Beautiful Isabela - Pete's 6th blog post from Galápagos

14/09/2008 (end of week 6).

Welcome to my 6th blog post – a late, but substantial update - from the Galápagos Islands. I am now halfway through my volunteer stint here at the Charles Darwin Research Station.

So, this is the halfway mark and I have six weeks left working at BIOMAR and the station. The fisheries monitoring sites database is shaping up nicely and a number of other databases are being analysed for cleaning soon. Hopefully during the 2nd half of my stay I will be plagued a little less by technical problems.

The GIS office has become a livelier place now that two, and sporadically three, people are sharing the workspace. Mandy is the botany terrestrial GIS person who is permanent and Graham is an ex-Biomar head - here to conduct fieldwork during September. Being able to bounce ideas off the others over the last week or so has certainly been refreshing.

On Wednesday night some English volunteers working at the local hospital held a poker night. The only two novices came 2nd and third respectively, so there were suspicions they had been bluffing all along.

Isabela Island – day 1
On Friday I left work early and headed over to Isabela Island with another volunteer, Zoë. I was prepared for a rough boat ride after what I experienced on my earlier dive trip to San Cristbóbal and based on what others had said about the trip. Both crossings ended up being very smooth, although not everybody thought so.

Isabela is the largest island in the Galápagos and makes up 70% of its land area. The total population is roughly 2,000, compared to the 18,000 on Santa Cruz and 7,000 on San Cristóbal (Floreana has about 100).

One word best describes Isabela; unspoilt. After the relative hustle & bustle of Puerto Ayora, the sandy roads of sleepy Puerto Villamil were a welcome sight. The town embraces the eastern end of a beautiful beach, which is one of the best in the islands.

After settling into the accommodation recommended to us by volunteer colleagues, I headed to the lagoon backing the western end of town. This is where I was hoping to see a Flamingo. I was busy watching the feeding Galápagos pintails and quarrelling plovers, when I caught sight of a larger bird at the other side of the lagoon. Seeing a Flamingo in its natural setting (despite the town’s proximity) was very rewarding. It gradually came closer, but by then the light was beginning to fade for good photography.

That evening, over dinner at a restaurant popular with the locals, we looked into the logistics of trying to go up nearby Sierra Negra Volcano the following day under our own steam rather than joining a tour. It could be done, but involved walking rather than riding horses and would take much longer. We decided on a US$45 tour and also put our names down for a snorkeling trip to Los Tuneles, which had been recommended to me a by plenty of people, but requires 6 people to keep the cost down.

Day 2 – Volcanoes, vistas and fidgety horses
The following day’s 8am tour start turned into a 9am effort after all the other tour participants, including the guide, turned up looking the worst for wear after a night at the local discotheque. We eight hopped into two taxis and proceeded quickly from town and the arid zone, into the greener transition zone and finally up into the cool mists and highlands on the southern flanks of the volcano. Sierra Negra Volcano is one of five shield volcanoes on the island of Isabela and last erupted in 2005. For an interesting description on the formation of the islands and more on the eruption, click on this link at the NASA earth observatory.

At Paradero Sierra Negra, we got on our horses. Some of the horses were fidgety and looked like they might want to head off at pace (which turned out to be a sign of things to come), but mine was relatively calm - which suited me just fine as a relative novice. The more experienced riders were soon lost in the mist to the three of us lagging behind. We slowly made our way along the slippery mud trail with some semblance of control over our mode of transport and eventually left the mist behind, reaching the crater rim after about 1 hour. An impressive expanse of rippling black lava contrasted sharply with the green edges of the crater walls. Sierra Negra, at 7 x 10km, is the largest basaltic caldera in the world. Another 1.5km along the 1,200m high crater rim we left the horses and heard about a fallen comrade. She had fallen heavily when her horse unexpectedly jumped over a bush after the leading horses starting racing on sighting their destination. She was very sore, but determined to keep going. We took in the views of the crater - some of us grateful to be off the saddle, in control, and moving under our own power.

