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KELLY'S TRAVELOGUE:GALÁPAGOS ISLANDS OR BUST!! Rich and I had decided pretty early into the trip that we were going to hit the Galápagos Islands. We realized that it was a little out of the budget...but what the heck....When are we going to be back to South America? We were a little anxious about traveling up to Ecuador because of the fact that a volcano in Quito had erupted and threatened to erupt again, as well as another volcano in Baños. So we avoided making the decision and decided instead to travel south to Bolivia with our new friends, Mike and Linda. We had a great time with them! However, we still knew that we had to visit the Galápagos Islands before we left. As our departure date of November 9th grew nearer, we knew we had to make the commitment to travel north to Ecuador or abandon the dream altogether...at least for this trip.
So the decision was made to somehow travel from Bolivia (brown on map of South America) and then go north all the way up through Peru (purple) to Ecuador (orange) as quickly as possible. This was a lot easier said than done!
We woke up early on our second day of travel to Ecuador (the first day was extremely eventful, see Rich's South American Travelogue for details) and went out to the the Plaza de Armas in Juliaca (Southern Peru) via a tricycle. This tricycle was operated manually by a strong young man who had to ride us as well as our huge, heavy backpacks. We felt bad in the end, but tipped him generously. From the Plaza we took a collectivo to the airport. We flew on Aero Continente from Juliaca to Lima (Central Peru on the western coast), on a calm and pleasant flight. I wish that I could say the same about our flight from Lima to Tumbes (Northwest Peru--very near the Peru-Ecuador boarder). About one hour into the flight (give or take), the captain informed us that we would be turning back to Lima. He did not explain why. The flight attendants walked down the aisle quickly taking our cups and snacks, which we had just started to eat, with very serious and concerned looks on their faces. They turned on the exit door lights and the over head lights over our seats, probably in the case that the power went out. As we began to descend for our landing, the man next to Rich, who happens to be a medical doctor, put his head down between his knees and held on to the seat in front of him in a crash position. Rich and I held hands and prayed. We really believed that this could be it. We would die in a plane crash in a foreign country. It would take weeks for our families to find out as no one really knew where we were. Surely, nobody would think that we were on a flight to Tumbes, Peru. Who goes there? Well we landed safely, although the medical doctor insists there were ambulances waiting for us on the ground. I really do believe that they were preparing for a crash landing. We were able to shake off this scary experience pretty quickly, because we got onto another plane shortly thereafter and made it safely to Tumbes that evening. Day three on the exciting journey to the Galápagos Islands was also eventful! We arrived to the Ecuador boarder early that morning since we wanted to get an early start. Huaquillas, the boarder town in Ecuador, is insane. People are coming up to you from every direction asking you to change money and ride in their car and buy this or that. Two boys claimed to be from the Peru-Ecuador tourist bureau. We did not know whether or not to believe them, but figured they would be helpful to be around. It soon became apparent that they too only wanted to either rip us off or get a tip...I believe both. We finally shook them off before they could realize any of these goals and made our way to immigration which was a 10,000 sucres expense. (The exchange rate during our visit to Ecuador has been approximately: $1 = 16,000 sucres). After getting our entrance stamps, we needed to catch a bus to Guayaquill in order to get a flight to the Galápagos Islands. We were told that the buses were on strike and that we would need to get a ride somehow to Machala, which was roughly 2 hours or away. We knew a taxi was out of the question, and anyways, we did not see any drive past us. Instead, we saw pickup trucks full of locals drive by. We flagged one of the trucks down and asked for a lift. In the states, we would call this hitchhiking. We felt safe, however, since we were in the back and could jump off the truck at anytime. Besides, the driver seemed nice. He only took us as far as Santa Rosa. From there we caught a bus to Machala. That bus must have been the only bus driving in Peru, as we could not find another one that whole day. When we got to Machala, we were turned away at all of the bus stations with the explanation that the bus drivers were on strike. It soon became apparent that our only hope for reaching Guayaquil was to fly there on Tame Airlines. Our tickets to Guayaquill only cost $15 per person. At such a bargain, we should have purchased a few more tickets so that we could eat more free meals. When we arrived into Guayaquil finally, we just wanted to find a good hostal and relax. Unfortunately, as we were stepping from the curb at the airport, Rich twisted his ankle. Because he had such a heavy backpack, his ankle crushed from underneath him. We later found out by the Kennedy Travel Clinic that Rich had stretched his ligaments in his ankle and should take it easy for the next few days. However, we woke up the next day (today) and caught a plane out to the Galapagos Islands. Trust me it has been well worth the treacherous, but exciting journey.
