Exploring Santa Cruz - Pete's 3rd blog post from Galápagos

24/8/08 (end of week 3)

Welcome to my latest blog post from the Charles Darwin Research Station on Santa Cruz Island.

This last week has seen more settled weather than the long periods of rain experienced the week before. The daily forecast this week was predictably, ‘overcast’, with only brief appearances from the sun (which did make for more comfortable midday temperatures).

Work this week has consisted of getting together all the Fisheries monitoring data sources from which I can glean information about monitoring sites, to add to those sites already recognized by the Ecosystems team in their main database. The sites will have coordinates with various degrees of accuracy attributed to them and can be referenced by other databases.

Out and about on Santa Cruz Island
I was exploring the back streets of Puerto Ayora recently when a cacophony of sounds drew me to a cordoned off block and a large number of people gathered on the roadside. A soccer game was being held on a field made up of crumbled volcanic rock (sliding tackles not recommended). At the same time, groups of cyclists were racing laps around the soccer field and an adjacent gymnasium. Along with the cheering crowds, there was a loud commentary coming through some very large speakers which was added to by occasional bouts of shouting from a number of inebriated bystanders. I found out later that there had been a festival on that day.


Last weekend, after uploading my 2nd blog post, I went for a quick trip by water taxi to the other side of Academy Bay (in which Puerto Ayora is situated) and walked to Las Grietas; a gorge with cool clear water at the bottom. Being the weekend it was crowded and I didn’t try the water, but certainly intend to do so sometime in the future.


Yesterday (Saturday), I was joined by another volunteer, Jacob, for a cycle trip into the highlands up to Los Gemelos (two pit craters known as 'The Twins') and a number of other places of interest. We set off relatively early and just out of Puerto Ayora investigated a short lava tunnel that didn’t look wholly stable and we certainly didn’t trust enough to venture into. There was another tunnel to look at further up the road in the small town of Bellavista (about 7km from Puerto Ayora), where we arrived thoroughly in need of a rest and re-hydration after a 40 minute uphill bike ride. The tunnel was just out of town on private property and so cost US$2.50 to go through. To be honest, the entrance didn’t look any more stable than the one at the previous tunnel, but we ventured on with a borrowed flashlight and my headlamp (which was in need of fresh batteries). The tunnel was surprisingly long (800m to 1km) and we came across frequent rock falls. It was (I have to admit) a tiny bit of a relief to finally get to the end.

After a bit of discussion we decided to catch a taxi the rest of the way to Los Gemelos, some 15km further up the road. This would give us a mostly downhill ride back. All the taxis on the island are pick-up trucks and a bike in the tray is a common sight. The road headed steadily uphill and passes between Los Gemeles/‘The Twins’ , which is also the crest of the island and where we got out. The craters are very impressive and there was plenty of birdlife to be seen and heard.

The way back was pretty much all downhill. About 3km from Los Gemeles is the small town of Santa Rosa and the start of a downhill side track leading to a Giant Tortoise Reserve. The guide books suggest keeping an eye out for wild tortoises grazing in the fields on the way to the reserve and we secretly hoped to see one to avoid having to go all the way to the reserve entrance and then into the reserve itself.

We needn’t have worried. About halfway down a familiar domed shape loomed up next to the side of the road ahead of us. We stopped about 20m away and stealthily walked towards the large tortoise eating the lush grass, being careful not to disturb it and likely cause it to retract its head with a hiss back into its shell. Its size became apparent as we approached to within a metre or so, and it still hadn’t noticed us. When the tortoise eventually did notice us, it stopped chewing and watched us warily. The photo I’ve included shows Jacob, who is of average height, next to the tortoise (I’m 6’4”/ 193cm and didn’t do it justice!).


The rest of the (downhill) ride back to Puerto Ayora went by relatively quickly and on arriving back I promptly got a flat tire. My bike does remarkably well to carry a rather hefty 100+ kg, but it must have decided enough was enough.

Today (Sunday) we walked the 1 hour to the lovely Tortuga Beach (which has strong currents), out past the peninsula to a lagoon with another lovely beach and calm waters ideal for swimming and snorkeling. Unfortunately, our snorkeling efforts were, for the most part, thwarted by a lack of good visibility. It was still nice to have spent some time away from the town and station, despite the hot 1 hour walk back.