A further 1 hour downhill walk over open brittle lava flows, took us to Volcán Chico and some impressive views looking to the north (despite cloud cover blocking the views of four more volcanoes). The walk back up to the horses was hot and tiring and it was almost a relief to be back in the saddle. The ride back was more treacherous; going downhill through the mud the horses tended to loose their footing more easily. A few close calls later and we were back at the start of the horse trail and I very gladly dismounted; although unconventionally, as the photo on the right indicates.

Back at Puerto Villamil we enquired as to whether there were any more people interested in the trip to Los Tuneles, but there were no more takers. The day ended in a very brief visit to the Tortoise Breeding Centre just out of town as darkness descended.

Day 3 – Tears, a wall, side-trails and the beautiful Concha Perla Lagoon
The following day, on rented bikes, we rode out to the wall of tears; built by prisoners when Isabela was a convict colony from 1946 to 1959. It is a slightly disturbing place; the wall, made up of sharp volcanic rock, is totally useless and there were many deaths during its construction. On the way back we stopped off at the many signed side-trails to various lookouts, lagoons, lava tunnels and some interesting mangrove areas. We also spotted 4 wild tortoises next to the road.

After dropping off the bikes, we headed to Concha Perla Lagoon to snorkel. A beautiful spot, the lagoon is near the pier at the end of a boardwalk though the mangroves. We had to step over a snoozing sea lion to get there. Very soon after entering the lagoon for snorkeling I spotted an endangered Galápagos Green Turtle (a subspecies of the Green Turtle) - the only turtle that nests in the islands. Soon after I briefly spotted a shy visiting Hawkesbill Turtle. After a brief swim with a playful Sea Lion, it was time to head back as evening approached. Back in town, there were still no more tourists for a trip to Los Tuneles and we decided to give up on that and sleep in instead the following morning.

Day 4 - Concha Perla Lagoon again & Las Tintoreras
We had organised to meet Ronny from Israel - who we had met at dinner the previous evening - at Concha Perla Lagoon for more snorkeling. This time I ventured over the rocks at the eastern end of the lagoon into an adjoining lagoon. There were more turtles and I caught sight of an Eagle Ray, which soon disappeared from view. I think I spent 2 hours in the water before finally seeing where the others were and heading back to the boardwalk in the 1st lagoon. I was half out of the water when a playful sea lion came by wanting to play. I spent 10 minutes twisting & turning while trying to take photos and video, contorting myself into some rather ungraceful poses as my bemused and already out-of-the-water snorkeling companions later told me.

Late afternoon and we headed out to Las Tintoreras, an island lying just south of the fishing pier by boat. The mangrove area is a Ramsar site, in recognition of it being an important wetland area. From the boat we saw Blue-footed Boobies and Galápagos Penguins on the eastern most tip of the island - very cool. We were set off on a jetty and walked a loop around part of the island. Young Marine Iguanas were everywhere and only scattered from underfoot at the last second. In a narrow 30m long channel running parallel to the shore, a dozen or so white-tip reef sharks were either gliding by slowly or not moving at all, seemingly undisturbed by our gawking faces from above. A young Sea Lion made a brief appearance to see what was happening and soon left when the sharks showed no interest in playing. We then headed offshore for some snorkeling in a spot where there were plenty of colourful reef fish; impressive despite the dark clouds overhead.

On arriving back at the pier we couldn’t resist it; we made one more trip to Cocha Perla Lagoon! I certainly slept well that night.

After a 5 o’clock start the next morning (Tuesday), we were back in Santa Cruz by 8:30am and I headed to work at 10am. I slept well that night too.

Next week’s post (which I will put up shortly) will be shorter… I promise!

Pete

Work frustrations - Pete´s 5th blog post from Galápagos

07/09/2008 (end of week 5).

Welcome to my 5th blog post from the Galápagos Islands. I’m now almost halfway through my volunteer stint here at the Charles Darwin Research Station.

This last week was a frustrating one on the work front. I’ve had some technical issues to deal with on my laptop over the last few weeks and evidence this last week suggested the free anti-virus checker I had wasn’t doing its job. There weren’t any crashes, but a general slowing and some application hang-ups had progressively gotten worse. I seemed to spend more time dealing with these issues than doing what I needed to do. A new anti-virus has picked up some problem files and things have improved somewhat, but it remains to be seen if I need to take the plunge and actually spend some money on a decent security suite.

