Lessons Learned and Final Thoughts

We have taken a lot of great family vacations but never have we been able to get so close to amazing and unique animals.  I think the only thing missing from our trip was more family.  I hope we can return with all my little cousins one day! 

Just want to say thank you to my brothers for graduating from their respective programs.  

I really, really, really enjoyed your graduation present.  

Thanks Mom and John for your incredible planning skills and for a memorable family vacation.  And in response to your offer to take more 

vacations so that I may continue travel blogging, I accept.

 

Mom and John made a quick trip over to the Charles Darwin center last night and they got to see more of the tortoises. I watched a video that Mom shot (I'd post it but it's sideways... need to edit) and I noticed that the tortoises eat like cookie monster.  Lots of chewing going on but not much seems to be going down.  I'll miss those goofy behemoths.

Lessons Learned

1.  Walkie talkies were a great idea. 


2.  We forgot binoculars.

3.  Bring sunscreen.  It is crazy expensive down here.  Especially at the Airport.  The rash guard I borrowed (Thanks Rebecca!!) was superb as protection from the sun.

4.  Don't bring Flippers - not worth the space they require.  I was fine without in the areas where we swam.  Mask and snorkel cost around $18 if you want to rent them, but we enjoyed having our own.

5.  Use Taxis as tour guides, or at least don't be afraid to venture out on your own.  Land and Bay tours are overpriced for what they offer.


6.  LAN, is a great airline. They feed and water (and wine) you to your heart's content.

7.  So glad I was able to borrow an underwater camera.  The underwater conditions were a bit cloudy, but honestly we were all so happy to have proof that we saw turtles and sharks! From my whole family,  
Thank you Brian!!


8.  Coffee here is FAN-TAS-TIC!

9.  Renting a house was a really great idea for us.  It was cheaper than getting hotel rooms and cooking was a HUGE cost saver.  We were at least $60 under budget on food everyday and we ate like kings.

10.  Wash and Fold service is $0.75/lb - and my whites have never been whiter. Pack very light.

11.  There was a moment for all of us when our feet were sore.  I wish I brought sneakers in addition to flip flops and water shoes.

12.  We brought a first aid kit and we definitely used it.

Favorite Things

Blue Footed Boobies - we were able to get so close.

The Fish Market and resulting meals

The Sea Lions at the Fish market 

Water Taxis were a fun form of transportation.

Thanks for following the Barnes / Respess Family Blog!  I hope that you enjoyed my writing and perhaps at times, you could almost feel that cool ocean breeze blowing across your skin.  I'm home now, but sometimes when I close my eyes and feel a breeze,
I'm back in the Galapagos again.

-Catherine "Katie" Respess

Forget the fishes! We swam with sharks today.

Today is our last full day in the Galapagos and we werent quite sure how we would enjoy it.  We took a quick trip to the fish market because we all love that place and hey, gotta eat!

Momma and Will

 Concentrating at the Market :)

 This guy was so cute!  He was napping when I got into position and then he rose and totally posed for the pics!

 I was so freaking close!  He did snap at me after this shot :)

Back to the plan:
Jack and I researched other islands but we didn't want to spend 8 hours commuting on the final day.  There will be plenty of that when we begin our journey home tomorrow.

We considered taking a taxi aquatico back out for more great snorkeling but my spanish isnt good enough to convey what animals we want to see or where to go.  Our other options included renting bikes and trying to find a sugar plantation that we read about in another blog.  Mom and I prowled around town with our CB radio in case we needed to reach the boys and relay the plan.

By chance we ran into friends that we met while snorkeling yesterday, Cesar and Soledad.  Their english is perfect and they happened to be looking for another snorkeling tour too.  We teamed up!  Mom told them our idea about hiring a taxi and within a minute we were all set to go.  It was that easy!

The group:


Our goal was to see shark, rays, turtles and maybe sea lions though it is unlikely the latter would play in the same area as sharks.  Not that I have any particular interest in being present when they happen to cross paths.  The taxi captain said he knew where to go, so we radioed the boys and away we went!

