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Travel trivia: With the abundance of live, and even live unique to the rest of the world, why does something as widely spread as coral simply not grow in an area as well (and long) protected as the Galapagos? Due to the 3 main water streams coming to the Galapagos, and the arctic winds going up and down throughout the year, sea temperatures vary from the low 80s to the high 60s. That variance and the low natural sunlight levels due to the low visibility in the water, are simply too great for coral life to sustain itself.
Today started like many other days. I got up early to workout. Some routines you just don't give up on. My wake up was at 6am, by the gentle voice of the expedition leader, as we had set the intercom channel and volume per their directions for this morning's wakeup "call". She kindly reminded us that the early morning hike up the volcano of Bartolome starts in 30min, and that the "non-stop group" will be the first group to leave at 6:30 sharp. That's 359ft elevation via 399 steps. Counting the step off the boat, this is sorta like 400 easy (<11") box jumps. Game on.
We made it, of course. And as I was walking back down, I realized, hey, this is not how I usually wake up on Mondays. Wish I could wake up like this all the time. But that would mean being certified guide for National Geographic in the Galapagos, and my Spanish is just not up to snuff enough to achieve that.
So after our hefty morning stroll, we come back to the island to snorkel in shorties. For the none-divers and non-surfers, those are the wet suites cut off at the knees and elbows, essentially ignoring the generally accepted biological notion that most of your body heat is detracted through your extremities (head, hands, feet). But ok, I'll play. We saw some cool things, again, similar to what I saw diving, but now snorkeling (see pictures). Still schools of fish and a playful young sea lion with nothing on his fins to do, and a few rays (marbled and spotted eagle). So a good snorkel.
Then after lunch we sailed to a new location and at about 3pm we went out again for deep-sea snorkeling. It was fun (steep wall dropping of the island of Rabida. Unique about Rabida (see cliff picture) is that it has some of the highest iron oxide content of the Galapagos, turning the beach a red-brown/rust color. Beautiful for photos at the end of the day. We snorkeled off the zodiacs (just jump in), and saw schools of (different) fish and a cute sea lion that was playing with us for a while. A large turtle didn't escape our attention, either. All underwater pictures courtesy of Steve Eppinger, who lent me his waterproof camera to use while snorkeling. Works like a charm, and thanks to the built-in flash so much better than the GoPro.
Tomorrow we are coming around Isabella and in the afternoon will visit the newest addition to the Galapagos: Fernandina, which is a volcano rising to nearly 5,000ft. So off to bed to make the most of the night.
Posts have been irregular. Offexploring has been difficult to upload to, and the satellite connection on the boat can be a little spotty. So going forward I will probably post no more than 10 pictures per day, and posts may lag a day or 2. You can always come see the 3,482-page slide show for the full experience after we come home!
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