Baja Birds

I finally got around to going through all my bird photos from Baja.


One of the "tricks" to getting good photos is to take lots and pick out the best. The first part is pretty easy with digital - I took almost 1000 bird photos in Baja. But I'm still having trouble with the second part.

I'm reminded of the quote "I have only made this letter rather long because I have not had time to make it shorter." -- Pascal.

I would show you less photos if I had time to narrow them down more. And as well as taking time to narrow them down, it also takes a certain ruthlessness that I still have to work on. Once you've thrown out 90%, there's usually something you like about each of the ones left. And also probably something "wrong" with all of them.

There are still a lot of these that aren't as sharp as I'd like - hand holding a 400mm lens in low light will do that :-( And there's still a lot that aren't properly exposed. Shooting raw and adjusting with Lightroom (or equivalent) helps a lot (thankfully) but it still isn't a replacement for a good exposure originally.

I'm linking to the full size slideshow because I didn't think the smaller embedded slideshow did them justice.

Baja Pelicans Video

I managed to capture a few video clips of the pelicans dive bombing for fish in the marina in Loreto: QuickTime version

If you have trouble playing this version, try the Flash version (lower quality).

Beach Time Photos

view album

Beach Time

My continuing annoyance with the noise pollution and the realization that my sojourn here was almost over combined to lead me out of town to camp on the beach. (Plus, I'd feel better if I used the camping gear I'd brought.)

I planned to avoid being out in the heat of the day and to not have to carry a lot of water. I left about 4 pm, still hot but late enough not to have to worry about getting sunburnt. I headed down the beach out of town. Without a car it's hard to really get away from people entirely - there are houses scattered all along the coast around Loreto. And there are spots where vehicles can get to the beach and then drive up and down it.

But still, it was a relief to get away to where the loudest noise was the sound of the waves on the beach. The beach is a mixture of sand and rocks. Huge numbers of shells and shell fragments were mixed in. Dried starfish collected in some spots. There's some garbage, but given all the people, I would have expected to see more.

For some reason there are large numbers of sea slugs washed up on the beach - some still with signs of life, some dead. They varied in size from an inch or two up to seven or eight inches. They were a mottled brown and I couldn't find them in my book of local marine life. I wonder what caused them to be here? I read so much about environmental problems that I wonder if there is some kind of pollution that is killing them. Then again, maybe they die after they have bred as some creatures do.

Other creatures or portions thereof were more or less explicable. Fish heads, tails, and bones were obviously the castoffs from fishermen. A pelican with half a wing missing, the white bones sticking out, was she the victim of a shark? She paddled away. I wondered how long she'd survive like that. A pelican with one wing hung around our hotel in Galapagos, but I suspect it was fed by the staff.

A bat faced ray with a wingspan of 5 or 6 feet had washed up. The skin from the top of it's wings had been removed with straight cuts, the work of someone's knife. A baby shark about 2 feet long lay at the edge of the water intact although missing it's eyes. The victim of fishermen or natural causes? The "hammerhead" from a hammerhead shark lay further up the beach. On one of the islands I'd seen part of a sea turtle shell. Hard to understand why people are still killing these creatures.

I still find the concept of the "marine reserve" here a little strange. Everything is still allowed - sport and commercial fishing. You just have to buy a license. (As you also have to do to snorkel or dive.) I guess the license cost reduces the fishing, especially commercial, but it still seems contrary to my idea of a "reserve". I guess it's a bit like our provincial parks that the hunters would say exist so they have somewhere to hunt.

I took no book to read, no journal to write in, no ipod to listen to. It's been four weeks since I've watched TV. I walked till sunset, made camp, ate a cold snack. I retired with the sun and rose with the sun. Beach time. I woke several times and gazed at the stars. Something yipped off in the distance. It didn't sound like a dog, maybe a fox. There were a few hoots that might have been an owl. It was very peaceful among the cactus. I could hear the quiet murmur of the surf.

I stopped in a hollow enclosed by bush and cactus just back from the beach. It was unlikely anyone would stumble on me here. A few minutes later, in quick succession, three different kinds of birds stopped by to observe me. Seemingly satisfied with my presence they continued on with their business.

I woke just before 6 am. The sky was starting to lighten and I threw on my clothes, grabbed my camera, and headed to the beach to catch the sunrise. There was a bank of fog offshore, hiding most of the islands. The sky gradually turned pink and brightened and finally the disk of the sun appeared through the fog and finally rose above it to start warming the day.

I returned to my hollow to pack up my few things and eat another a meager cold breakfast. My pack was light - I had my smallest tent, sleeping bag, and thermorest, waterbag, and little more. I wandered back along the beach enjoying the quiet early morning. It wasn't quite the end of my trip but it seemed like a fitting finale to my time here.

Travel Reading

Who are you that wanted only a book to join you in your nonsense?
- Walt Whitman, By Blue Ontario's Shore

I started this trip with Enough: Staying Human in an Engineered Age by Bill McKibben. It seemed like a suitable counterpoint to an emerging technology conference. It's a good read, he's a good author, but as much as I agreed with many of his arguments, I just can't quite swallow his conclusion - that we should "stop" here and not pursue certain technology (e.g. nanotech and human gene manipulation) any further. Part of the problem is that I'm a techie geek - I live for the next great thing. Saying "no more" is about as popular as it would be to a kid in a candy store.

He claims things are "good enough" now. But couldn't/wouldn't people have said that at any time in the past? And likewise would most people want to go back? If not, then presumably they should have been in favor of going forward. Sure, we've cured many diseases, but what if you get one of the diseases we haven't found a cure for. Where that cure may require nanotech or gene manipulation?

There's no question that the future may bring changes that take us so far from what we now are as to be unrecognizable. But is that necessarily bad? Going from stone age jungle villages to a modern city is a huge jump too. And some might argue, not a step forward. But the fact that it's a big jump doesn't necessarily make it "bad".

I read a lot of science fiction and it explores all kinds of possible futures, many of them strange and inhuman. But "bad"? I don't know. Is it possible to say in an absolute sense that one culture is better or worse than another? In a way this theme is also explored in Theroux's book below.

For a change of pace, next I read The Escapement, the third and final book in the Engineer series by K. J. Parker. Although the descriptions talk more about power, politics, ware, and economics, what I liked best were the engineering - pre-computer geekdom. In that sense it reminded me of Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle. Although it's classified as "science fiction" it's actually more like "alternate past". There's no magic and no technology that doesn't actually exist. The details of medieval technology are fascinating. I can't vouch for their accuracy but they seem well researched. I also enjoyed K. J. Parker's other Fencer and Scavenger trilogies, but this one is definitely my favorite. It also has an immensely dry sense of humor that I love - enough to make me snort out loud on occasion.