I was absolutely shattered after the weekend’s activities and look forward to a few days without too much physical activity.

More next week...

Pete

Station life - Pete's 2nd blog post from Galápagos

17/8/2009 (end of week 2)

Life at the station
My working day at the Marine Biology (BIOMAR) lab office begins early (by my standards), at 7:30am. Currently I am working on a restructure of the lobster population database, which holds location and size data for Green, Red and Chinese lobsters from when originally tagged and when recaptured. I have also been involved in trying to resolve technical issues with a new website. I usually try and pop out for a quick breakfast at the station cafeteria sometime early morning. Lunch is from 12 to 1:30pm and my day usually ends at 5pm. It gets dark just after 6pm, so any wildlife viewing is done at a fair rate of knots!

I was hoping to find a map of the station to share, but here instead a brief description:
The CDRS lies a few hundred metres from the National Park Entrance at the east end of Puerto Ayora township. Where the paved road ends, four buildings mark the entrance to the station. The station's shop and garage are on the left, and on the right are buildings housing reception, administration and computing services. The Marine Biology (BIOMAR) Laboratory/Office and the pier is slightly away from the rest of the station down a road on the right and the cafetaria is next door (handy!). The volunteers' accommodation (where I stay) sits about 100 metres from reception and basically overlooks the tortoises' breeding/viewing areas. Other buildings house the botany team and other terrestrial groups and there is a library, which I have yet to check out.

This last week it rained for long periods on most days. Usually I would be happy working inside during adverse weather, but here it somehow feels like you just might be missing out on a potential wildlife encounter somewhere on your front doorstep. Frigate birds and pelicans are constantly soaring over the office roof. From the balcony you can watch the marine iguanas heading out on, and coming back from, their grazing trips out at sea. A seal often nonchalantly suns itself on the pier and will happily stay there while people work around it. See what I mean when I say, ‘on your front doorstep’....?

Field trip
One activity that isn’t affected by rain is diving. Some of the fisheries team headed out on Thursday to collect and replace a number of shark tracking transmitters and a few other members of the BIOMAR team, including myself, tagged along. I was ever so slightly nervous. Last weeks ‘refresher’ dive hadn’t gone totally smoothly as I hadn’t quite got my bouyancy right. I had also been using air too quickly, which I tend to do when I haven’t dived for a while and don’t feel totally relaxed. Needless to say, all went well - although my air did go a little quicker than it should have.

We set off at 6:15am and had soon transferred our gear from our truck to the launch at the pier. A 20 minute boat ride took us to Gordon Rocks on the eastern side Santa Cruz Island. We quickly suited up and the old transmitter was collected and replaced by two well practiced team members, Alex and Cesar. The rest of the dive was spent exploring. The area is renowned for its schools of Hammerhead sharks and for the odd whale shark passing through. Sharks were seen by some of the group and a couple of seals came to see what was going on.

A 2 hour bumpy boat ride took us to our next dive site at Kicker Rock, the basalt remains of a crater; situated just off San Cristbóbal Island. There, another transmitter was replaced and again, we had the rest of the dive to look around. There were many Galápagos sharks in the channel between two towering, precarious looking rock columns. Worryingly, on a previous visit one of the team had heard a number of rocks crashing into the water nearby.

After the dive, a quick lunch stop in a sheltered bay off San Cristóbal was highlighted by the visitation of a group of playful visitors, one cheeky enough to jump up and haul himself deftly up onto the side of the boat on his front flippers, balancing there while grinning (seemingly) at us. On the way back, with less rough seas, I kept a close eye out for waved albatross; the only species of albatross that lives exclusively in the tropics and which many people consider to be endemic to the Galápagos Islands. I may have spotted one from afar, but couldn't be sure. See Waved Albatross fact sheet (pdf) and this from Birdlife for more information.
Below is a flash video of the trip, which is just under 5 minutes long to give you some idea of size.


Conservation Icon
I ended last week’s blog post mentioning a conservation icon. Lonesome George is the last remaining Pinta Island tortoise and has been living at the station since 1972. Until very recently he had shown no interest in 2 females of a similar species that he shares his enclosure with. His species was functionally extinct… that is, until just last month! FOGNZ has this news item and you could have a look at this from the guardian.co.uk website.

