January 10th

Log by Pamela Maynard

Horray for the Galapagos! Today I faced down giant tortoises, dipped my toes in the Ecuatorial Pacific and played conservationist for the day. The day started out at about 5 am when I was wakened by a rooster crowing his "goodmorning!" I so desperatly wanted to try to post pictures on the web that I seriously considered getting out of bed to try to get them up. The computer I as using had run out of battery but I wasn´t about to wake its owner to try to get the cord to plug it in. The desire to sleep won out, for a half an hour, anyway. :) I was out of bed by 5:30 and downstairs packed and ready to go by 6:20. Professor Carpenter wanted us up and ready and having eaten by 7:20 and I wanted to make sure I was on time! We all ate and piled into a bus to get to the airport. A guide sorted us out and got us through to the gate we needed and soon we were on our way! We rose up up and up to the top of the mountains to get out of the bowl that Quito sits in. We flew west and suddenly, the mountains dropped out from under us. We were so high in the sky! Soon we landed in Guyacil for and for about half an hour we filled out paperwork and got other passengers on. Eventually we were off again and finally on our way to the islands. The Pacific stretched out under us, dotted with cotton ball clouds and reflecting a beautiful blue. We landed in Baltra, a former US military base. The island is SO dry! Its much like southeastern Oregon , only with cacti and such instead of sagebrush. I thought it was quite unimpressive. The air was hot and muggy as we deplaned right onto the tarmack. Visitors (ie foreign travelers) went through one line while nationals went through the next. We wound our  way through, paid our $100 entry fee (ouch!!) and sat waiting for a bus and our checked luggage. The bus took us to a boat landing where we took a small passenger ferry over to the main island of Santa Cruz where Puerta Ayora is located. The ferry was so crowded! Several tour groups had arrived at the same time and so we were packed like sardines into the cabin. All our luggage was thrown precariously on top and more than a few of us wondered if it would topple off into the briney deep. We made it safely across to see a peculiar sight. The part of the island where we landed was covered in sandalwood trees. Their ghostly white forms littered the landscape, and their presence suggested that life was too tough even for them there on the island. Other plants survived, but it was so strange to see the ivory shapes. Apparently they actually just grow like that. I had no clue.   En route to Puerta Ayora, where we will get on the boat on Thrursday, our tour bus took us to some gigantic sinkholes where the earth has fallen in on itself. Magma bubbled up, cooled and left a lidded chamber behind. The rock lid collapsed under its own weight and left the sinkholes we were there to see. Quite the sight really. We then carried on to the town of Puerta Ayora and to our wonderful maze of a hotel. The architecture is so fantasic! There are hanging walkways, twisted tiled staircases and the whole hotel is a blinding white contrasted with warm wooden lattice shutters. A photographer´s dream. The town is full of beautiful flowers and elegant photo ops. I cringed today every time I saw a missed shot. I had not charged my battery and so my camera was not working. I plan to take every opportunity tomorrow! We toured the Darwin Research station as well, where we saw marine iguanas, land iguanas, giant tortoises and a number of Darwin´s finches. We even saw wild tortoises on the side of the road as we were making our way into town!! We were led around by a very well spoken australian who has moved to the Galapagos and works as their outreach coordinator. She´s quite the representative. The station functions as a research center, tortoise nursery, and education center. They, as any non-profit is, always need funding, but they do their best. I applaud their efforts. It would be really fun to liase with them and other groups like them to try to pool funds and effort. After touring the station we wandered back to the hotel, got some dinner and now here I am tap tapping away to you! Today was very different from yesterday but still enjoyable. Life is good, very good. I expect it to stay that way, for a little while at least. Puerta Ayora, here we come!