Next up was The Log from the Sea of Cortez by John Steinbeck. This is a non-fiction account of a trip he and Ed Ricketts, a marine biology, made from San Francisco to Baja collecting marine biological specimens. It's a good mix of nature, travel, adventure, and philosophy. I really enjoyed this book and it was great to read it while I was in the area. Here's a sample quote:

A squadron of pelicans crossed our bow, flying low to the waves and acting like a train of pelicans tied together, activated by one nervous system. For they flapped their powerful wings in unison, coasted in unison. It seemed that they tipped a wavetop with their wings now and then, and certainly they flew in the troughs of the waves to save themselves from the wind. They did not look around or change direction. Pelicans seem always to know exactly where they are going. A curious sea-lion came out to look us over, a tawny, crusty old fellow with rakish mustaches and the scars of battle on his shoulders. He crossed our bow too and turned and paralleled our course, trod water, and looked at us. Then, satisfied, he snorted and cut for shore and some sea-lion appointment. They always have them, it's just a matter of getting around to keeping them.

Currently I'm in the middle of three books:

Vagabonding by Rolf Potts was recommended by Timothy Ferriss of The 4-Hour Workweek. It's aimed more at beginning travelers, or at least beginners to off the beaten path, extended travel, but I still enjoyed it. I really liked the quotes at the start of each chapter, many from Walt Whitman, like the one starting this post.

The Happy Isles of Oceania by Paul Theroux. I'm enjoying this, but it's a bit depressing to read about the problems of an area (tropical islands in the Pacific) that we like to think of as paradise. It fits this trip as he's traveling on his own near and on the ocean - as I've been doing.


The Phenomenon of Life Book One by Christoper Alexander. The sub-title is "An Essay on the Art of Building and the Nature of the Universe". Alexander is known to software people as the inspiration for "design patterns" from A Pattern Language and other books on architectural design. He has an interesting thesis and lots of interesting examples, but "the nature of the universe" might be pushing it a little far. It's thought provoking and I like to find parallels with software design. I wonder what I'll think after all four volumes! Here's a quote:

I have come to believe that architecture is so agonizingly disturbed because we - the architects of our time - are struggling with a conception of the world, a world-picture, that essentially makes it impossible to make buildings well. I believe this problem goes so deep that it even makes it extremely difficult to build the most modest, useful building in an ordinary way.

Many of us are not especially aware that our conception of things - our picture of the universe - could have any concrete or immediate effect on activity as architects. We go about our business trying our best to make good buildings - in whatever fashion we understand "good". The task is difficult. We struggle with it. But we are not aware, perhaps, that we have any special picture of the world.
...
How could it possibly be true that this conception might interfere so deeply with our efforts as builders, that it makes it all but impossible to make a building well?

Oops, actually I'm reading a fourth as well The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney (fiction). It's good, but it hasn't really captured my attention so it's going slower than usual.

In case you're wondering how/why I keep that many books going at once - it's my normal procedure. Generally I only read one fiction book at a time, usually reserved for the hour or so before going to sleep. Then I like to have a couple of non-fiction books of different types so I can suit my reading to my mood. I've mostly been reading Alexander over breakfast, Theroux and Potts during the day, and Penney before sleep.

Around Loreto

Here are some photos of Loreto and area:



click to enlarge / go to the album

Life in Loreto

More on life in Loreto.

Last night I had a little trouble finding a place to eat supper. I was a little later than usual and so several places had already filled up. And several of the restaurants (Mandiles, Islas, 1697, Panchmama) are closed on Tuesday's (which probably contributes to the others being busier). I thought I'd try El Taste, which is a chain. It doesn't get great reviews but Shelley and I had eaten lunch at one last year and it was ok. It was quite a pleasant evening outside, but inside El Taste it was stifling and stuffy. I was the only customer. I couldn't imagine sitting in there for any length of time regardless of the food so I walked back out.

I ended up back at Canipoli. I really like this little family run place. The tables are in a quiet shady courtyard with a fountain in the middle. There's even a view of the church tower from some of the tables. One night when it was cool they brought me a blanket. The kitchen is open and you can watch them prepare the meals. So far, a delightful place. But the service really sucks. Two young girls, maybe 12 years old, presumably daughters, wait on the tables. But they also tend bar and since virtually every tourist has to order margarita's they tend to get tied up with making them. You seat yourself, and then wait 15 minutes to get a menu. Then you wait another 20 minutes to order. I watched several groups of tourists get impatient and walk out. One night Shelley and I had ordered a bottle of wine (just the house wine - no choices) and it took about 45 minutes to arrive. It looked like one of the kids eventually ran to the grocery store to get it. Last night the food also took forever. I suspect it sat somewhere forgotten, since it arrived cold. I know what to expect and I take it in stride, but even for Mexico it seems pretty bad. It's worth going, but don't be in a hurry!

On the days that I haven't been diving I've been getting out for a run first thing in the morning while it's still cool. Last time I went for about an hour, north out of town on the road and then back on the beach. The beach is mostly good firm sand, but the soft or rocky parts give you an extra workout. It's great to watch all the birds - gulls, egrets, herons, pelicans, etc. And running along the beach you get to watch for interesting things washed up - puffer fish, sea slugs, shells. Although there are crabs here, even Sally Lightfoot's like in Galapagos, there don't seem to be many along the beach. Eventually I found a few tiny ones under rocks.

After my run I was sitting on the deck on the roof of the hotel cooling off, looking at the ocean and half a dozen dolphins went by in the bay. They were fairly far away but it was still neat to see them.

I went diving again today. Rafael, who runs the dive shop, is determined to reduce the weight I'm using. I started with 24 lbs, then went to 22 lbs, and today 20 lbs. Rafael keeps saying he only needs 16 lbs. (You need so much weight because of the buoyancy of the thick wet suits, but it's ok once you get down because the pressure compresses the wetsuit. Less weight is better once you get down because you don't need as much air in your BCD.) But with 20 lbs I had a heck of a time getting down, even swimming down headfirst. I could feel Rafael pushing me down from above! The problem was at the end of the dive when we did our safety stop at 5m I couldn't stay down. I had to be head down kicking constantly. Rafael ended up giving me his weight belt. He can't understand why I need so much weight. Beats me. I wouldn't be surprised if I was doing something wrong, but I'm not sure what. I was being careful to get all the air out of my BCD which is the usual cause of the problem.

It was a beautiful calm day on the water. Most days even when it starts calm it gets windy and rough by noon, but today it stayed nice and calm.

Ramon, our boat drive driver, always brings his fishing rod and in between dives he fishes. But Rafael says he never catches anything, so we were surprised today when he hooked one. It was a decent size white fish (maybe 2 ft long) but as he was lifting it out of the water the hook came out and the fish swam away. Personally, I was just as happy. Although I eat fish occasionally, I'd much prefer to see them swimming around under water. I think Ramon was pretty annoyed though!

He was also asking me about where I was from and what I did, especially considering I was here for so long. I told him I had a computer software company. He wanted to know if I was the "hefe" (boss), miming this by saluting. I said yes, and his next question was how many employees. He was quite surprised when I said about 50. "You pay them every month? How much?" I gave him a rough figure and I could see his eyes get wider as he calculated the monthly payroll. I don't blame him. I don't like to think about it myself. He wanted to know if they were all working while I was here. I said, of course, they don't need me. He laughed and agreed, of course they don't need you, you're just the hefe. He figured it was a good arrangement for my staff to work and me to travel. I agree :-)

After diving I figure I deserve ice cream. My primary ice cream place was all out after the long weekend, but luckily I have a backup. They're not as generous, but maybe because of that, they had lots of ice cream left. They also sell home made popsicles. I tried a strawberry one the other day - delicious, made with real strawberries, not artificial flavoring.