I mentioned Alex, the fisheries group leader earlier in this week's post. He finished up last Friday after 6 years with the station and is heading off to the U.S. with his wife and daughter. He has been very welcoming and helpful during my first 2 weeks and I wish him well for the future.

I will also take this opportunity to wish my nephew and niece (Jaden and Emma) a very happy birthday. Also a belated happy birthday to Ollie and a big hello to Shelley.

That’s it for this week. Next week I’ll try and give you an idea of what there is to explore in Puerto Ayora township and the surrounding area...

Hasta luego.

Pete

Arrival - Pete's first blog post from Galápagos

10-8-2008 (end of week 1)

Hi, welcome to my first blog post. I will be keeping this blog while working as a volunteer for the Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF) at the Charles Darwin Research Station (CDRS) in the Galápagos Islands for the next 3 months. Further installments will hopefully be a little shorter and I will also have more photos to share.

A short introduction
I was selected by Friends of Galapagos New Zealand (FOGNZ) and the Hamish Saunders Memorial Fund (HSMF) as a professional volunteer to help the Fisheries group in BIOMAR (Marine Biology... or officially, 'The Department of Marine Research and Coastal Conservation') here to assimilate/clean/integrate their fisheries data within a spatial context in preparation for sharing in a multi-user environment. Spatial (relating to, occupying, or happening in space) data can be accessed through a GIS (Geographical Information System) which, very basically, allows you to view/manipulate/analyse data based on its geographic location, e.g. a map might show where breeding colonies of fur seals are known to exist and their population densities relative to each other.

Arrival
I caught my first glimpse of the islands while descending through the clouds on approach for landing on Baltra Island. Two small islands appeared against the backdrop of a much larger island, with gently rising slopes that disappeared into the garua (mist). The arid nature of the lowlands became obvious as we landed on Baltra, where dry grasses and cacti contrast against darkish red and black volcanic rocks. The dry, or garua season runs from June to November and both air and sea temperatures are slightly cooler than in the wet and hotter season (more).

Off the plane, my instructions as a volunteer for CDF were to join the Los Nacionales (Nationals) queue, which was much shorter than that for International visitors. My queue seemed to take forever to shrink and I found out later that there are strict rules in place for nationals visiting the islands to prevent excessive migration - apparently making it more difficult than visiting the U.S. for some. Ironically, when I finally got to show an official my paperwork I was directed straight to the ‘International visitor’ queue and ended up being last through.

A bus took us to a ferry on the other side of the island. This was where I caught my first glimpses of wildlife. A penguin was preening itself about 20 metres along the shoreline from the pier. I checked to see if anybody else had spotted it, but nobody seemed to have noticed. Bright red crabs scurried over the rough black volcanic rock and frigate birds soared high overhead. My eyes were starting to pop out of my head as I ducked into the waiting ferry and found myself a good viewing spot. A dark shape loomed above towards the back of the boat and a very large pelican glided just over the roof. On the short ferry ride across to Santa Cruz Island I spotted another 5 species of birds, including flamingos. There were seals, boobies and… well, you get the idea! I’m supposed to be keeping this blog for 3 months, so I’ll not get too carried away so soon.

After a 45 minute bus ride through the cool and misty highland interior I arrived in Puerto Ayora on the southern side of Santa Cruz. I was almost at my destination. A 10 minute walk along the bricked main road (Av. Charles Darwin) took me almost to the end of town and past a host of colourful small restaurants and souvenir shops. I caught a taxi the rest of the way as my pack revealed its true weight. A taxi ride costs US$1 and gets you anywhere in town apparently.

The Charles Darwin Research Station is just within the boundaries of the National Park and I eventually got to the core buildings and a reception area. My largely forgotten Spanish was going to be put to the test for the first time. I asked for directions to the volunteer’s office, but the person I had been dealing with by email for many months was away. A helpful 20 year veteran of the station showed me to a shared room and he explained that there was only one key and another needed to be cut. Door left unlocked, I went to find the BIOMAR offices and met most of the team that afternoon.

The first few days were spent trying to get a handle on the work that needed to be done and dealing with the admin type things that cropped up. When I eventually got to speak to my email contact in admin, I explained about the lack of a key and was told I had been put in the wrong room. I was moved to the room next door, which I have to myself for the moment at least. I am now slowly settling into life at the station.



Next week I’ll share more about the station (including the conservation icon that lives here) and its surroundings. Till then…

Pete