and have to step carefully around them.
The island’s featured attraction is the waved albatross, which travels far but only breeds on Española Island. Soon enough, we see a waved albatross waddling along, and eventually some parents with chicks. The parents do a cute dance whenever they reunite: they face each other, move their heads up and down, then reach their heads forward and clack their beaks together, back and forth. It’s adorable.
We spend a fair amount of time at an “Albatross Airport” at the top of a cliff. Every so often, an albatross gets up and moves to the cliff edge, then leaps off into the stiff incoming wind.
We see a number of other birds, including a Galapagos hawk.
We spend the afternoon at Gardiner Bay, where we have a couple chances to snorkel. The first opportunity is at Osborn Islet, which has huge schools of yellow sturgeonfish (gray with yellow tail, spines on tail), but also has a fair amount of current and surge, so it feels a little dicey to be in the water. On the plus side, Angela and Liya get to see several sea lions in the water.
We attend a final lecture from Dr. Bob, then have some time on the beach. Angela, Anya, and Liya decide to stay on the ship, but Jan and Bree go out to the beach for more snorkeling. The guides suggest swimming out to an offshore rock. It’s a fair distance to swim, but Bree does fine, and for her efforts gets to see a number of rays (including a fairly large one) and two tiger eels.
In the evening, the boat is surrounded by sharks. This has happened every night, but tonight there’s more than just a few sharks — there are many. Liya counts about 50. At one point, Jan and Bree see a flying fish come skimming across the water to smack against the ship. It’s stunned, and frantically zooms in a big circle that brings it back to smack against the ship again. It presumably drops into the water, because a dozen sharks all move in to get it. For some reason, a sea turtle is also swimming alongside the ship, but doesn’t seem to be on the menu. Bree also sees at least one sea lion.
A final nature encounter before we go to bed: someone finds a storm petrel roosting on the back deck.
Galapagos, Day 6 — North Seymour Island. We make a morning zodiac ride along a small islet near Eden Island. We see plenty of sea birds and a pretty mangrove forest. In one small cove of the island proper we can see a number of goat skulls on the ground. These are left over from a massive conservation project several years ago to completely eradicate hundreds of thousands of feral goats from the Galapagos.
Later in the morning, we snorkel along the same islet. The visibility isn’t great, but Jan and Bree get to see a small white tip reef shark that swims beneath them.
In early afternoon, large numbers of frigate birds fly in the boat’s slipstream.
In the afternoon, we make a final snorkel outing. The fish are small in variety but huge in number: large numbers of yellow sturgeonfish, king angelfish, parrotfish, and small silver fish.
We finish the day with a walk around North Seymour Island. The island recaps much of what we’ve seen elsewhere: blue-footed boobies, land iguanas, sea lions, warblers. The highlight are the large frigate birds, for which the island is an important breeding ground. To attract a mate, the male frigate birds inflate a bright red pouch under the neck to an absurd proportion — it looks like a red balloon about to burst. When a female expresses interest, they rock back and forth to show off their inflated red pouch and their full wingspan. We finish the walk around the island past some land iguanas and sea lions.
We make a very long day of travel from the Galapagos back to Seattle. We leave the ship around 9:00 am and return to the Baltra airport. From there, we have four flights: Baltra to Guayaquil to Quito to Atlanta to Seattle. Everyone does well enough, but the trip is something like 26 or 27 hours long, and we’re all exhausted by the time we finally arrive back at home on Friday around noon.
Sabriya turns 11. Since we’ve just gotten back from a big trip, we have a fairly quiet family celebration. (Bree will have a sleepover party with friends later in the month.)
Jan gives Bree an art piece: Arabic calligraphy of her name, “Sabriya”, created by an artist named Josh Berer who does calligraphy commissions.
One of Liya’s gifts is a 2/3 share of a certain stuffed whale named Moby. The girls collectively purchased Moby on a trip to Japan a few years ago, and agreed to share him equally. The girls, especially Bree and Liya, liked sleeping with the whale, so they would alternate who got Moby each night. Anya eventually gave her 1/3 share to Liya, giving Liya a 2/3 controlling interest in the whale. Now that Liya has 2 other stuffed whales of the same type, Liya cedes her share in Moby, giving Bree the whale all to herself.
Summer morning routines for our girls:
Bree: Get up between 6–7:00 am and immediately start playing with Lego. Spread Lego over bedroom, upstairs loft, and main floor family room. Try to sneak iPad away from Jan’s office and watch YouTube before breakfast.