GALÁPAGOS ISLANDS!!! October 28, 1999 (My Birthday) So here we are in the Galápagos Islands. We arrived this morning at Baltra and took a combination bus/ferry/bus to Puerto Ayora on the Island of Santa Cruz. We walked around all day trying to find the right ship to cruise the islands. We were very fortunate and happened upon the M/Y Samba. We are already awed by the beautiful landscape and we have not even visited the other islands yet. Right now, I am sitting in our cool cabin. It is beautiful with lots of wood and a big clean shower and bathroom. I am very excited that we decided to go with Samba. Our dinner was great and the other people on our boat are really nice. We have a total of 11 passengers and 6 crew members. We are on a smaller vessel with great big sails. Today is my Birthday and it has been a great day! Tomorrow is Rich's and my fifth anniversary...again we are at a great place to celebrate such a grand occasion. 10-29-99 (Our Anniversary) Our first full day on the Samba began at around 7:00 a.m. Actually at exactly 7:00 a.m. Hernand rang the bell which meant that it was time for breakfast, and let me assure you, it with a delicious and hearty breakfast. Hernand is our fearless guide. He seems to be very knowledgeable about the islands and he has a great deal of patience. Isla Española:
Rich enjoys the beautiful white sandy beaches of Isla Española that had no human footprints until we stepped foot on them at 8:00 a.m. After playing with the sea lions, here, we went into the clear blue water for a dip.
Later, that same afternoon, we visited Punta Suárez, which is also on Española. As we arrived, a sea lion was sleeping on the stairs, and we had to clap in order for this stubborn and territorial sea lion to finally get out of our way. We saw so many different species of birds, many of which I had never heard of. We saw mocking birds which drank water right from our hands. The next birds that we encountered were blue footed boobies. These beautiful birds have earned their name, as their feet really are aqua blue. You can tell the difference between the male and female boobies because the males are smaller and so are their pupils. Masked boobies are also beautiful birds. These white feathered birds appear to have joined up with batman and robin with their black masks around their eyes. The birds on Galápagos nest in different places on the island in order to avoid competition. My favorite bird of the day was the albatross. The albatross is not only beautiful and fun to watch, but they also have very interesting lives. The Albatross is originally from Antartica. They resemble the penguin with their long yellow beaks. Every April, the albatrosses fly from Antarctica to The Island of Española (only to this particular island) to mate. Even after they make little albatrosses, the adult albatross partners court each other by playing and partaking in beak fights, which is much like a sword fight, only with beaks. The albatross keeps the same mate for life. However, these mates only recognize each other in the Galápagos. I guess in Antartica the male albatrosses hang out with the guys and fish all day while the female albatross relaxes and goes shopping at the Mall of Antartica. Maybe this is why the albatross mates stay together for life. Anyways, back to the albatross in Galápagos... in December, the little albatross chicks at five months of age are finally ready to make the big flight back to Antartica. So, the albatrosses make this long journey back to Antartica, promising to return to Española the following April. After watching the Albatrosses play, which I could have done literally all day, we watched the sunset and came back to the Samba and enjoyed a delicious dinner. After dinner, we went up to the top deck of the boat and watched the stars and talked. It was a beautiful night. Our first full day on the Galápagos was amazing!
October 30, 1999 Isla Floreana Our second full day on the Samba consisted mostly of travel, as we had a lot of sea to cover if we wanted to make it to Isla Isabela. In the morning, we visited Floreana where we saw green sand and hermit crabs. It was here that we were introduced to the goat problem that the Galápagos Islands are now experience. When the early settlers came to the islands, they brought goats with them for food. Well, they let some of these goats go free. Now their are thousands of goats running around eating the animals and their eggs and the also the vegetation that these endemic Galápagos species really need. It is a big problem. The Darwin Research Foundation is currently trying to raise money for a full eradication of the goat population. Other foreign enemies on the islands are the black rat, and wild cats, which were also introduced by the early settlers. Mankind, at its finest!
Our eleven hour boat cruise to Isla Isabela was fun. The skies were overcast, and the day was breezy but warm. I really enjoyed sitting up on the top deck and watching the sea. This time on the sea also gave our group to hang out and get to know each other better. We also got to enjoy a little quality time with the crew. Hernand, Fran, Jan and Edo helped me name our photographs that we had taken that day. Pepe, our captain, also came down to hang with his passengers. Augustine, our talented cook also took time out to visit us after preparing another delicious meal.