Thoughts from Loreto

I've spent quite a lot of time lately posting photos but I realize I haven't really written much. Pictures are marvelous, but they can only go so far to explain what it's like to be somewhere. And they say very little about what's it's like inside my head.

It seems like a long time since the conference in San Diego. And it seems very different here from there.

The first week here, with Shelley, was a lot like our usual travels. We were keen to fill up our days, to see and do as much as possible in the short week we had. Not that we were rushing around, just that we wanted to take advantage of the time.

After Shelley left, things have slowed down. Other than the diving I've done, I haven't tried to fill up my days. First thing, when it's cool and quiet, a run or a walk on the beach. Then breakfast and a good book. A few hours on the laptop over a latte at the coffee shop. A stop at the bakery and the supermarket. Some quiet time in my cool hotel room during the hottest hours of the day. The wireless doesn't reach my room, which is perhaps a blessing. But I can still download from the cameras and review the photos I've taken. Then back out into the sun, which is the perfect excuse for an ice cream :-) Another couple of hours on the laptop over another latte at the coffee shop. (Luckily it's a different girl in the afternoon so I'm not quite so self-conscious about spending so much time there!) And then it's time to look for somewhere to have supper. Some days it's a Pacifico beer and fish tacos at the Giggling Dolphin, other days it's a classier dinner at 1697 or Panchomama over a glass of wine. Then back to the hotel to read for a while before turning in for the night.

I could be trying to get out of town for a hike in the dessert, which would require some kind of transportation. I could be trying to arrange some sea kayaking. I even brought camping gear so I could go out overnight. But I'm not sure I'll get to any of that. Perhaps it's laziness. But the reason I wanted to stay here for a longer period was to just be here, without trying to do so much. To see what it was like just to live somewhere different. I've traveled lots, but I've never just lived anywhere other than Saskatoon.

Doing some work is part of that. It's not that I have to work. There's nothing that couldn't wait. But my work is part of who I am. No one would find it strange that a painter would want to paint. So why should it be any different for a programmer to want to program? It is different, programming is not as artistically creative. But it's still creating and it still gives me pleasure to accomplish things, as mundane as they might be. So far I haven't accomplished a lot of work - one of the drawbacks of a slower pace! But I've managed a few things.

Loreto is a mixed up place. On one hand it's a 300 year old Mexican town. On the other hand it's a booming area for Americans to buy real estate. It's also somewhat of a tourist destination. The cruise ships even stop here. And the locals aren't examples of some quaint old Mexican culture. They're teenagers with monster trucks with monster sound systems driving up and down the malecon honking their horns and talking on their cell phones. And yet, there is still some old culture around. Still people going to church.

Like everywhere, cars rule. Even the "pedestrian" shopping street allows cars. I'm not sure what qualifies it as a "pedestrian" street. I guess because it's narrow with no sidewalks. Which actually makes it more dangerous for pedestrians than the regular streets.

The street where they should ban cars is the malecon, running along the waterfront. This could be such a peaceful enjoyable place with the boardwalk along the water and the restaurants with views of the ocean. Instead it's a constant stream of cars with their stereos cranked to the maximum level of distortion. Having supper and watching the sunset over the ocean sounds great, but the horrendous racket spoils the scene. And in case you think this is just the teenagers, it's not. Whole families from parents to young kids drive up and down or park to watch their friends drive up and down. But these people aren't looking at the view, they don't need to be on the water front. Give them a street somewhere else, that I don't need to be near. Leave the ocean in peace for those of us who want to walk quietly and watch the sun set.

Nor do they seem to realize that the town square could be much more than it is. There are a couple of restaurants and the Posada de las Flores hotel beside the square, but there's room for shops, more restaurants, a bar, a bakery, ice cream, another coffee shop. Instead there are several buildings that have appeared abandoned since I was here a year ago. The result is that the square languishes somewhat sadly forgotten.

Still, there's lots to enjoy here. The sunshine, the birds singing, the bougainvillea, the ocean, the goofy pelicans, the restaurants and the coffee shop (which wouldn't be here without all the gringos).

Baja Dolphins

I shot some video of a school of dolphins we saw on the way to a dive, using the Canon SD700 IS. (I didn't embed the video here because it's too wide to fit into the blog format.)

There must have been a school of fish they were feeding on since the pelicans were diving for fish as well.

Note: You probably want high speed internet to watch it.

If you're interested you can read about the hassles I had trying to post this video.

Michael Clark - Adventure Sports Photographer

Check out his web site and his newsletters. Awesome photos, even climbing and adventure racing ones. And a review of the new Nikon D300 that makes me drool (sorry, I can't help being a geek).

Following links from there I found a great video promoting Joe McNally's new book - The Moment it Clicks.

I love the amazing photographs these guys take.

Baja Snorkeling

Shelley and I got out snorkeling three times, to Coronado, Carmen, and Danzante islands. Coronado is the closest and most common snorkeling spot; it's where we snorkeled last year. We were pretty lucky with calm, sunny weather. But there's no avoiding the cold water this time of the year, 16c (60f). It's not too bad with a 7mm wetsuit, hood, boots, and gloves.

It's always hard taking underwater photos. At least snorkeling on a sunny day you have a decent amount of light. Scuba diving, especially in poor visibility leaves little light for photos. My Canon SD700 IS isn't the ideal underwater camera but it's nice to have some photos. Good underwater cameras get pretty expensive.

Adobe Lightroom (or similar software) is almost essential to make the most of the photos you do get. You can improve some photos quite dramatically. Ideally, the shot would be perfect out of the camera, but until I can achieve that, Lightroom is a big help.

I omitted the worst of the fuzzy ones but they're still not all that sharp. But hopefully they give you an idea of the fantastic sea life that abounds here. There's lots more that I didn't get pictures of, often because they move too fast!

Baja only has one coral reef, at Cabo Pulmo. But there are lots of individual soft and hard corals on the rocks.

We used Dolphin Dive Center for snorkeling and diving. Raphael, the manager and dive master, is a great guy. And Ramone, the boat driver, is great too.



As usual, click to enlarge (and then click on "Slideshow" if you want)

Baja Whale Watching

Gray whales migrate up and down the west coast from Alaska to Baja. Last time we were here in Baja we didn't get a chance to see them so this time we made a point of it. Loreto, where we stayed, is on the inland side of the Baja peninsula but the gray whales are on the outer Pacific side. We booked through Arturo's for a day trip to Adolfo Lopez Mateos. It's about a 2 hour drive each way. We went out in a small boat for two hours to see the whales. It was a little expensive with just the two of us but it was nice not to have a crowded boat like some we saw.

We had a beautiful sunny, calm day and the whales were fantastic. We were lucky and saw lots of them and took a ton of pictures. Most of them weren't that great but a few were presentable. One problem I had was that the automatic focus had trouble with the water and if it couldn't focus it would refuse to shoot. So half the time I turned off the automatic focus but then I had to guess where they whales would surface to preset the focus. Needless to say, I didn't always guess correctly. You'll notice a number of the pictures aren't very sharp.