Liya: Get up at crack of down and go for a morning run before the air gets too warm. Take shower, select outfit, dress, then prepare breakfast of scrambled eggs. Walk to babysitting job, babysit until lunchtime.
Anya: Half-wake around 10:00 am, come downstairs wrapped in a blanket. Park on family room couch and watch as many episodes of “Psych” detective drama/comedy as possible. When shooed away from TV by parents, eat a brunch of spicy Szechuan noodles. Take book outside and read on hammock for rest of the day.
[At 14, Liya is already better at adulting than many adults.]
Anya clears away the enormous pile of stuffed “Squishable” animals that has covered her upper bunk for five years. The covering of animals is deep enough that she occasionally would burrow down inside of it to sleep, using the stuffed animals as a blanket. She’s going to trade rooms with Liya, and her new room is much smaller, so she needs to get rid of most of the stuffed animals.
In a marathon session, she tries to convince Sabriya to take them. Anya holds up an animal, and gives its name and any interesting facts about it.
This give-away session is made longer by all the laughter. Holding up a red and yellow phoenix, Anya gives its name as Fireball, and then sings the little song that Anya would sing before throwing Fireball at someone. They invite Jan into the room so that they can throw Fireball at him.
Bree considers each animal in turn, ultimately taking the majority of them. Anya sets the rest aside for Goodwill.
We go on a family hike with our friends, the Peasley/Zogbaums. We meet at the base of Squak Mountain near Issaquah, and hike the May Valley Loop to the top. The eastern portion of the loop isn’t used much, and is overgrown with stinging nettles. We stop for snacks at a huge fireplace and chimney near the top: the remains of the Bullitt Family home that used to be there before the family gave the land to the state.
After finishing the hike, we have a very late lunch at Issaquah Coffee Company, and enjoy the nice weather by eating and chatting on their outdoor patio.
Jan goes backpacking in Goat Rocks Wilderness with friends Derik and Satoru. Goat Rocks was one of Jan’s favorite stretches of the Pacific Crest Trail, and he’s been looking for a chance to hike it again.
Satoru is a pastor, so we have to wait until 1:00 pm on Sunday to head out. The drive passes through scenic Mt. Rainier National Park. By 5:00 we’re on the trail, and arrive at the Snowgrass Flat camping area by 7:00. Although many people describing camping at Snowgrass Flat, it turns out that Snowgrass Flat itself is a boggy meadow where camping is prohibited. We eventually figure that out, and find a decent campsite with a view of Mt. Adams.
Goat Rocks backpacking trip, Day 2. Jan, Derik, and Satoru pack up and hike further up Old Snowy Mountain. We drop most of our gear at a trail intersection with the Pacific Crest Trail, then make a side trip north across occasional snowfields on the PCT to a saddle with a spectacular view of the Packwood Glacier valley.
We then head back down, retrieve our gear, and hike south on the PCT into the beautiful Cispus Basin. The waterfalls are all running, and the wildflowers are out in full.
We eventually leave the PCT to hike out on Nannie Ridge. As we pass Sheep Lake, Jan proposes stopping for a swim, which is really refreshing. Jan’s plan for the night is to hike up to the top of Nannie Peak and see if we can find a place with a view where we can pitch our tents. This plan pans out, and the summit trail ends at a wide-open view of Mt. Adams to the south. There aren’t really established places to pitch a tent, so we just pitch our tents in the trail itself. The only disappointment is that there are mosquitoes everywhere, so we have to break out bug head nets and bug spray.
Goat Rocks backpacking trip, Day 3. We head down from Nannie Peak to Walupt Lake, then start making our way across a valley floor towards the trailhead where we left Derik’s car. Halfway across the valley, we have to ford the Cispus River. Any river crossing requires care, but happily the river isn’t flowing too high or fast.
We reach the car in the mid-afternoon. Before leaving the area, we make a quick stop at Chambers Lake to jump in the lake and cool off.
Jan goes backpacking again with his sister Skye. They hike a small portion of the Lewis River in southern Washington near Mt. St. Helens. Photos: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10155455946261541.1073741851.553421540&type=1&l=c9e5a93ad1
Bree mentioned that last year she’d seen the Google Street View car drive by our house. Today she thought to look at Street View for our house and, sure enough, there she is standing in front of our house. They’ve blurred her face a little for privacy reasons, but it’s recognizably her. She’s in her swimsuit, so must have been on the way for a late afternoon trip to the beach. Apparently, the image was taken on a Wednesday evening: our recycling, trash, and compost containers are set out by the curb for Thursday pickup.