October 31, 1999 Isla Isabela When we arrived at Punta Moreno on Isla Isabela, I though that we had landed on Mars. All that I could see for miles was black volcanic rock with the Sierra Negra volcano in the distance. The Sierra Negra has the widest crater than any other volcano on this earth. In fact, it is 10 kilometers in diameter. That is 6.2 miles! The Island of Isabela was formed only one million years ago. The volcano erupted approximately seven hundred thousand years ago, leaving all of the volcanic rock that we were walking on today. It was amazing. When we walked on the rocks, some of them would break beneath our feet and make the sound of plates cracking. Springing up from the black rocks were lava cactuses. They produce a fruit that looks a lot like a kiwi but tastes like a sour apple.The night before going to Isabela, I had dreams about the flamingos that we would see. They were suppposed to be bright pink...pinker than any other flamingos in the world. Well, we only saw two flamingos today. I guess it is just a hit or miss thing. The two flamingos that we saw were beautiful, though. Since I have never seen a live flamingo before in my life, I am not complaining. I can now mark that one off my list. By the way, do you know why flamingos are pink? They are pink because they eat shrimp. If they ever stopped eating shrimp, they would become white.....you are what you eat. The flamingos do not have any predators while they are alive. However, mockingbirds and snakes can be a threat to the eggs. We also saw a shark swimming in one of the lagoons. This was a small shark that had made its way through the tunnels from the sea. He has grown a bit now and probably will not be able to swim back into the sea. We also saw some large marine iguanas. These large iguanas made the small iguanas that we had seen two days earlier look like iguana fetuses. Isla Isabela was a very new and beautiful experience. Following our large midday meal which consisted of two large chickens, rice and salads (which was absolutely delicious), we went snorkeling at Caleta Pepe, a small inlet of lagoons and rocks named after the captain that discovered it...none other than our captain, PEPE. We had to swim between tiny openings in the rocks. It was very fun. We saw many sea turtles swim past us. The Galápagos sea turtles that we saw were very large. I would compare the size of their shell to a wheel barrow. They were beautiful as they swam gracefully through the clear waters. The waters were very cold that day my friends, so I got up and sat on the rocks while a group of the snorkelers went on. Apparently, I missed a small lagoon that had many sea turtles. However, I had another exciting adventure. As I sat on the rocks shivering, a very large sea lion (possibly a bull) swam up to the rocks. He was breathing hard and barking a bit. Hernand had told us earlier about an angry bull sea lion that bit a tourist in the leg. I became very nervous. I whispered to my group..."Guys?"...but realized they had gone on and were underwater anyways. I just sat and stared at the lion, hoping he would go away. Luckily, he decide that he did not want to share the rock with me, and instead, did swim away. I breathed a sigh of relief. Although, the sea lion was probably harmless, it makes for an exciting story anyways, and I do not feel so bad about missing the lagoon and swimming with more beautiful sea turtles. By the way, did you know that female sea turtles are bigger than the males because they carry the males on their back. It's true! After our exciting snorkel, we took our panga out to a small island by the name of Marrielas. Here we saw real live penguins that traveled to the Galápagos Islands many years ago from Antartica. These are the only penguins to live as far north as the Equator. These penguins live here year round. Like the albatross, they keep the same mate for life. These penguins are fast swimmers too. They can reach forty miles per hour in the water. However they cannot fly. They have flippers instead of wings. The Galápagos penguins are beautiful, especially the males since it was mating season. Following our visit with the penguins we took our little boat into the jungle at Bahia Elizabeth where we saw large, lush mangrove trees. Usually mangroves are small bushes, but not in the Galápagos. These mangrove trees have long tubes that extend from the tops of the trees to the water. These tubes help provide the tree with water (kind of like a straw) so that they stay green all year round. Hernand had promised us monkeys. I believed him, so I was looking in the trees for monkeys. When I realized that he was kidding, I did not let on that I took him seriously, at least in front of the group. I believe that Fritz, another member of our group also believed that we may see monkeys, because he talked about it for days. Although we did not see monkeys, we did see many more large sea turtles swim right past our boat. We watched the sun set from our little boat on the way back to the Samba. It was another great day in the Galápagos Islands.
Two Flamingos are better than none!