The last two pictures are from one of our snorkeling trips. I'm not sure what kind of whale it is. Someone said humpback but I have no idea if that's correct. There are also blue and fin whales in the area. We were lucky to see a blue whale on another snorkeling trip (but no pictures). Pretty cool to see the largest animal ever to live.

San Diego Zoo

The San Diego zoo is one of my favorites. It covers a big area and gives lots of room to the animals. I have never been a big fan of birds in cages but I really like the big aviaries that you walk through. They seem much nicer for the birds. And it's a lot better to take pictures of the birds without a cage in between. The baby panda has only been out for a week or two - it was very cute.



As usual, click to enlarge (and then click on "Slideshow" if you want)

Last Morning in San Diego

I had one day in San Diego after the end of the conference. I started it by taking the big camera for a walk along the waterfront. I was hoping to find the baby ducks but they were hiding.

There are some interesting sculptures along the waterfront:




As you may have gathered by now, I really like the patterns of reflections in the water:




Another facet of the waterfront are the homeless people. They don't seem to bother anyone and in turn the police don't seem to bother them.

More San Diego

A few photos walking back to the hotel after a day at the conference.

Sunshine on San Diego

This is the view I woke up to, out of my hotel window. What's not to like - sunshine, clear blue sky, water, boats, palm trees. This is from the Holiday Inn on the Bay where I've stayed each time. It's not as fancy (or expensive) as the bigger hotels where ETech is held, but it's nice enough and right on the water. It's about a 20 minute walk to the conference hotel but along the waterfront that's a bonus, not a drawback!


Every time I've been here (this time of year), I can't resist photographing the baby ducks at the pond in Seaport Village. Such cute little balls of fuzz. Sadly, the numbers of ducklings always seems to decline as the days go by. It might be something to do with the cats roaming around.




I stopped for my morning coffee at the Brickyard coffee shop. I discovered this place last time I was here. They have great coffee and snacks and it's quiet.

ETech this year is at the Marriott, pretty fancy. It even has a Starbucks inside for the breaks when they don't provide refreshments.


Of course, at conferences like ETech, you have to be on-line non-stop, even when you're enjoying the sunshine.

Heading to San Diego

I hadn't paid much attention to the times of my flights to San Diego. I assumed it would be the same early morning flights out of Saskatoon that we usually get. Instead I found that I left at 2:30pm and arrived at 11:30pm. I would have preferred to get there earlier, especially since the ETech conference started first thing Monday morning. Oh well, my own fault for not paying more attention.

On Saturday it had been amazingly warm in Saskatoon - melting temperatures. So I figured I'd be fine wearing sandals to travel, my preference instead of confining my feet to shoes for such a long time. But Sunday it was -17c with nasty winds bringing the wind chill to -30c or more. Too late, I'd already packed my shoes in the bottom of my bag. It's a quick trip to the airport.

For some reason they could only check me in as far as Calgary. That seemed a little odd but not unheard of so I didn't think too much of it. I also had aisle seats on all the flights. Shelley would have been happy but I like to sit by the window so I can look out and take pictures. Luckily they could switch my seat.

Of course, I had arrived at the airport early. I'm a belt and suspenders kind of guy. Maybe working with software development has made me more of a believer in Murphy. Not a problem, I'm already switching to "patience is my middle name" travel mode. To avoid leaving a trail of disposable cups I'd brought my travel cup with me and I filled it with a cup of tea to keep me company while I waited for the flight.

When we eventually boarded the walkway to the plane was freezing - I'd left my winter jacket at home. And then the plane was roasting hot, presumably a result of trying to fight the cold air coming in the open door. I sat down in my window seat and was a little horrified to see a large, wide woman drop into the seat beside me. The middle armrest was up and she overflowed into my space. One of the risks of traveling solo. Just as I was resigning myself to a somewhat "cozy" flight I happened to glance up at the row numbers and realized I was, hallelujah, in the wrong row! I apologized and moved ahead one row to sit beside a thankfully more normal sized person.

It was a clear afternoon, blue sky overhead shading to almost white at the horizon with a little haze. The fields were all white with snow in Saskatchewan but as we got closer to Calgary the snow disappeared. I think we flew over Eagle Creek that I kayaked down last spring. I'll have to compare the pictures I took with the map (or Google Earth).


There was enough haze in Calgary that you could just see the tops of the mountains peeking out. We had to walk down the steps of the plane to the ground and then immediately up a set of stairs to the walkway. All we need was a plank and we could have gone straight across. Luckily it was warmer in Calgary.


I got to practice my calm, relaxed, zen travel attitude early in this trip. I went to the United counter to check in and get my boarding passes for the rest of the trip. Although there was no lineup, no one seemed to want to talk to me so I tried the automated check in. But it refused to recognize me. Eventually I got someone to help me. But they couldn't check me in! I was on the passenger list and I had a seat, but for some reason I didn't have a ticket. Huh? How could I have a seat without a ticket? Because of my flights to Mexico next week my ticket had been booked through Aeromexico, although it was Air Canada and United Airlines flights to and from San Diego. Could I contact my travel agent? Not on a Sunday. They phoned Aeromexico but they just said they had nothing to do with the flights in Canada and the United States. Next they phoned Air Canada who told United not to worry about it, just check me in. But the computer wouldn't allow that. Damn computers :-) Eventually Air Canada issued a paper ticket and somehow that allowed United to check me in. I even managed to change to window seats :-)

Unfortunately, Shelley is flying on a similar itinerary next week to meet me in Mexico. Hopefully the travel agent can straighten things out so she doesn't have the same hassles.

By now my bag had been tirelessly circling the conveyer for some time. Customs was pleasantly uncrowded so I was through in no time. There's not a lot of choices for restaurants in the C terminal but there is a Starbucks so I picked up a latte and even managed to snag one of the few big comfy chairs to sit in while I drank it. The sun was shining through the window and I was on my way - life is good.


It was midnight (2am Saskatoon time) when I finally got to the hotel so I pretty much crashed right away.

Evening Light

Walking home yesterday, the sun was sinking and the light was nice. I took a bunch of pictures but most of them were unremarkable. Here's a few I liked:




My favorite is the first one of the water running over the weir. I'm sure every Saskatoon photographer has numerous photo's of the train bridge. The temperature has warmed up to almost 0c so the ice on the river is melting fast and my fingers don't freeze like at -20c

I took these with the Canon SD700 IS since that's what I keep in my pack for occasions like this. Of course, when I do see something I want to photograph then I wish I had the SLR. But I can't see carrying that in the bottom of my pack all the time!

The photos were tweaked in Lightroom e.g for exposure and contrast. I don't have a very good eye for subtle shading and color adjustments but I think the end result is still a big improvement over the "defaults".

Another Sunrise

Although it's still cold, it is so much nicer to walk to work with the sunrise rather than in the dark.