I had at least managed to mostly shift the old GIS (Geographical Information Systems) office contents from the Botany building, over to the office at BIOMAR I am in. From next week I will be sharing the new GIS office with at 2 other people, 1 permanently and the other for the rest of September. The company is welcome after 2 weeks of solitude.

I’ve been asked how my Spanish is going and I have to admit it is still a bit hit and miss. Sitting behind a computer most of the day doesn’t help and neither does having neighbours that speak good English (especially the American one). I have been making a few enquiries about taking some lessons to supplement the computer based language package I am using (somewhat sporadically).

While riding my bike back to work from lunch in town last Friday, I heard somebody call my name and got to meet another volunteer, Zoë (from England), sent here by Julian from Friends of Galápagos New Zealand (see link at left). She had recently arrived and is working for one of the other international non-government organisations here on the islands. I played the part of tour guide to Las Grietas (see also week 3 blog post) on Saturday, where the snorkeling was better than I thought it would be. On the way back I got to see a few bird species I hadn’t seen before. 

Birds on the left, from the top: Lava Gulls (endemic -world's rarest gull), Whimbrel (a migrant), Black-necked Stilts  (uncommon resident) and a Cactus Finch (endemic); on the right from the top: White-cheeked (or Galápagos) Pintail (endemic) and Yellow-crowned Night-heron (endemic).

On Sunday we headed to Tortuga Beach, where I got a chance to explore the peninsula I missed on my previous visit (when I went snorkeling instead). Lots of Marine Iguanas in a more natural setting than those at the Marine Laboratory I am used to. I also bumped into a Yellow-crowned Night-heron sitting nonchalantly in the mangroves, as well as seeing pelicans and frigate birds soaring overhead; with one frigate bird intently trying to steal a fish from a seal, which would occasionally surface with it and rip pieces off by tossing its head violently to the side. I also saw a Cactus Finch, the first finch species I have confidently identified.

This Friday is looking good for an early departure from work to head over the Isabela Island for the weekend. I’ve been hearing some fantastic things about the island, so look forward to the trip.

I’ll let you know how that went next week. Till then…

Pete

August in pictures - Pete's 4th blog post from Galápagos

31/8/08 (end of week 4)

Welcome to my 4th blog post from the Charles Darwin Research Station - where I am currently working as a volunteer in the Department of Marine Research and Coastal Conservation.

So, that's August done and dusted. I've had a chance to settle in this first month and had the opportunity to do some exploring on Santa Cruz Island. I'm hoping to go further afield soon and head out to some of the other islands nearby.

The past week has seen steady progress on the fisheries monitoring sites database I am working on (see last week’s blog) - I now have a significant number of sites (1500+) viewable in a digital map and there are still more sites to add.

I was glad for a break away from the station this weekend to stay at the house of some work colleagues nearby. I was able to watch a DVD and relax in a room large enough to swing an iguana in (figuratively speaking of course!). Unfortunately, the water pump stopped working at some stage on Saturday, and Sunday ended up being a waterless day. I can live without tap water (which isn't drinkable) for a few days, but I was obviously concerned that the earliest returning resident home would be without a working pump and water. All has now, thankfully, been resolved.

Tonight I’m off to a small farewell dinner at a restaurant that serves the best sushi in town (apparently).

This weekend I am thinking of an early morning trip out to Las Grietas (see last week's blog) to avoid the crowds. Must take my snorkelling gear.

I'll leave you this week with more photos from the month of August....

The month in pictures

Arrival

Marine Biology Laboratory & Offices at CDRS

Group huddle outside Marine Biology Laboratory

Panorama looking over the station out towards Puerto Ayora in Academy Bay (click image for larger version)

My transportation and the view from my front door

Dive trip

Dive trip - Kicker Rock

Dive trip - Playful Sea Lions

My office with its (at times) distracting view

Las Grietas

Heron

Lava Lizard

Española Island Tortoise

Land Iguana

Fish market - Puerto Ayora

Lava tunnel exit

Los Gemelos ('The Twins') panorama (click image for larger version)

Vermilion Flycatcher - Los Gemeles

Field scene - Santa Rosa

Wild tortoise - Santa Rosa

Till next week...

Pete

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