November 1, 1999 Isla Isabela We began the fifth day of our trip on Bahia Urbina. This section of the island was once a part of the sea, but a sub-marine eruption in 1954 caused it to rise above sea level and become an island. While walking around, we were able to see many large rocks of coral, some higher than Rich who is over six feet tall. As we walked around Bahia Urbina, we first passed through an arid section where we saw large land iguanas. Unlike their cousins, the marine iguanas, these Galápagos dragons are orangish in color. We were also delighted to find huge land tortoises. You can tell the age of the land tortoise by how many rings he has. Every seven years, the turtle loses a ring, unlike a tree or a human. When we reached the shore we saw many marine iguanas and sea lions as we climbed on the volcanic rock. We could also see the line which divided the lush green vegetation from the more arid section of rock above. This line represents the point of which the land rose up from the sea. This new piece of real estate was discovered by one of the major production studios only some forty years ago. They saw a bright white spot up ahead. The coral was very white at the time and one could see it shining in the sun. When this area was first discovered, it was so fresh out of the sea, that there were still live lobsters walking around. During our afternoon, we traveled to Punto Espinosa on Isla Fernandina. This prestine island has had the least contact with mankind. As we walked along the shore, we were surrounded by the large marine iguanas. So much so, that we had to watch our step to make sure that we did not step on them. Unfortunately, we also saw many iguana skeletons. During El Niño, these creatures suffered greatly because the sea plants that they need to survive could not grow in the warm waters. However, since only the strongest survived, the marine iguanas have been growing in number and in strength. Again, Darwin's theory of natural selection proving itself to be true. We also saw an American Oyster Catcher which sat on the rocks near the ocean waters with its cute little black body and bright red beak. Isla Fernandino We left the shore and walked again over volcanic rock to the island's hot spot. Fernandino Volcano is one of the most active volcanoes in the world. The smoother lava rock that we walked over was created approximately 300,000 years ago when the volcano erupted and oozed rivers of red lava. However, we also saw more jagged and sharp lava rocks that were obviously created in more recent times by spurts of lava shooting out from inside of the crater. Hernand told us that the land iguanas can smell the vegetation and heat from the crater and, therefore, travel over the hot, black and sharp volcanic rock up to the crater to lay their eggs. When the neophite land iguanas are born, they travel back down to the land, only to make that trip up once again when it is time to lay their eggs. When we arrived back to the boat, we began the long 11 hour journey over to the Isla de Jaime (James Island). This was going to be an exiting journey because we would travel over the equator to the northern hemisphere in the early evening up and around Isla de Isabela and down again into the southern hemisphere in the early morning hours. As we were enjoying a beautiful afternoon on the open seas, we were delighted to see many whales spraying water through their blow holes. We were hoping that one would come close, but not one did. After a while, I went down to take a shower. As I was getting out of my nice hot shower, Rich came down and announced that there was a whale shark swimming right along the boat. He came back minutes later saying that we could snorkel with it! I threw on my bathing suit, ran up to the deck and hurriedly putting on my flippers and mask. As Rich and I prepared to jump into the cold ocean waters with some of the other brave members of our group, the whale shark swam away. No one really got to swim right up to the shark. I was glad that I did not have to realize this disappointment after jumping into the freezing water. After the excitement died down and I had time to reflect on this spur of the moment decision to jump into the water with a shark, I realized that my parents must have raised a fool! What was I doing jumping into the water with JAWS? Rich and I celebrated our escape from the cold waters with a beer. We enjoyed the sunset on the top deck of the Samba and, as it became closer to the time that we would reach the Equator, Rich and I went into the captain's cabin to join Pepe, our captain, as he safely navigated the Samba over the middle of the Earth. Following this momentous event, we once again ate a delicious dinner cooked by our chef, Augustine.
