All kinds of Boobies

The bird kind, that is! It seems that there are more than just the famous Blue Footed Boobies, and while they are certainly striking, the other two we saw were pretty cool too. There are the Red Footed, and the Nazca, which, with its beautiful face, was actually my favorite.

More Sea Lions

The Sea Lions were so fun, and the babies were really curious. I was sitting near a group and a baby came up and snuffled me - a super thrill! Especially since approaching or touching the animals is strictly forbidden - the exception being if they came up to you. The National Geographic videographer got pix of that, and we bought the trip video, which we'll share when we get home.

Galapagos Fauna

We soon discovered that there were more sea lions, Marine Iguanas, blue footed, red footed and Nasca boobies than we could ever imagine we would see.  The sea lions, especially, were pretty much a guaranteed on every island - and we never got tired of watching their antics and cutenesses.

Catching up

I am going to try hard to catch up to Mary's Argentina post, so here are the rest of The Galapagos pix. We can only download 3 per post, so please bear with me!

Don't Cry For Us, Argentina...

Sometimes, things don't turn out as you (or in this case, Noelani) planned, but, then, they turn out even better! That's what happened to us as we journeyed to Argentina. Our plan was to work on a WWOOFing farm for a month in exchange for food and lodging - an inexpensive way to explore a new country and be part of the community. One day before our flight from Ecuador to Argentina, the farm owner emailed to say that we were no longer welcome. He had a negative experience with the last WWOOFer and had decided not to have any more volunteers. Kinda awkward since that was the main reason we chose to visit Argentina in the first place. Ack! Alas, we were an object in motion, so we just kept going.

We met Briana and Ameen in Bariloche, celebrated Solstice and Christmas there in a sweet cabana, and attempted to find another farm in El Bolson, including two days of renting a car and driving the (beautiful) 2 hours there and back to visit the market and farms. No dice. Everyone was full, and the very rainy weather meant less work than usual. Our very last visit, though, proved to be the most fruitful: Bri and Ameen stayed home with Gabriel, and Noelani and I spent the afternoon attempting to find farms, and then finally met Alejandro, the cousin of Laura (the director of Gabriel's preschool), at his home in Lago Puelo, just 15 minutes south of El Bolson. Alejandro is amazing. After a few phone calls and visits, his legwork and connections landed us a house and a potential farm, so we hopped the bus the day after Christmas and came to Lago Puelo.

That was just 3 weeks ago, and today I was asked for directions (in Spanish), as if I was a local, and I answered (in my halting, limited Spanish). We also found steady work, volunteering on a farm in town (not the one we had expected, that one fell through - the raspberry crop was huurt too much by the rain and by the neighbors turkeys). Finding the connection to the new farm was kismet, the universe taking care of us...I was getting my hair cut and chatting about why we were here, and mentioned were looking to volunteer on a farm. The shop owner, who was cutting my hair, said "my mom has a farm, I'll call her." And so she did. Her mom was nervous about having us help - she doesn't usually have volunteers and doesn't speak English - but, slowly, we charmed her: Noelani, with her strong grasp of Spanish and williness to always use it; me, with my humor; Gabriel, with his devotion to the dogs and bunnies; and all of us with our hard work and commitment. Now, we are raspberry-picking, strawberry weeding, womaning the market booth 2 days a week, and even doing a little interior painting. Our daily commute is 25 minutes on foot (except Gabriel, who has a bike - bikes for us are too expensive), each way. Work is from 9am - 1pm, giving us the rest of the day to relax and play (and go to the gas station cafe to check our email and write blog posts).

I don't have pictures of the farm, but here are some from the house (did I mention we live next to the cemetary?) and the lake.

More Galapagos Pix

To the Galapagos

Here we are, just pleased as punch to be headed off to our Galapagos Adventure. It was truly all that it promised to be - lots of animals that only exist in the Galapagos (especially indigenous birds) that you could walk right up to , if they didn't come to you first, beautiful, unusual environments, beautiful waters, incredibly knowledgeable guides, comfortable accommodations, first rate friendly service, great (too much) food, interesting fellow passengers... Really just an all around amazing experience.

The baby sea lion (NOT seal- they drilled that into us :-) was the first of tens that we saw. We were so excited that we could get so close. We just had no idea what we were in for.

The Captain asked if Gabriel wanted to drive the boat,  and when Gabriel said yes, the Captain gave him the wheel! Later, he really did get to steer, with that very wheel. Pix to follow.

That totally covered up guy is Xavier, one of my favorite guides. He LOVED Gabriel, and was always thinking of fun things for him to do. Steering the ship was one of those things.

The Island is called The Boot...