Pleasures of Autumn

Nothing much to report from Bonaire, except that my stay was shorter than planned. Without going into details, I returned to Estonia to take care of some family things. Nothing bad happened, so no need for concern, just had to return (for a few weeks).

So, is the Trip over? I hope not, Buenos Aires is still on for end of November, or possibly some other destination. At the moment enjoying the seasons of Northern Europe - actually nice to have four seasons rather than just a dry and wet period. Wouldn't mind a few extra degrees however, first time during the Trip that I am ill - and it's a typical cold.

Not sure if I will continue the blog while in Estonia, but definitely more stories from the next destination coming up in about 3-4 weeks time. Until then.

Galapagos Islands

Time to write a few lines about Galapagos. Well, I think the highlights from the last entry still hold, even after being here for a week. This is the place for wildlife. We´ve been on a couple of day trips to some of the closer islands and so far done 7 dives. What follows is basically about nature - interesting that 6 months ago, I would never have imagined I´ll be writing enthusiastically about nature.

The islands we saw were Bartolome and North Seymore in addition to Santa Cruz where we´ve been based.

To start off with Santa Cruz, there are some huge tortoises, maybe 300-400kg, basically just roaming around on the island, sometimes blocking some of the smaller roads. I really like these guys, for some reason turtles in general have been a favourite since childhood. These giant ones are amazing to watch - grazing on the fields, usually not being bothered by most anything. At most they'll make a loud hiss and retract the head into the shell if approached closer than 50cm.

The reason they're so huge is called gigantism, basically occurs when an animal doesn't have any natural enemies and there is no competition for food. Tortoises were used for food by sailors in the past, as they can live about a year turned on their backs and are a good source of fat and proteins for humans. This type of hunting is the principle reason why some of the species (different species on each island pretty much, as they are isolated from each other) are extinct or close to extinct. A good example of this is Lonesome George who is kept in the Darwin research station - he's the last specimen of the Pinta tortoise, about 80 years old (possible another 80 to go) and short of cloning will be the last of his species. They keep two females of a closely related species in his area for his entertainment, but he's not been particularly interested for the last decade. There's still a $10,000 award for anyone who can find a female Pinta...

Also on Santa Cruz are a few lava tunnels, I climbed through one yesterday - about 500m long, as low as 70cm in one place, but most of the time a very wide tunnel. Formed by water trapped in lava, the water then vaporised after the lava cooled down. Also a couple of huge craters, called The Brothers formed by collapsing land, also caused by volcanic activity (as most land formations here). There are also many pelicans, frigatbirds, boobies, sea lions, water iguanas etc in the wild and by the harbours.

Bartolome was a very different island, made up from volcanic rock, it's not a particularly good place for stuff to grow. There are some plants that have made it though. The ecosystem is pretty simple with the few plants being eaten by grasshoppers, who in turn get eaten by lava lizards, and water iguanas and snakes who eat the lizards. Been like this for ages and looks like it will stay pretty much like this unless someone brings a cat or dog who will eat the iguanas (this has happened on some of the other islands). What was cool on Bartolome is that it is very clearly a volcano, craters still visible and the 'rocks' are full of bubbles. Snorkeling off of Bartolome we also saw some Galapagos penguins swimming - about 50%-70% of the penguins will likely die from starvation during El Nino later this year (happens every 4-5 years). Been like this for centuries, so global warming fortunately not to blame for this one.

North Seymore, again, very different from the other islands we saw. This one is covered by birds - mostly frigattes. The males blow up a large red balloon under the beak to attract females. Lots and lots of nests everywhere. The eating habits of frigattes are pretty interesting, basically they steal from other birds. The most usual victim are the blue-footed boobies, a smaller bird with bright blue feet and a really stupid look. Basically what happens is that the booby dives into the ocean and catches and swallows a fish. A frigatte will then catch the booby by its feet in the air and shake until the fish is regurgitated. There are also plenty of gulls on the island. In addition of course sea lions (they are everywhere, it seems), crabs, etc. However, perhaps the coolest animal on North Seymore is the land iguana. Colorful big lizards (up to 1.20m) with an enigmatic smile, saw quite a few of them walking around.

