To the Top -- of a Volcano!

Yes. I hiked up a slag pile. Bartolome Island in the Galapagos is an extinct volcano. But, from a distance, to anyone from southwestern Pennsylvania coal county, it looks like mine waste.

Even up close, when starting to hike on the volcanic sand and lava, I thought of slag and the old red dog roads of my childhood. Hum? Am I about to walk on hazarous waste?

Seriously though, I was VERY excited about the idea of hiking up a volcano and I already had an appreciation for the unique beauty of this barren environment. The burnt oranges and reds of the sand and hardened lava were stunning. The landscape was often breathtaking. Pinnacle Rock, the arrowhead-shaped point, is the most photographed spot of the Galapagos.

While I was excited about this very cool adventure, I had a concern: 358 wood steps to make the 374 foot STEEP climb. This was going to be another kind of breathtaking! I was going to suck wind on this one!

Off we go on a journey to follow the platform trail....

The overlook stop on the way up provided a place catch your breath and a great view that included our ship, The Xpedition.

Imagine the explosion that erupted to create this now still, quite and otherworldly crater.

At the edge of the crater, Carlos, our guide, wanted to empahsize the light weight of some of the rocks. A group of hikers have nearly reached the summit in the background.

Well, we still have a hike ahead... more steps! Up we go!

Huff, huff, huff! Oh my gosh! You can do it! HUFF!!!

The view from above.

The walk down was much more relaxing. What a challenge it must have been to build all of the steps!


Journey's end...

Blogging Time

There must be a rhythm to blogging – a wonderful system of organizing photos, writing posts, and even editing, that will allow me to post on a daily basis. There must be a rhythm. So far it eludes me, but I am confident that it is here, or is it over there? It is somewhere...

Flamingos

It was unexpected. I realized I had never seen a flamingo in the wild. There have been many occasions when I admired their elegance, grace, long legs and HOT pink color, but only in zoos and parks - mostly in Florida. Wow! Another life bird!

There could not have been a better location for me to see my first wild Greater Flamingo. We were on Floreana Island in the Galapagos at a lava lagoon named Punta Cormorant, where, by the way, I did not see a cormorant. The landscape of the island looked like a set for some distant planet in a Star Wars movie. My mind wandered to a vision of Charles Darwin exploring the island lagoon and collecting, not beetles, but specimens of the wasps we found so bothersome.

The sunlight was magical and created a stunning reflection. I cherish the blessing of being in the right place at the right time to see this.



Looking down on the lagoon from a nearby hill, probably another volcano, I was reminded how close we were to the ocean. I felt as if I was in a far-off land, when, in reality, the ocean and our zodiacs were just over the large dunes. Barely visable in the photo, is a small fenced area on the far right of the mud flat. The reflection photos were taken from that spot.


From above, it was also easy to see how flamingos make a trail in the mud when feeding off the bottom.


Because I think it beautiful, I will close today's post with a stereotypical shot of a flamingo. Enjoy!

Wordless Wednesday

Kicker Rock, Galapagos Islands

Enchantment

Espanola, of all the Enchanted Islands,is the most wondrous. Words can not describe the beauty and wildlife of this magical island. It is sacred.

The surf was beautiful and a bit rough when landing at Suarez Point,
.

but only a few hundred feet away we came upon a much calmer inlet where sea lions lounged and we were greeted by a Galapagos Hawk.






Mockingbirds arrived within minutes. These friendly birds have learned that humans carry water. Since there is no fresh water on Espanola they hope to beg or steal a few precious drops. Unfortunatety, for the mockingbirds, we obeyed the "no interference rule" like the Prime Directive and all they could do was complain to each other about the mean tourists.


The hike started along the beach then looped around the island for almost two rough, rocky, challenging, spectacular miles.

Sally Lightfoot Crabs decorated the lava coast.



The wildlife was incredible. It seemed like the birds danced aroud us. There were many of Darwin's Finches,


Galapagos Warblers,


and, soon, Waved Albatoss were flying overhead.




Seeing the first albatross was exciting! These are very large birds! Their wing span is about 7 feet and they are quite impressive! Little did we know that being buzzed by an albatross was only a hint of the spectacular sites to come.

After hiking a few more minutes we came across a pair of albatross cuddled on the edge of the trail.



They began a courtship dance as we approached. We stood or sat on the trail, approximately 3 or 4 feet from the pair and watched, enthralled, with every movement. It was as if the birds were fencing with their long beaks. A loud, "clack" echoed with each hit. Occassionaly, one or the other would stretch or nip at the neck of it's mate before going back to the fencing. Our guide told us we were behind schedule as she tried, unsuccessfully, to move us along. We weren't her normal group of tourists. We traveled to The Galapagos to see the birds and we were not about to budge. She laughed, knowing that she had no hope of getting us to move down the trail until the "show" ended.













When the birds finished their dance, they both turned to look at us as if to say, "How was the show?"

Great! The show was great! Thank you!

However, we soon learned that seeing albatross "perform" was not uncommon. As we reached the opposite coast, there were albatross and other birds everywhere!



The above pairs were within 75 feet of the stunning cliffs.


A blowhole gushed over 50 feet high.


Our guide became very serious about rushing us along as the sky began to glow with pinks and golds.


We stayed too long watching the albatross and now we were the last group on the island. We had to make it back to the ship before dark. The trail was difficult enough to navigate in the daylight! None of us wanted to try the hike in the dark!


We just made it to the zodiac as the sun was setting on what was truely a glorious day!

Kicker Rock

Day two in the Galapagos started with a zodiac ride around Kicker Rock. We felt like characters in an Indiana Jones movie! As our zodiac captain maneuvered in the narrow crevice between the cliffs, some of us tried to sing the theme music, “Da, Da, Da, Daaaa…..Da, Da, Daa..” My friend, David, remarked that the cliffs would be closing in on us if we were in a film scene! It was great fun! We did see a few birds, but the geology of these volcanic islands and beautiful sunrise where what we will all remember.

Yes. We went into this narrow crevice...

and saw this on the other side.

Kicker Rock is HUGH!

That small black dot in the water is a zodiac filled with adventurers!


Kicker Rock is technically known as a Tuff structure because of the cememnt-like finish. Tuff is formed when the rocks and ash from a volcanic explosion mix with water vapor. I might not be an expert in geology, but I know that Kicker Rock is stunningly beautiful!