November 2, 1999 Isla de Jaime (James Island) Our last full day on the Galápagos Islands started out with a bang. We made a wet landing onto Isla de Jaime at around 8:00 a.m. As we walked along the path, we saw a hawk in the tree. Hernand told us that these hawks can see fine news print from 500 meters away. Now I know where the expression, "She's got eyes like a hawk" came from. This strong bird has a zero mortality rate as it does not have any enemies and this bird only reproduces once a year. When the female does get ready to reproduce, she does so with so many males, that they all become responsible for her offspring, giving the chick a 100% rate of success. We were introduced to the fur seal today as well. The fur seal is different from the sea lion in many ways. First of all, they were blessed with a beautiful brown fur coat. This blessing was also a curse for the fur seal many years ago when the early settlers killed hundreds of these beautiful creatures, almost to the point of extinction, for this beautiful and valuable fur. The fur seal also has beautiful big eyes, longer ears and a pointier nose (so that they can balance the balls of course) than the sea lion. The Galápagos fur seal traveled here from Patagonia and Antartica many years ago, while the Galápagos sea lions are descendants from the California sea lion. During our walk, we also saw a yellow crowned night herron. As we sat and watched the waves come in and fill a small pool created by black volcanic rock, we watched the vibrant red crabs crawling around sideways as they do. We learned that the crab changes his shell seven times over a three year time span. The crab starts out black in color, so that he will blend in with the black rocks, therefore saving the young crabs from predators. As they grow older they develop the more colorful red shells, even adding some blue later on in life. We learned how to tell the difference between the male and female crab the next time we are enjoying one of these beautiful sea going creatures in a restaurant: Turn your crab over and look at their belly. The male crab has a triangle and the female a circle.
After coming back from James Island, the Samba once again cruised the Pacific waters, this time past Buckaneer's Cove to the Isla Bartolomé. Before disembarking onto the island, the snorkelers were given one more opportunity to jump into the waters and explore. Equipped with Fran's wet suit, I once again jumped into the cold ocean waters. It was well worth the cold temperatures, because we saw some beautiful and colorful fish...lots of them. We also saw some beautiful reefs. Isla Bartolomé Isla Bartolomé is a small island with little in the way of vegetation or wild life, in fact it is rather barren. This island was formed, like the other islands of the Galápagos, by volcanic activity. There are many craters on the island which illustrate the volcanic lava that must have spurted from the top of this volcano at some time. We climbed to the top of the volcano. Following our visit to the Island, we came back and relaxed on the top deck of the Samba. As we set sail for our final Galápagos destination, Santa Cruz, we watched the sun set on our last night in paradise. We also watched the waters in hopes of finding another whale shark or some whales. However, we had no such luck. Although, we did have fun searching for these seagoing creatures. As the dinner hour quickly approached, we all became restless and hungry. We were very used to the 7:00 p.m. bell announcing that it was time to eat yet another great meal. However 7:00 p.m. came and went. For a while, we thought that maybe we were not going to get dinner. However, we knew that this could not be so, as we could smell the aroma of fresh bread baking. Finally at about half past seven, Hernan told us to go up on the top deck of the Samba so that we could all have a cocktail together. We all gathered upstairs and enjoyed the cocktail by the name of "Iguana Pee". The ship's crew all gathered and we toasted to our fantastic voyage. Following our cocktails, we came down to the salon, only to find an extravagant feast waiting for us. The table was decorated for the festive occasion with the silver wear arranged in the shape of a sail boat, the fish was decorated with fruit, the bread had been baked in the shape of big fish, and all of the food looked too pretty to eat. The feast consisted of large roasted chickens, a large tuna fish, roast beef and gravy, rice and vegetables. Augustine, our excellent chef also prepared a delicious cake that said (in Spanish), "Happy Travels". We had a wonderful dinner together and talked and carried on, until it was finally time to turn in to our cabins.
The decorative feast that was prepared for our last night on the Samba was too pretty to eat!! However, we did eat, and it was delicious!
November 3, 1999 Caleta Tortuga Negra in las Bajas de Santa Cruz. We woke up our last morning on the Samba and enjoyed our final large breakfast of scrambled eggs, fresh bread, fruit, cereal, yogurt and fresh juice (which was our usual breakfast on this luxury vessel). Following our feast, we took our panga out to Caleta Tortuga Negra (black turtle inslet) to watch for sharks and manta rays. We were lucky to see a lot of both! No kidding, we must have seen a few dozen white tipped reef sharks and black tipped reef sharks (which were about four to five feet long). Additionally, we saw schools of eagle rays which swam right by our boat several times, as if they were playing with us. We also saw several golden rays. Once again, we had a wonderful and moving experience along the waters of the Galápagos Islands. After we returned to the M/Y Samba, the group enjoyed our last few hours together. The crew spoiled us for the last time with a delicious lunch which included fresh fish. Then it was time to head for the shores of Santa Cruz and head to the airport. I was very sad to say goodbye to our crew and other members of our group. I came very close to shedding tears, as I really enjoyed getting to know all of these people. I hope that we will keep in touch.