I think people who live in more "moderate" climates would find Saskatchewan in the winter to be very bleak. But it has an austere beauty. Maybe it's just the fact that you've spent your whole life somewhere that allows you to appreciate its subtleties.

I gave Shelley a hard time about her enjoying the cold, crisp morning the first day we were back from Ecuador. But I did understand what she was talking about and felt some of it myself.

In Saskatchewan, hot weather is something you get for a few short periods in the summer. And when you do you either hide from the heat or rush to talk advantage of it. Either way, it's not "normal".

LightZone

As spring approaches the days get longer and I see the sunrise on the walk to work. Here's a picture I took the other morning. (Unfortunately, the weather is still wintery and I froze my fingers taking pictures at -20c)


I had heard good things about LightZone and they have a free trial so I thought I'd give it a try. Here's what I came up with after a little playing around. This is primarily the "Hard Look" style. It felt the closest to how I remembered the scene.


I tried to recreate the same look in LightRoom but it's not quite the same.

LightZone did a good job of making it darker and more dramatic without losing the detail in the trees.

I'm not sure if I'm ready to spend the money for it but it is a pretty nice tool.

ZENN and the art of slow progress

One of my recurring complaints is gadgets that are only available in the US. But at least it makes a certain amount of sense when they're made in the US. But here's an example where it's made in Canada and it's still only available in the US! (I'm posting it here because of the environmental aspect.)

Ecuador Travel Notes

In case anyone is visiting Ecuador here are some notes about places to stay, eat, and visit.

Note: This is based only on our experience, I'm sure there are lots of other good alternatives.

We enjoyed staying in the old (historic) part of Quito. There are fewer hotels, restaurants, and shopping but we enjoyed walking around the old churches and architecture and plazas instead. And it's only 25 cents on the frequent buses if you want to get to the new part of town.

Hotel Patio Andaluz is where we stayed in old town. The full rate is $200 which is pretty pricey but we got a rate of $113 booking through TravelRes. That's still not cheap but it was a lovely hotel. If you're on a budget there are lots of cheaper places.

On a clear day (mornings seemed to be best) you get some great views from the top of the Teleferico. If you're ambitious you can continue hiking all the way up Rucu Pinchincha.

You also get good views from the Panecillo. You can walk up but it's safer to take a taxi. Based on an internet recommendation we went to Pims (the restaurant near the top) for lunch. We enjoyed it enough we went back for supper to see the night lights.

Other restaurants we enjoyed: Theatrum, Mea Culpa, Tianguez, and also Fruteria for fruit and ice cream. (These are all in old town.) We enjoyed lunches at The Magic Bean and Zocalo in new town.

We also spent one night at Hotel Cafe Cultura which was recommended to me. We didn't think it was quite as nice as Patio Andaluz but still a nice place to stay in the new town.

Hacienda San Jose de El Chaupi is where we stayed before & after climbing Iliniza. To get there you can take the bus to Machachi and then another to El Chaupi and then a "taxi" (pickup truck) to the hacienda. It is possible to just show up but if no one is there it can be tough to find someone to let you in. Better to phone first, although we found that was tricky too. It's pretty basic but for $10 per night per person including a good breakfast it's hard to beat. It's clean and there are hot showers. And the owner, Rodrigo, was extremely helpful.

In Riobamba we stayed at Hotel La Estacion (recommended by Rodrigo) for $24 per night, including breakfast. Again, nothing fancy, but clean and good location. We'd recommend El Delirio restaurant. The guide book recommended Sierra Nevada but we (and the other people that night) had a pretty awful experience. The food took forever and came out in random order. I eventually canceled my main course because Shelley had long ago finished hers. We ordered wine by the glass and it was blatantly watered down. When we pointed this out to the waiter he just shrugged.

We just spent the day in Banos because of the volcano eruptions. We had a good lunch at The Hood "where the food is good". If you like zoos, we enjoyed the one nearby. It's quite a small town but nice - I could see spending a night or two there.

In Otavalo, based on a magazine recommendation we stayed at Hostal Chasqui for $7 per person per night. Nothing fancy, but clean and private bathrooms. It was outside the main downtown area which was nice since it was quieter. And Roberto was extremely helpful, walking us to a nearby restaurant to make sure we found it, and making good recommendations of places to visit.

The big market day in Otavalo is Saturday, but the big difference is quantity. You can get pretty much the same selection any day of the week at the smaller daily market. If you are there on Saturday it's worth checking out the animal market (7 - 9am) where they sell pigs and cattle.

A couple of day trips from Otavalo that we enjoyed were the Peguchi waterfall (taxi or a longish walk) and Laguna Cuicocha (bus to Quiroga, taxi to the lake).

Considering it's reputation as a tourist town, we expected Otavalo to have more tourist restaurants and coffee shops but there didn't seem to be many. Maybe most of the tourists just come on day trips from Quito. For breakfast and coffee we liked SISA. We had a good supper at Quino (although initially we thought it was closed due to a mixup over which was the right door). The restaurant at Hotel El Indio Inn was also quite good. (Not to be confused with the lower end Hotel El Indio.)

We also stayed one night at La Luna about 5 km south of Otavalo (take a taxi). It was very quiet and peaceful here; lots of greenery and great views down the valley. For $12 per person we had a really nice room with our own fireplace that they lit for us in the cool evening. From La Luna we took a taxi to Laguna Mojanda and hiked up Fuya Fuya.

We chose not to visit the coast or the jungle since that would have meant taking malaria medication (and we had enough to do anyway). But we did enjoy visiting the cloud forest. We stayed at Septimo Paraiso, a few kilometers outside Mindo in a private 300 hectare reserve. It was pricey at $100 per person, but at least that included three meals per day. The hotel hired a guide for us for one day for $50. He was great - we wouldn't have seen anywhere near as many birds without him.

There's not much in Mindo itself. The small butterfly farm is worth a visit if you have time. We had coffee and lunch at Caskaffesu. It also looked like a nice place to stay, at least from the outside.

It was easy to get around on the buses and very cheap (a dollar or two). Occasionally they can get crowded but usually they were comfortable. In most cases all you have to do is get to the terminal and say where you want to go and someone will point you to the right bus. (Usually you just pay on the bus - you don't need to buy a ticket in advance.) The only time we had trouble was getting to Mindo and that was because the guide book was out of date and talked about a bus terminal that no longer existed.

Galapagos

There are a lot of companies offering boat trips in Galapagos. It's really the only way to visit most of the islands, which is important because they all have different wildlife. We ended up booking with Ecoventura on a 20 passenger boat with two naturalist guides. Not having experience with anyone else we can't say how they compare but we were certainly happy with our experience. The boat was nice, the food was great, they filled our days with activities, and we got lots of chances to snorkel (which suited us). They're not the cheapest, but they're not the most expensive either. It cost us $2675 each for a 7 night cruise (everything included except alcohol). From what we saw of them, I wouldn't want to go on one of the big 100 passenger ships.