So, this much about what can be seen above the water (and I feel like a nature journalist already).
We have also done a bit of diving here with Iguana Diving. Managed to get certified on an advanced level, despite remaining a complete novice. First thing we noticed is that diving here is very different from Fernando de Noronha, because the water is cold - despite being on the equator, the weather here is sub-tropical because of the currents. Thermoclines, where really cold water meets warmer water and forms a shimmering wall, are common. Finally the currents themselves make diving slightly different (read: holding on to rocks for dear life with regulator and mask being almost pulled of by the water movement in some cases).

I'll not delve into all the dives here but write a bit about the three most memorable ones: deep dive to 36 meters, a night dive and Gordon's Rocks.

The deep dive was necessary to get the new certification and it was also the first dive with our instructor here - Claudia, a very good diver and cool person on top, was a pleasure to spend time with her. We had learned a bit about theory of deep dives, etc before the dive. Basically below 30 meters some colors are not visible (red turns brown for instance), you may be affected by nitrogen narcosis (like being drunk) and air and energy are consumed much faster. The dive is memorable, because it is the only time so far that I felt really vulnerable in the water. Basically when we got down to a sandy hill at 35 meters depth and started doing the exercises we noticed a downward current in the water. This is pretty bad and very unusual, Claudia later explained. I also had narcosis and spent an unreasonable time laughing at a bat-fish (a weird bat-like underwater creature). So we decided to ascend, fighting the current (no other choice really...) which is where overexertion kicked in. Basically you feel very tired, completely out of breath trying to pull more air in via the regulator with a feeling of suffocation. Also the knowledge of not being able to get to the surface was a weird feeling. Anyway the only thing to do is to remain calm, stop all activity, hold on to rocks and rest, which I eventually managed to do. Very memorable dive however, definitely taught me a lot (Veiko had a similar experience) - also the feeling when getting out of the water - can't remember when I last felt so utterly tired...

The night dive was amazing due to the obvious difference that the water is pitch black. Also different animals to be seen underwater. Sleeping huge green turtles, one woken up by our flashlights and slowly swimming away. Lobsters are active, many sea cucumbers as well. We turned off the flashlights at one point to see the fluorescent algae - like a starlit sky, but 10cm away. And - lots and lots of rays of different kinds (diamond, sting, and some others) swimming around somewhat drowsily.

The third dive site worth mentioning is Gordon's Rocks. This one is a bit more advanced due to currents and surge, but since Claudia recommended me to the divemaster I could go along despite lacking a little experience (Veiko was heading back the same day, so couldn't make it). Well, there was currents and surge - pretty difficult conditions and not too great visibility. However, saw what everyone who comes to Gordon's Rocks comes for - the hammerhead shark, and a big one, about 4-5 meters long. Amazing creature. Also golden rays that swam with Jose and me for about 7-8 minutes, green turtles (two mating ones - or "happy turtles" as the guides call them), sea lions playing with the divers, morays, parrot fish and many other types of fish.

Overall diving's been great here. My personal favourites are (guess!) - turtles and rays. Didn't see a manta ray yet though. Sea lions are also cool, very curious animals, biting the fins of divers and playing - blowing bubbles etc. Sea lions are playful - they are known to catch water iguanas by the tail and use them as a ball, throwing the poor iguana to each other. Would like to see this, but haven't so far.

You also meet interesting people when diving, it's been good to get to know Claudia, Pablo and Jose from Iguana Diving. Also met a cool married couple from Slovenia - Bostjan and Barbara, they're in their second year of travels and have been to many (diving) places all over the world (and still ranked Gordon's Rocks in the top five!) and provided a lot of inspiration regarding diving, traveling, life - lots of discussions during one dive trip together and over drinks later. The question is how to have sufficient means and sufficient free time - basically freedom. Can see how to achieve each separately, will need to figure out a way to combine the two :)

That's pretty much it from Galapagos for now. Tomorrow is election day (seems like we're following elections across South America), so no alcoholic beverages sold for a few days and annoying propaganda trucks driving around with loud recorded messages. Looks like Rafael Correa is the most likely new president - something of a mini-Chavez, but quite popular here. Lots of poverty and huge differences between the rich and poor probably go a long way in explaining this rather sad fact.

Heading to Quito on Sunday and on the Bonaire on Monday. Will report more from there and in the mean time will try to add some pictures (connection here is too slow).

Change of plans, arriving on Galapagos

Some news regarding future travel plans. Things have changed somewhat over the last few days, as Veiko unfortunately will return to Estonia next week due to family reasons. Really sad to be without such a good travel buddy, but he´s made the right decision in the circumstances. Will be missed though...