Just what are the Galapagos Islands? Here is a short description of the Islands and their importance to the world: The Galápagos Islands are located about 1000 kilometers (600 miles) off of the coast of Ecuador. The Galápagos are made up of 13 large islands, 6 small islands, 42 islets and hundreds of rocks which stick up out of the sea. All of these islands cover an area of about 50,000 square miles in the Pacific Ocean. The islands are volcanic in nature and relatively young. The Galápagos Islands are well isolated from any mainland. In fact, they have never been connected to any continent. Over many hundreds of thousands of years, many creatures and plant life arrived from over the ocean and over time conformed to the islands thereby changing into species much different from their ancestors on other continents. Furthermore, since the islands have avoided the traditional routes of maritime commerce, they have many species that are endemic to the islands (i.e. they exist only on these islands) and have been able to maintain their beauty and environmental state, to some extent. The Galápagos Islands are home to more than 5000 different species. Nearly 50% of the birds, 25% of the shore fish, 32% of the plants and 90% of the reptiles exist nowhere else but in the Galápagos Islands.
These beautiful islands were first discovered back in 1535. They were later visited again by the Spanish. The Spanish sent sealers and whalers to the islands to hunt the whales, seals and tortoises. They decided to name the islands the Galápagos Islands after a kind of horse saddle that the tortoises resembled. Charles Darwin first visited these islands on The Beagle in 1835 to study the endemic plant and wild life on the islands. These observations contributed greatly to his theory of evolution which is outlined in his book titled "On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection". The existence of mankind on the Galápagos Islands has grown immensely over
the last thirty years. According to the April 1999 edition of National
Geographic, the population of people actually living on the islands (only a few
of the islands are actually inhabited) approximately thirty years ago was 2,000.
In 1996, this grew to 14,000. Tourism has increased over seventy percent.
Approximately 63,000 visited Galápagos during the year of 1997 alone.
Ecuador has tried to limit tourism by opening the islands only to those on a
licensed boat with a licensed guide. In 1997 a law was passed which
prevents the issuance of any new tourist operation permits until 2006.
The government has also passed new legislation extending the No Fishing Zone to
40 miles. However, corruption does exist and exceptions are made to these
laws. In addition to the increase of human exposure to these islands, they
have also experienced an increase of foreign species brought to the islands by
the settlers, new and old. The Spanish settlers brought with them goats,
black rats and cats, which they allowed to run wild. These animals pose a
great threat to many of the endemic species on the islands. Finally,
Mother Nature has also struck a blow to the Galápagos creatures. El Niño,
in recent years, caused the waters to turn warm, thereby stunting the growth of
many plants which were the means of survival for several creatures. The
Galápagos National Park and the Charles Darwin Foundation have been formed to
study and preserve the fragile environment of the Islands. However, even
these great organizations cannot turn back the hands of time. Luckily, the
creatures and plant life of the Galápagos Islands have fought back
against all of the adversity and still manage to stay in existence and remain
friendly and happy. Charles Darwin realized this when he shared his theory
of the survival of the fittest and said, "The vigorous, the healthy, and
the happy survive and multiply." Information for this segment came from National Geographic, April 1999; The South American Handbook; and our informative tour guide, Hernand Barreno.
For more great Galápagos Island photos, see 2 Go-lápagos Photos. To continue with my Travelogue, continue on to the USA as we head back to Arizona to see great friends and attend the Remsberg wedding.
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After our visit to
Floreana, we headed on over to the other
side of the island to where the early Galápagos post office once sat (left
photo). In fact, it is
still in operation, and you can send your post cards for free! The only
catch is that the mail man does not come to pick up and deliver the mail.
Instead, this mail system depends on the island visitors to pick up the mail that has been addressed to a location near them and hand deliver this mail to
its recipient. I took two postcards from the post office that I must now deliver to Michigan
and Atlanta. The concept is really a fine one. Imagine having some
stranger come to your door with a hand delivered letter from the exotic
Galápagos Islands. If you are going to use this ancient mail system, just
keep in mind, the delivery time may vary.
After our hike along James Island, we went for a snorkel off of the
beach. Fran was nice enough to lend me her wet suit today so that I would
not freeze to death. It made a world of difference. In the waters
along the shore, we were able to see many colorful fish. We were also
visited by some sea lions. Since I could not really do anything about it
from where I was, I just hoped that they were not bulls and decided not to
panic. As I came back up to the beach, I saw our ship's crew coming back
from their soccer game on the island. Several of the ships in the area
stop at this island and the crews come onto shore to take a break from the
waters and play a friendly game of futbal. Team Samba won, of course.