Not a bad place to kick back and relax :)

 Will is usually the first one in... 

"Is this thing on?"

 Jack and John

 Visibility was a bit poor but I swear that is a sea turtle!!

Sharky!

I had my belly in the sand to get this shot.

It was a totally unexpected awesome day!  Thanks so much Mom, John, Cesar and Soledad!

Swimming with the Fishes!

     We weren't quite as crafty with orchestrating today's adventure and so it started out a little slow.  Everyone seemed to have a great time snorkeling at Camano Island, the last stop on the tour itinerary, and I finally had success with the underwater camera!!  I'm a little bummed that we didn't get to swim with the sea lions but I won't complain.  (Caamano is known as Sea Lion island).

Mom captured another beautiful sunrise.

John may have found a Striated Heron... or we could call it a Green Footed Long Legged Birdy.

Our guide was very sweet and he'd lived in the Islands for over 30 years (based on his stories), but there was a little bit of waiting around.  Luckily, we can make the most of any situation :)

Iguana Swimming: http://youtu.be/hzoZ8_nilUw

Our guide said this channel is called "Lover's Channel,"  then he revealed he's been trying to get everyone use this name for 30 years.  Apparently when there were very few inhabitants on Santa Cruz, couples used to frequent this waterway for a little privacy.  Well alrighty.

Playa los perros.  Not a single dog here though... just more Iguanas.  Our guide did show us Iguana nests!  They build L-shaped tunnels and lay around 15 eggs.  Incubation takes around 120 days.

They just blend right in.

To reach Caamano we needed to cross the bay into open sea and riding those big waves was so much fun in our little boat <):-)   Our guide was cracking us up by wearing his snorkeling equipment since we were all getting drenched by the ocean spray.

It was a soggy trip :)

I was chasing these guys all over!  It looked like he had a light inside his body.  Glowing blue polka dots.

Mom

Me

Mom and John

 

That's all for today folks!  

I'm going to see about a final excursion for me and Jack and finish my souvenir shopping :)

Tortugas Gigante

     We weren't really certain about today's agenda when we set out to return Will's surf board.  I took off to do some souvenir shopping  because the surf shop was closed and it looked like we were going to have to wait.  My ever productive mother arranged the Bay Tour for Tuesday which left us with the Highland tour option for today.  However, that requires convincing a cab driver to drop us in the middle of nowhere and also wait.

     We were able to communicate where we wanted to go and then about halfway there we finally clarified that he should wait for us while we hiked for an hour to look at wild tortoises.  Thankfully our cabbie, Christian, was a nice guy.  He also convinced us to visit a different "ranch" to see tortoises.  Our original destination included a long rocky driveway and with 4 of us crammed into the back seat of the quad cab it was getting interesting.  With all the bouncing around, Mom got the giggles and I was cracking jokes about how we must be driving over the poor tortoises.  Christian stopped the truck and we worked out a different plan.

     Christian did not lead us astray -- he even walked with us along the path and took pictures!  We researched taking a guide for this excursion and it was around $150 for the group.  We took a risk heading out on our own but it was an awesome experience for only $25 total.  And it didn't end there.

You have to stay 2 meters away from the tortoises but that is close enough to hear them breathe.  They gave me goosebumps.  Looking into their eyes is an experience I cannot put into words.

No tortoises were touched during our tour.

 After seeing about 8 tortoises in the wild we ventured underground.  The Lava Tunnels were very close by and we walked about a 1/2 mile in pretty spooky terrain.  It's a good time to determine who you can depend on; I only considered this after Jack announced he would not be the first guy to go and someone else should walk in the back.  I think that means we can depend on Jack to not get killed in the horror movie I had playing out in my mind.  I was ok with getting out of there, especially after we had to crawl through one section!

 Going underground.

Preparing to crawl. 

 WE SURVIVED!