At the moment we´re on Galapagos, but Veiko´s flying back on the 12th, so I´ve been contemplating what to do after his departure and think I´ve figured out an initial plan.

The new masterplan contains a slight change of focus away from South America. Rather than travelling on my own in Venezuela or Columbia, I´ll invest some more time in my new hobby - diving - in the Caribbean. Specifically I will go to Bonair in the Dutch Caribbean just north of Venezuela. The place has several attractions, one of the better places for diving in the Caribbean, and also a good spot for kite-surfing, which is something I´d like to learn as well. I´ll stay there until beginning of November and then potentially cut the trip roughly a month short compared to the the original plan and head back to Europe.

One thing that has been especially anticipated, however, is Spring in Buenos Aires (end of November onwards, or so), perhaps it will still be possible to make it there somehow, but more on this to follow later on. However, Venezuela, Peru, Bolivia and Southern Ecuador are for the time being out of the picture, but hopefully some sunny day...

---- Back to the Trip:

The beginning of the week was spent in Quito, the initial grand plan for Spanish courses did not materialise, instead a lot of time spent in Internet cafes for research and organising the trip to Galapagos. Also, as you may have read in the previous entry, there is no air in Quito. This continued to be the case for the week. Additionally the lack of air means hangovers are bad, really bad.

Eventually after a lot of time spent in Internet cafes and travel agencies we went for a short trip to the Otavalo market a few hours from Quito. Lots of handicraft, ponchos, pipes, hats, jade figures, textiles, etc. Some very nice things, and prices much lower compared to what we are used to. I got a few souvenirs, Veiko did the same and also a poncho - true, will be cold in Estonia soon...

On our last night in Quito we went to dinner with the honorary ambassador of Estonia in Ecuador (and Cuba and Peru). Dr. Gustavo Ponce and his wife were great company and we found out a lot more about Ecuador. Also about Estonians in Ecuador. Not too many of them here, but some students and a few tourists have been in prison for drug offences (many foreigners caught - penalties harsh, with 12 years typical). Prisons are not too bad however, as the Estonians have chosen to serve the time there rather than back home - some get married and stay (they only spend the night in jail, free to wander during days. Believe similar system in Sweden). Dr Ponce invited us to their family´s country house in the Ecuadorian jungle, but unfortunately we had already planned Galapagos - however, if opportunity should arise and I´ll be back in Ecuador I will remember the invitation. It sounded like a really nice place, with plantations, jungle, lakes etc. Very nice of Dr. Ponce to find time to meet with two random travellers!

On to Galapagos on Friday. As the currency in Ecuador is USD, we had used up our emergency USD cash on living, not bothering to go to an ATM before necessary. This proved to be a mistake, as on they day we were headed to Galapagos, no ATM would accept any of the 7-8 cards we have with us between the two. So with the prospect of arriving with about USD15 (and banks closed for a long weekend) after the tourist tax, we boarded the plane. Things soon turned out for the better however - the ATM on the island worked. Viva Banco del Pacifico! Phew...

I´ll not write a lot about the islands today - just a few first impressions. And the very first impressions are absolutely fantastic - the wild life here is amazing. Animals have no fear of humans, as there are few natural predators. It is possible to observe birds, reptiles, sea lions, etc on a really very close distance.

A few points I thought are especially interesting about Galapagos:

1) It´s 1000km from the nearest coast, and the islands are relatively spread out with several hours boat trip between them
2) Oceanic volcanic group of islands - so all flora and fauna has come "by accident"
3) This has yielded a very interesting spot from an evolutionary point of view. Relatively few species, no mammal predators. Most famous probably for tortoises and turtles (this is where the name comes from), water iguanas, albatrosses, blue-footed boobies, etc, etc
4) Animals don´t fear humans and basically ignore you most of the time - incredible and great opportunity to observe
5) Many of the species exist only here
6) Important place for Darwin in formulating his theory on evolution (Darwin´s finches etc)
7) Slightly more active place than Fernando de Noronha. About 10,000 people in the largest village

So far one day spent here and already very happy we came. Some tours and diving to look forward to, will tell you more after these.

Photos added

Added photos to the posts from Fernando de Noronha and onwards - check them out. For even more pics have a look at Veikos posts at www.raiminsoam.blogspot.com

Second thoughts on Amazon, arriving in Quito

Time to summarise the week Amazon rain forest, some first impressions are also in the previous entry.