Unlike most cruise clients we chose to stay an extra night on Santa Cruz before the cruise and three nights afterwards. We stayed at Hotel Sol y Mar which we'd recommend. The other place that looked good (from eating in the restaurant) was the Red Mangrove Inn. The Finch Bay Hotel looked nice but it's pretty isolated - you have to take a water taxi to get there. For a nice meal we really like the Angermeyer Point restaurant. Living so far away from the ocean, I like to sleep and eat near the beach if I can!

Books

Before the trip we enjoyed browsing through the Insight Guide for Ecuador & Galapagos with lots of pictures and background information. During the trip the Lonely Planet Ecuador & the Galapagos Islands was more useful with its lists of hotels and restaurants.

Before the trip I enjoyed: Galapagos Diary, Galapagos: The Islands that Changed the World, and the Traveller' Wildlife Guide for Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands. On the trip we carried Lonely Planet's Watching Wildlife: Galapagos Islands and the Pocket Naturalist Guide to Galapagos Wildlife. We could have used a better guide to the fish and other underwater wildlife.

For an interesting look at the human side of Galapagos, I enjoyed Plundering Paradise. I also liked Lonesome George.

For climbing we used Ecuador: A Climbing Guide.

For help with the language we carried Lonely Planet's Latin American Spanish Phrasebook.

Ecuador Photography Notes

For cameras we carried the Canon SD700 IS and the new Pentax K10D with the Tamron 18 - 250mm lens (equivalent to 27 - 375mm, almost 14x).

This was the first trip I'd taken the big SLR. The weight and size were certainly a change from the Canon S3 IS. It also seemed more awkward and take longer to get it out and put it away, but maybe I'll get used to that. I really enjoyed the lack of shutter lag. You wouldn't think it would make that much difference but it was great. The only time there was a delay was when the auto-focus was having trouble and it would refuse to shoot. (e.g. when trying to follow birds in flight) There is a setting so it shoots even if it hasn't got focus which might be ok if you had enough depth of focus.

I don't think the image stabilization on the K10 is quite as good as the S3. That might be because the S3 is optical. But I still think it's valuable, especially with the long telephoto.

The 27mm wide end of the Tamron lens was wider than I'm used to. I actually found myself using it quite a bit to take in large scenes.

One of the reasons I wanted an SLR was for the manual focus. Especially in the forest, automatic focus can be tricky. I fought with the S3 quite a lot trying to get it to focus on what I wanted. For closeups with the K10 I often set the focus to the minimum distance and then moved the camera in and out to focus (e.g. for insects).

I didn't carry a tripod or a monopod. There were lots of times when it would have helped but I'm not (yet) motivated enough to lug one around.

I shot raw with the K10 in DNG format. This results in image files of about 16mb each. That meant about 240 shots per 4gb SD card. I brought four 4 gb cards, which seemed like a lot, but I filled up a card many days, and some days more than one card. In comparison, the SD700 jpeg's are only about 3mb each so memory was much less of an issue.

One of the reasons to shoot raw is to have more latitude in "developing" the photos. So far I haven't noticed a huge difference, but I haven't done side by side comparisons either.

I knew I wouldn't have enough memory for the whole trip so I took my MacBook and downloaded periodically. Since I was reusing the memory cards this still left me with only one copy of the photos - not so good if the laptop was stolen or crashed - so I burnt dvd's as well. I took 10 blank dvd's thinking 40 gb of storage would be lots, but I ended up having to buy more blank dvd's and ended up with 14 in total. We shot about 4100 photos in a month. That seems like a lot, but with digital there's no reason not to shoot lots and have a better chance of getting something decent. The only downside is that you have to look through all those photos but with good tools like Lightroom that's not too bad.

This system worked reasonably well, but burning dvd's is slow and the dvd's themselves are somewhat fragile. Next time I think I'll try taking an external USB hard drive and backing up to that. Lightroom will even do the backup automatically as it imports the photos, saving a step.

Another option would be to use something like the Epson P-5000 Photo Viewer 80GB Digital Photo Storage Viewer. But that still wouldn't give me a backup unless I used it as well as the laptop, but that would mean downloading the photos twice.

Although it's a nuisance to carry and charge the laptop, it was great to be able to look at the photos on a good screen and to have Lightroom to do sorting and minor tweaks and then upload to the web (using the Picasa Lightroom plugin).

It's a little scary carrying around thousands of dollars worth of cameras and computer. I guess that's what insurance is for!

I used the waterproof case for the SD700 IS for snorkeling and diving. Near the end of the trip it started to leak while we were snorkeling. Luckily only a few drops of water got in and the camera was ok. If it had leaked while diving I would guess that would be the end of the camera. I assume I just need to replace the main o-ring seal but I'll have to test it since it could be one of the smaller seals on the controls, which I don't think are replaceable. I'm hoping I get the replacement o-ring from Canon's service department before I head to Baja in March.

Adventurous Couples

Check out WestJet's in-flight Up magazine article on "adventurous couples". Shelley and I are on the last page.

One funny part of this was that we were contacted by a local photographer who had been assigned to take pictures of us doing "our sport". When we told him our sport was mountain climbing he understood why that might be difficult in Saskatoon! Besides, we were leaving right away for a trip to the mountains. This worked out well since they got a photographer from Calgary who met us out in Kananaskis and we got some pictures in the mountains.

Ecuador 2008 Part 5 - Galapagos

(Shelley's writing this again while Andrew deals with the pictures)

We flew out to Galapagos a day ahead of the rest of our group -- despite resistance from our tour company. They wanted to herd everyone together -- we wanted to get our bearings and arrange some diving for Andrew when we were done the cruise. Our hotel, Sol y Mar, was right on the water, the deck and room balconies were colorful with bright yellow and blue chairs. There's a pool on the deck area and when we checked in we were told not to panic if the neighborhood sea lion jumped in the pool with us! As we sat on the deck the sea lion was there along with a few marine iguanas, pelicans and great blue herons. We saw our first blue footed boobie on the roof of the dining area and the hotel also has a resident pelican with only one wing. He still seems to have a pretty good life here! (Although he has to hop up the steps to get from the water to the deck.)

Anyway, back to the cruise -- Andrew and I don't "herd" very well as you can imagine, nor are we the big group type of sociable people. In fact, we were going into this part of the adventure with great trepidation. So far the tour groups we'd seen had either been high school age teens on school trips or filled with people considerably older than us and each seemed to have at least one loud opinionated person who would have driven us crazy by the end of a full day with them.

We were very pleasantly surprised to find a wide range of ages and nationalities in our group, and everyone seemed to be quite fit. All had traveled quite extensively so it was fun to hear about places they'd been to. There were 20 of us ranging in age from 11 to, I'm guessing, 60's. Of the twenty of us, six were Swiss, four from England, six Americans, and four were Canadian (the other two were from Vancouver and related to and traveling with one of the Swiss couples). The 11 year old, Isaac, at first reminded me a bit of Andrew. Skinny, dark hair, he was traveling with his Dad and his favorite subjects in school are science and reading. Within the first hour on the boat the two of them were engaged in a game of checkers. Although I'm sure Andrew probably wasn't (isn't!) as outgoing - Isaac provided us with much entertainment throughout the week!

