Another beautiful morning, awakening early due to periodic
“clunk” noises beneath me. The crew told
me it was a bit of choppy water. We
anchored at about 6 AM. I came out of my
stateroom and was treated to a magnificent “moonset” which my Olympus would not
capture due to insufficient light. I
dashed back, took a picture with my phone (in that short time span, even less
of the moon was visible) and resolved AGAIN to actually read the manual for the
Olympus, which I’ve had for at least 7 years now. I’ve been using it as a point-and-shoot and
it has far more capabilities than that.
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Not surprisingly, this island is called "Isola Solitaria". |
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I never got tired of watching the sun rise. |
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Moonset. Wow. |
The nearby islands were coated with “Mexican snow”. i.e.,
bird droppings, and the sea lions greeted us with their wails and roars. I turned down one expedition which allowed
snorkeling in the area, with a lot of caveats about how to behave around
playful sea lions (e.g., tuck in the 4-foot long zipper “tail” that allows you
to zip up the back of your wet suit or they’ll want to play with it). I’ve decided that since I’m not fond of
swimming in cold water, even with a wet suit, I’ll reserve it for fish viewing. I selected the skiff tour instead- time to
let someone cart me around and tell me what we’re seeing, especially since I
had a “boulder bash” (another rigorous hike) scheduled for the afternoon.
Sarah, my favorite guide, was on board the skiff. I had hoped for a closer experience with the
sea lions, similar to the people who had braved the water to snorkel, but we
kept a respectful distance from them.
The unexpected benefit was the massive variety of birds we saw. The rocks (andesitic columnar basalt,
according to Sarah) were teeming with species- fledgling pelicans, frigate
birds, pelicans and boobies flying overhead and- yes!- mating pairs of
blue-footed boobies flaunting their feet at each other. The pictures didn’t come out that great since
I was using a normal lens to photograph a wide area and then cropped it. I made another camera-related mental note: buy a telephoto lens. Hawaii is coming up in November and, God
willing, the Galapagos next year. I’ll
use it.
On the way back to the ship I told the skiff pilot, “I wake
up every morning here and I can’t believe I get to do this”. He replied, “So do I”.
One thing I learned about sea lions: the females mate but then have “delayed
implantation” of the zygote (fertilized egg) until her body has built up enough
fat for gestation and for feeding the offspring (usually a single birth)
afterwards. The snorkeling group came
back exhilarated with tales of being nudged by sea lions and petting them. No one reported bites (which they’d told us
wouldn’t really do anything through a wet suit). We wondered aloud about what would happen if
a sea lion managed to climb aboard the skiff; the pilot of ours said he’d seen
it happen and they just gently nudged it till it flopped overboard.
At lunch the captain made an appearance and told us that
there had been a few cases of gastrointestinal upsets reported. Oops.
He emphasized the need to wash hands frequently and use the sanitizing
sprays provided. I appreciated the
warning: I’d been raised in a family
with 5 children and was pretty casual about germs (which is probably one reason
from my excellent immune system) but resolved to wash my hands more often, keep
them away from my mouth, and not use the public bathroom on the second
deck. Easy on this ship: my stateroom was only one deck up and a short
walk after that. There were no further
reports so I guess the precautions helped.
They weren’t kidding about the Boulder Bash, but I enjoyed
it. We took the skiff into a cove
surrounded by volcanic ash formations called “The Veiled Ladies” because of the
shapes resulting from water erosion. The
hike was actually harder than Monday’s hike for me; the boulders were bigger
and it was harder to find horizontal surfaces.
I was grateful for all the years I hiked Cook Forest as a kid; despite
all the brain cells I had killed in the intervening decades I could scout out
the path of least resistance without thinking and clamber over it, using my
hands and scooting on my rear end when necessary. The views at the top were worth it all, of
course. I think I wandered a bit off the
trail on the way back and I passed a small, stagnant pond. I swear there were a few anopheles mosquitos
and tstetse flies hanging around but nothing bit me. I could see the beach, headed back in that
direction and soon joined my group and we all waded out into the water and sank
our feet gratefully into the cool, wet sand.
In an unfortunate reminder of reality, they put out a sheet
in the lounge with all of our departure details for Saturday, asking us to
review and confirm them. What? We have to LEAVE? What do you mean, they’ve rented out our rooms? I was reassured to see that I was on the same
shuttle to the airport with people who had flights almost two hours
earlier. If they could get them to SJC
in time, I’d be OK, too. I was still
concerned about making my connection in DFW which was less than 2 hours, but
when I got stuck with that when AA changed my schedule, I’d asked about leaving
the next morning instead. No, that would
be a voluntary change and I’d have to pay a fee for it. OK- if I miss the connection that’s their
problem. (I also had travel insurance as
a backup.)
The spectacle wasn’t over at dinner. A few pelicans, attracted to the side of the
boat by the lights, swam alongside us, closer than I’d seen before. I couldn’t get very good pictures from the
dining room. As I went back to my room I
was able to get a picture but not a very good one given the light. I was treated to the sight of a sea turtle
and a sea lion as well! Shortly after I
settled in for the might the Expedition Leader knocked on my door. The hike I’d signed up for tomorrow- the most
strenuous, of course- didn’t have enough interest so they were cancelling
it. I settled for the shorter one and
figured I’d do some kayaking and snorkeling in the afternoon.
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