Firstly about the lodge - have to praise the owner Jacques: he's building a nice place out there (still adding to it), in the middle of the rain forest. Conquering the jungle is not easy, but he has done a nice job and put together a meaningful program for visitors. Also good food, friendly personnel, things happen most of the time when they are supposed to happen etc. The guides are also a lot of fun, experienced in the forest and speak good English, in addition to several more languages each. Our main guide Kristoffo and Joseph were both a pleasure to be around and very funny. We had lunch in Joseph´s house one day - he lives on the Urube river with his wife and four kids, as well as some chickens, parrots (like the one in the picture - very friendly and curious birds, we had one in the lodge as well, called Laura) and a couple of dogs. It is about an hour from the nearest village. During lunch the "school boat" arrived bringing his two oldest kids back from the day in school - different from any other school transportation system. We had a lot´s of fun with Kristoffo and Joseph.

The days following our walk (and getting lost in the forest) were mostly spent on the various rivers surrounding the lodge, but also visited a local village with about 600 families living there. Simple hospital, school (9 grades) a lot of posters again for the upcoming elections. We saw two churches of the 5 in the village - one catholic and one protestant, but Kristoffo claimed the people are not very religious, because the church don´t approve of beer and partying. All houses, even the poorest-looking ones, have a satellite dish - even on the river, where electricity is generated on spot. The dish is pointed straight up, this is the equator after all.

Most of Wednesday and Thursday the Urube river, which is a black water river (there are three types. Black, which is acid (PH4), not very rich in sediments, white, which carries a lot of sediment flowing all the way from the Andes and thirdly clear water rivers).

The nice thing about Urube was that it is very close to the forest, indeed at times we were passing through it on water, with trees covered in water (and during rain season when the river is about 10 meters higher you literally are travelling on the forest). It is also possible to swim in this river unlike the Amazon, which is polluted and has some dangerous small fish that enter your body and eat from the inside and out. Another interesting thing was a rainbow that made a circle around the sun, no ground contact - never seen this before.

This black type of river is rich in fish and we did spend a lot of time fishing (no pole, just the line), catching two tucunares (one of the best fish for eating, pirarucu being the best one, they were about 7 and 5 kg) and piranhas. Actually saying 'we caught' is not entirely correct as Kristoffo caught the big fish and I managed to catch a piranha. I got close though, but cut myself fighting a big one (15kg at least!) and it got away into safety under some tree trunks. It's possible to actually lose your finger when fishing using just a line, so perhaps I was lucky. Using live bait, the main annoyance was that piranhas kept eating the bait - in about 10 minutes they could easily kill and eat half of the bait fish while avoiding being caught.

Guess which one I got!

Perhaps the highlight of the two days on the Urube was the night we spent at a local fisherman's floating house. His wife cooked some excellent tucunare, we slept in hammocks outside and didn't even notice the fishermen leaving the house at around 4am. Since we slept outside we could observe a large number of bats operating in total silence and with great precision (not wearing IPods, or else they'd be screwed).

The third river day we spent on a different black water river leading to the mighty Amazon. Before heading out though we saw a couple of fields being cleared up for agriculture (trees chopped down, then burned, producing a field that can be used for about 10 years, depending on which crop is grown), the fields we saw were used to grow pineapples, but bananas numerous other fruits and manioc are also grown (manioc is a type of root that is used for flour, basically the only source of carbohydrates in the rain forest cuisine).

Have to say - the Amazon river is powerful, more than 30 km wide, more than 3000km long and in some places more than 100 meters deep. It's a powerful natural phenomenon and does affect the surrounding forest and people a lot. For instance, it rises 6-12 meters in the wet season, covering trees and plains, feeding them with rich sediments for the next dry season. Our canoe was very small on this river. (No pictures because of the heavy rain.)

This time we had four more people join us (the fist couple of days just Veiko and myself). A very friendly couple from Chicago (nice to meet you, AJ and Daphne) and a couple of Belgians, Eveline and Steve. It was raining heavily in the morning, rain in the dry season is not very common but heavy when it occurs. There is not a lot of cover in the canoe so unlike our friends who had brought rain jackets Veiko and me used the opposite strategy of wearing as little as possible. Worked also but was a little cold. Still remember how hot the water in the river seemed when comparing to the temperature outside (I think it has to be around 30C in the river, given that's the temperature in the air year round).