We had nine crew members plus our two naturalist guides, Janet and Paul -- both Ecuadorians who spoke quite good English. The nine crew seemed a bit excessive at first but when you consider three meals a day for 20 people, transporting us on and off the various islands, boat maintenance, and night shifts when we traveled from one island to another, it's understandable.

The boat we were on was called Flamingo I. The company, Ecoventura, has three similar boats and all three were more or less on the same schedule. When we first started searching the Internet for cruises it was almost mind boggling the number of different companies there are. We narrowed it down based on their eco-friendliness and then Ecoventura was the one that had room for us at a price we could handle. We also lucked out with a really good schedule. The Park Service dictates who goes where and when -- we had a good route and also seemed to be the first ones off at each location we went to. There were usually three or four other boats with us, including the two other Ecoventura boats.

Sunday -- We started the trip near Baltra, where the airport is. Buses took us to the dock where the boats were waiting and we rode by panga (zodiacs) to the boat. The two pangas stayed with the boat all week (being winched up and secured to the side when not transporting us on and off the islands). The seating in the waiting area of the dock was already occupied by sleeping sea lions! Once on the boat, it took a while for us to get going as they gave us plenty of time to get unpacked, have a briefing, have a safety drill, etc. Our first stop was a small island called Mosquera where there were lots of sea lions. Some very big males which got quite irritated when people got too close, and smaller ones still suckling on their moms. Also a few marine iguana and different types of birds. It was very hot and absolutely no shade!

Each night before supper either Janet or Paul would give us a briefing about what we were doing the next day. Sitting still for an hour as the boat rocked seemed to make both Andrew and I a little queasy by the time supper was served. Andrew missed two meals during the week and I only picked at mine the first few days.

Monday -- Overnight we traveled to Genovesa Island which is quite far north. This island is one of only two where the red footed boobie lives. In the morning we went to Darwin's Bar and toured around for a bit. Saw lots of the red footed boobies and their babies. The babies are quite funny because they look like furry little puff balls. As they get older they look almost as big as the adults only have this mess of fuzz instead of proper feathers. We also saw quite a few frigates with the red front but it wasn't puffed out like it will be in March during mating season. We snorkeled off the beach and the visibility wasn't great but still saw lots of fish and Andrew and a few others saw a small shark about 4-5 feet long.

In the afternoon we moved to another area of Genovesa called Prince Philips Steps -- after none other than Prince Philip who visited a few years ago. This area of the island is quite rocky with black lava and therefore very hot. Again, no shade! Lots more baby boobies with the parents taking turns providing shade for them. They move their throats really fast to cool themselves off. The highlight was finding an owl near the end -- this area is known for them so we were looking the whole time and finally found one under an overhang in a fissure of the lava.

Of course I couldn't take any longer than the second day to sunburn myself! Even though I put sunscreen on twice, my arms got fried. Not many people escaped some sort of redness either on arms or legs. [Andrew - Some of us wore long sleeves and long pants, despite the heat!]

Tuesday -- We went to Fernandino Island and landed at Espinosa Point. This is the island known for marine iguanas and flightless cormorants. It's the youngest of the islands (about 700,000 years old) so again lots of hot black lava. Thank goodness for a bit of breeze off the water! The cormorants have huge webbed feet. The iguanas blend in quite well with the lava so you have to be careful not to step on them! As we stood looking at the cormorants I suddenly realized there were literally hundreds of iguanas on the rock right beside us!

In the afternoon we moved to Isabela Island, Tagus Cove. We snorkeled from the pangas but the water was really cold and rough so we didn't see a whole lot due to the murky water. The new and interesting animal here was the penguins. Very small and not as many as we thought there would be but many of the penguins died in the warmer water during el Nino in 1996-97. It was still pretty cool to see them sitting on the rocks and have them zip by you in the water.

After a quick look at Darwin Lake and a panga ride around the Cove to get a closer look at the penguins and other birds on the rocks we were off again!

Wednesday -- At Santiago Island, Egas Port, we started the day with a short walk to see the tide pools where the fur sea lions hang out. (All the sea lions we had seen up to now were Galapagos sea lions.) We then got to snorkel off the beach and today the snorkeling was absolutely amazing!!! Within a couple minutes of being in the water Andrew spotted a sea turtle. He kept telling me to come over to where he was, but I was enthralled with the sea turtle that I'd spotted! Then all of a sudden there were five within sight. We followed them for ages and they let us get really close and touch their shells. It was so cool!

Then we saw two big octopus that looked like they were fighting it out, all wrapped together and turning this way and that. Either fighting or having sex! There were also a few big sting rays sitting on the bottom. And this doesn't even begin to cover the abundant, big and beautiful fish.

As we came back toward the shore, the sea lions had to get their share of the attention as well. They were so playful! Swimming all around us, coming right at us and then darting away, hamming it up for the camera. I kept getting water in my mask because I was laughing at them! It was great fun!

The only really annoying thing is that Andrew had handed me the underwater camera shortly before the sea lions and I thought it was already on. Turns out it wasn't and all the "photos" I took of the sea lions didn't exist! I was more than a little angry at myself!! Oh well.

We got back on the boat for a three hour ride to Bartolome Island and part way through the captain called us all to the sun deck to see the dolphins. He circled around for quite some time and it was fabulous to see all the dolphins jumping in and out of the water and following the boat around and around.

It was about this time that I was playing a game with Isaac to help pass the time and he said to me "You sure say 'eh' a lot." I told him that's how we talk in Canada. He wanted to know if it was pronounced eh, (as a statement) or eh? (as a question) so I explained the fine art of how to say 'eh' in Canada. He said if you live in Texas you have to learn how to say y'all. From then on it was a challenge to use the words eh and y'all in the same sentence. Hilarious!

We snorkeled again in the afternoon and although the visibility wasn't as good we still saw lots -- a shark about 5 feet long, the most humungous starfish we've ever seen including a chocolate chip star fish (they're yellow with brown spots that look like chocolate chips), sting rays and schools of hundreds of smaller fish.

Then we climbed the "mountain" -- which actually had stairs all the way to the top -- and got great views of Pinnacle Rock which is the view you see on most postcards or photos advertising Galapagos and was the site of the Galapagos scenes in the movie "Master and Commander" starring Russell Crowe.

Thursday -- Back at Santa Cruz Island today and Andrew and Martin, one of the other guys from our boat, went diving while the rest of us when to Rancho Primiso where the giant tortoises roam in the wild (along with all the tourists). It was extremely hot and again very little shade but it was cool to the see these huge beasts!

Then it was off to the lava tunnels (huge underground tunnels causes by lava flows a million or so years ago) and to Los Gemelos, the twin craters.

In the afternoon we went to the Charles Darwin Research Station where Lonesome George and Super Diego reside. George is the last of his species. They've been trying for years to get him to mate with one of the female turtles of a similar species but George isn't interested. On the other hand, Diego's species were almost wiped out in Galapagos so they brought him from the San Diego zoo to try to revive the species. And he's been so active (resulting in literally thousands of babies) that now they call him Super Diego.

The thing I really didn't like about today was the feeling of being one of the masses of tourists. Bus loads being herded here and herded there; look at this, look at that; get back on the bus, go to another location and do it again. Ugh.

