I am sitting here, for the first time in south america….. 6th continent!!!!
in the car with our driver Ramiro heading to papallaca, potato land.
Yesterday we checked out, headed for the pier after getting wet suits, boarded a boat and went to a small cove hidden by the rocks. there are lots of tiny islands , somewhat connected, creating lots of protected areas. this area has turtles. as fast as i could i dove straight in. wow, lots of beautiful fish right away. i swim to the other side and see this beautiful blue star fish just sitting there, probably devouring something. a few corals here and there as well. we go to the center of this inner sea and we find them 10-15 sea turtles resting at the bottom 3-4 meters below. we watch them for a long while and i keep swimming solo. it is super easy to snorkel here, with the salt. I see a giant squid… well giant for a shrimp, it is about 1 meter long, looks like a stick, with the one cool eye. some large fish about, there is one big blue one one bigger green and a large silver fish and it's edges shimmer in the light in rainbow colors. i swim on and find a manta ray, a medium one. this one is a bottom feeder, just staying there, eating of the ground and several smaller fish sorrowed him, munching on left overs. i see the squid again and the silver, green and blue fish and also a tiny blue incredible one. i almost get out and someone yells, marine iguana. i dive back in and swim fast to intercept the swimming lizard, amazing.
we regret not getting a water camera, but our fellow group members took wow shots and we will share them soon.
we returned to the boat and sailed passed islands looking for boobies. first we spotted a couple of penguins, chilling in the sun and later a pair of blue footed boobies. we were dropped on the island of tintorera, walked a bit between jagged lava rocks with fungus on top all i white, hence the island name of white tipped island. there , there is a little channel 2-3 meters wide and 50-80 meters across and inside we see a shark, white tipped reef shark and say wow, and then more and more. this is there resting place. some lay on the ground, sleeping, others swim about, must be 50 of them at least in this tiny area. fantastic. small fish swim by, but we hear these taste badly and the sharks leave them alone. we enjoy the sharks, crabs and iguanas and see more sea lions.
we return to the hotel to shower and change and had again to isabela grill, for rice, fish, garlic bread and one pine apple piece for dessert- good meal and now water taxi and a speed boat to Santa cruz. now we went straight on the waves , jumping up and down, fun ride all the way for me but Alla was quite anxious. when some of the fellow party members had to pee, a group effort was needed to move them from the bouncing site to the small bathroom next to the bags, quite the joyride. we saw albatross flying by , but the bouncing boat made it impossible to zoom in.
we reached Santa cruz, hopped a water taxi and headed a short, quick bio inspection , check in and now a little shopping time for souvenirs, i obtained a few priceless little miniatures and few other things, we then headed or cake. by the time Alla realized she left a souvenir bag in a shop, it was closed.
we went for dinner. i had the equatoreana pizza. with bacon and Plantain, not bad at all. we walked around more, buying this and that, than walked the pier again and watched a pelican dive in from the pier, gets it's reward and flies back up, while lots of sharks circle below. we then go to a club for a bit of billiard and dancing before we go night night.
early morning i packed quickly, had a mission to accomplish. i walked around the fish market and found a pelican tree, 8-10 of them were napping on this tree, got a selfie and then i saw the biggest turtle you have ever seen,, 2-3 meters tall, enormous , i tripped, fell and somewhat got a selfie with my lags up high. unhurt :) i returned to the hotel, we had breakfast - i like the fried plantain balls- verde ballon it is called. we took the bus to the ferry, ferry to the bus, bus to the terminal. last minute shopping and a plane to Quito. and galapagos makes 61…
and now sitting here in the car, 2 km away from Pappalacta …
cheers from south america.
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