After seeing the Amazon we headed back along the smaller river, changed into some dry clothes in another floating house, warmed up with coffee and cachaca (crazy Eastern Europeans in the opinion of our companions) had some lunch, got some garbage bags to use as isolation from rain (rain jackets sold out, so had to be pragmatic) and continued our trip. Saw a lot of dolphins (grey and pink), interesting and beautiful sight in a river... Of course some more fishing on this river as well, this time intentionally for piranhas - very aggressive fish. The best way to attract them is to splash in the water with the fishing pole, the bait is meat. Also spotted several birds, hawks, parrots, vultures, canaries... After dark Kristoffo caught a cayman (alligator) with his hands - pretty incredible, basically you blind it by pointing a torch at it and then push it and grab the jaws. It was a small one perhaps 60cm long and two years old, but there are many caymans in the river - their eyes glowing in clearly visible bright dark red when hit with light from a torch.

The night we spent in a jungle house about 2km from the lodge, to hear sounds of the night in the jungle, and they are different from daytime for sure. Since it had rained a lot during the day there were a lot of fogs around. These guys are loud! Also we had some of the cachaca we had bought after the rain after the rain and had a few drinks in the dark jungle with AJ and Steve - lots of discussion about US politics, none of the Americans we've met so far like Bush (guess the other half of US don´t travel or don´t publicly proclaim their political views), and AJ was as fierce an opponent to him as any I've met. But quite an interesting discussion, followed by another night in a hammock.

Next day was our day off, I spent it studying a little Spanish (last chance before Spanish-speaking environment) reading books about the rain forest, history of the colonisation and listening to music (you miss music if you only hear sounds of nature for almost a week). Very chilled out day. Completely out of the blue I spotted two toucans just by our house - they were around for about 10 minutes, so got a few pictures as well. Possibly the highlight of the day - don't have to venture deep into the forest when sometimes it helps just being a little lucky.

Sunday a quick tour of Manaus (which was one of the riches cities in the world during the rubber boom, before vulcanisation was invented and large rubber plantations common in Asia and elsewhere). We also saw the meeting of the rivers where Rio Negro and Solimoes meet to form the Amazon. Negro is black and Solimoes is white, because of different temperatures, composition and weight the rivers don't mix immediately, but run parallel for about 6 km. Quite a sight - multicolored river. Sunday was also election day in Brazil and it's a pretty big deal there - voting is mandatory with fines and prohibitions of running a business and even travelling for those who fail to vote. Turnout is in the high 90s, most places are closed on the day, public transport is free etc. The Americans though a similar system might benefit their country, while the Belgians saw nothing strange in it - voting is mandatory also in Belgium.

Sunday was also Veiko's birthday, so we celebrated in Manaus international terminal. We very really hungry, alas the international departures area consists of two souvenir stands and a (initially closed - election day) snacks bar. We managed to convince one of the girls from the souvenir stand to get someone else to open the snacks bar. Beer and microwaved pizza haven't tasted this good for a long time!

Overall have to say that the Amazon was a worthwhile week, saw some animals, birds and met some good people - both local and other gringos. Still I think the jungle is a bit extreme in climate to be very enjoyable, but it is possible to get used to it and the rivers add a lot of variation so would definitely recommend visiting to friends who are into nature.

Eventually the flight took us to Panama, where the connecting flight was nine hours late, so we were taken to a hotel in town so we got to see a little of Panama City as well. Would actuallty not have minded staying longer - seemed like a nice city (possibly the only such city in Central America) and country, but couldn't change the tickets unfortunately. Picture showing some of the ships waiting to go through the channel as seen from the plane.

Arrived in Quito around 7 in the morning today, the air is really thin here (3,000m above sea level), but it seems like a friendly enough place. The plan is to hang around here for about a week, take some private lessons in Spanish (at $6 and hour it seems a bargain) and plan the next weeks of our trip. I'm quite tempted to head to Venezuela or even some Caribbean islands for some diving and more Spanish, but could potentially also end up going to the Galapagos islands off of the Ecuadorian coast if we find a good deal that fits with the schedule. The planned part of the trip is over for now - the next deadline is making it to Buenos Aires by the 20th November.

More to report in a few days - hasta luego!