[Andrew - The diving was great - saw Hammerhead and Black-tipped sharks, Spotted Eagle Rays, Manta Rays, turtles, and lots of fish. Although Martin and I had similar experience, he got put in the experienced group and I got put in the beginner group. We think when he said "fifteen dives" they heard "fifty" and when I said "fourteen" they heard "four"! I'd call myself a beginner but the other people in my group had no dives other than their courses. They ended up having a fair bit of difficulty and I wasted part of each dive sitting on the bottom keeping an eye on people while the guide sorted out the problems.]

Friday -- Very rough seas last night! When I asked Andrew how he survived the night . . . turns out he hadn't even noticed how rough it was and slept right through it. Typical!

At Isla Espanola we snorkeled most of the morning from the very beautiful white sand beach of Gardner Bay. In the afternoon we went to Punta Suarez for a very rocky hike. Here the iguanas are much more colorful -- bright green and red and are nicknamed Christmas iguanas. There were some great blow holes near the shore (water shooting up high through holes in the rocks due to the waves crashing against the shore) and some really beautiful birds flying around. The white tailed tropic birds were everyone's favorites.

When we got back to the boat we had time to go for a quick swim. A few people, instigated by Isaac, jumped off the sun deck of the boat. It's a big jump! I took the wimpy route down the ladder.

Saturday -- San Cristobal Island today, landing at Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, the capital city of Galapagos (although not as big or as touristy as Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz). This is where the cruise was supposed to start but the airport here is closed for renovations so all flights go into Baltra and that's where the cruises are starting from. We stopped at the Interpretation Center before heading inland to La Galapaguera, where they are trying to reintroduce the giant tortoises to the south part of the island. We had a bit of time to wander in town for a bit before heading back to the boat and moving on to Ochoa Beach for our last snorkeling of the cruise. Saw another octopus really close up. Huge eye! There were a few sea lions as well but one big male patrolling the shallow waters near shore so we didn't dare play with them too much.

We cruised past Kicker or "sleeping lion" rock which is supposed to look like a sleeping African lion and most other people managed to figure it out but I just didn't see it.

We had a really awesome final supper of jumbo prawns. We sat with Isaac and his dad, Jeff, this night but unfortunately this was one of Andrew's nauseous non-supper nights so he didn't last long. Isaac abandoned us soon after as he was grossed out by the entire prawn (head & eyes included) starring up at him from the plate. He did come back for dessert though!

Sunday -- We were up early and the staff almost kicked us off the boat! Well, they let us have breakfast first. They had to get ready for the next crew of people who would be starting their cruise later that morning/afternoon. Everyone else was heading back to Quito or Guayaquil but Andrew and I headed back to Sol y Mar in Puerto Ayora. We couldn't check in till noon so we left our bags and went back to the Charles Darwin Center for Andrew to have a look around. Much nicer this time with only us and a couple other families. And we got a much better view of Lonesome George. He was out in the open and when the big arm of a cactus came crashing down to the ground he lifted up his head to have a good look around and try to figure out what was happening.

Monday -- Andrew had diving lined up again today but it didn't happen. They had canceled because not enough people had signed up and another company we tried had a full load already. He was still feeling a little queasy and had been debating whether or not to go so the decision was taken out of his hands. We wandered some of the back streets while it was still cool (relatively speaking). Some really nice streets with bougainvillea and hibiscus and other colorful plants lining the walls and sidewalks. We spent the rest of the morning on the hotel deck, lazily reading our books, napping, and being amused by the antics of the iguanas, pelicans and herons.

Tuesday -- After breakfast we took a water taxi to Angermeyer Point and walked to Los Greitas for snorkeling. It was a small grotto area which had extremely cold water! but by far the clearest we'd been in. It was quite deep and we could see right down to the bottom. It was incredible with the sun rays shining down through the water and the big, brightly colored parrot fish. The best part was that we had the place to ourselves for a short time. In the afternoon we went to yet another snorkeling area, Garrapatera beach, where the water was shallow and incredibly warm! Funny how it differs so dramatically from one place to another.

Since it was our last night in Galapagos we went to the fancy Angermeyer Point restaurant for supper. The most entertaining part was the little geckos that were scrambling around the deck railings. [Andrew - I'd been looking for the geckos but this was the first and only time we saw them.] As we were eating dessert one of them got brave and crawled onto the table. He seemed to really enjoy licking some spilled fruit from dessert! We were passing the camera back and forth between us and the gecko didn't budge from his spot! Then he got even braver and climbed up onto the plate. I refused to let him get to the brownie before we did. We were exclaiming over him and pointing at the plate -- the staff came over to see what was wrong. They laughed but I'm sure they thought we were crazy!

As we walked down to the dock to leave we saw a lava heron with something in its beak. We thought it had caught a fish but upon closer inspection it was a gecko! The poor little thing put up a good fight but didn't last long before the heron gulped it down.

Wednesday and Thursday -- airports and airplanes. Flying back to Quito and then home. What a great trip we've had! [Andrew - Some excitement when the plane stopped in Guayaquil and was greeted by a fire truck and guys in full silver fire suits. Some of the passengers had seen flames coming from the wing! But after a few minutes the firemen left and we continued on in the same plane! Somehow I think it might have been taken more seriously in Canada or the US!]

Friday - Minus 22 C this morning in Saskatoon and I have to admit that I grumbled a bit as I put on my long underwear for the ½ hour walk to work. But then, when I got to the riverbank trail just 3 blocks from home and briskly headed toward downtown, I suddenly looked up and took in the view, breathed in the cold crisp air and thought “This is so awesome!!!” It's wonderful to be home! [Andrew - but Shelley conveniently managed to avoid the walk home with the wind-chill at something like -50!]



As usual, click on the slideshow to get a bigger version.

Ecuador 2008 Part 4 - Galapagos

We just got back from a 7 night boat cruise around the Galapagos islands. This was the first "organized" trip that we´ve gone on and we were a bit concerned about what kind of group we´d be stuck with, and whether it would be organized to our liking. But it´s really the only way to see Galapagos so we took a chance. Thankfully it turned out really well. We had a great group of mostly like minded people and our guides and boat crew were excellent. It´s been very hot - hiking on bare lava in the glaring sun is enough to roast even a heat loving person. Of course, I doubt we´ll get much sympathy from those of you left at home in the Saskatchewan winter!

We´ll add more detail and photos when we get a chance, but I will say that we were definitely not disappointed. Despite the problems it has had, Galapagos is still an amazing place. Where else do you have marine iguanas, great blue herons, blue footed boobies (yes, that´s a real bird), and sea lions sharing the deck of your hotel, and that´s in town! We saw an incredible variety of birds, reptiles, fish, etc. The snorkeling was great - a "bad" snorkel might only include sting rays, sea turtles, sea lions, and a zillion tropical fish.

Nonetheless, we are glad to be off the boat. The weather was good and the water was relatively calm, but we both were vaguely sea sick quite a bit. Two nights I had to skip supper because I was on the verge of losing my lunch. And the worst part is that reading is pretty much out of the question, which led to serious withdrawal on both our parts!