Isla Tortuga

2 hours, that’s how long it takes to get between the islands even in a speed boat. I took that time to enjoy the sunshine on my face, closing my eyes and listening to tunes. Growing up in the summer we would spend weekends on a boat cruising up and down the river so I feel at peace in and on the water.

On our way to Isabela we stopped by Isla Tortuga. Don’t be fooled it sounds like an island for tortoises but actually its named after the shape rather than who lives there. Really it’s a rocky outcrop that houses lots of seabirds. This was our first more up close view of the infamous boobies. We mostly were seeing the Nazca Boobies but in between the groupings we would occasionally see one of the blue footed ones but not a great viewing as they were still far away or in flight.  Looking off I would see what would look like a red ball or balloon that was stuck in the brush, further inquiry it was a Frigate Bird who had been showing off his throat sac in attempts to attract a mate.

 

Off we were to arrive on Isabela island, where we were joined by the last 2 girls of our group. Remember the people who I said missed their flight, well they have arrive and finally met up with our group, Ingvild and Nina from Norway.

Sierra Negra – About to Blow?

After a brief pitstop to drop off our stuff we were off in our lovely air-conditioned bus up through the hills to arrive at Sierra Negra Caldera. Now the previous day it was questionable on if we were going to hike up the volcano as there was a yellow threat warning of potential eruption.  While the threat level was still there we continued on, main thing is if something happens, walk slowly they said.  So up, up, up we went, over twisted roots and rocks to the top. Now it was exceptionally warm that day and apparently with the elevation and the heat I wasn’t having it that day as I felt I was overheating a bit, so I hung back quite a bit and took extra breaks before I made it to the top.

Now yes there was a threat of eruption from the volcano, but this was more of an effusive vs explosive kind of volcano so if anything really happened the magma would just rise the surface which inherently would give you time to teeter back down the mountain, but we didn’t see or feel any action that day.

As I mentioned it was quite warm that day so we were all looking forward to our downtime at the beach afterwards. We enjoyed the ocean and hunkered down on the beach which had the finest and softest sand but this sand does not brush off. No matter how much you brushed or went back in the water to rinse it off did it come off.  I guess it liked its nice cozy new home so we settled back and enjoyed the afternoon and watched the sunset.

After a quick dinner we went back to our accommodations for the evening, we were back to camping.  This location was far nicer than our first camping experience. We were in more of an ecological area and our tents were set up in this wide-open field. The tents themselves were far larger as well, giving us a chance to spread out and not sleep right on top of each other.  Our leave time for the morning was around 7ish so Cecilia and I discussed getting up around 6 to get prepped for the day.

An Unwelcome Wake Up

So I wake up a few minutes before my alarm goes off, I silence it as who really wants to hear the blaring beeps of an alarm.  I started to quietly get ready, I did notice that Cecilia’s alarm wasn’t going off, but she did get up during the middle of the night to use the restroom so I figured maybe she reset her alarm for a little later.

So getting onto the island we found we would have limited reception while in the main town but it was limited and spotty and the further out you went the reception was gone. But hey, who needs phone reception when you are off exploring the world right?   Well, you see there was a little hitch when connecting in the island on Isabela. If you weren’t paying close attention, which when your more focused on seeing if there are bars, you may not notice, that at times the time zone would jump ahead an hour and then would jump back to the correct time.  Apparently I turned my phone on and off without enough time for it to convert back so I was ahead an hour.  I got up at 5 AM, 5. On vacation, 5 AM…. Heaven help me.

So Cecilia is questioning my sanity and why on earth I am getting ready. I say matter of factly, well its 6:30.  No, no it isn’t.  Ugh!!!  Oh well I continue on getting ready.

I go grab one of my boots and flip it upside down to shake out any rocks, grass, etc. when I see something scurry away, not sure if it was in my boot, under it, or next to it. By scurry away, I mean scurry towards my bags. It is still a wee bit dark out and I can’t see exactly what it is that was scurrying but it wasn’t a small thing. I move a few things aside to inspect.

Mick and Vicki were just getting up and walking past our tent. I ask, “Hey Mick, how are you with spiders?”

Cecilia, unaware of the monster I was looking at, “just squish it with your shoe.”

“Um, no.”  Imagining the squish and gush that would incur, gag.

So Mick enters the tent asking what I need help with, this sends Ms. Spider scurrying towards a corner, on Cecilia’s side of the tent. Which she now knows what I was looking at, exclaims “Not near my bags!” and pulls her stuff closer to her.  Mick initially was unable to find Spider and we thought maybe it found its way out of the tent.  But soon enough she showed herself again and quickly Mick was able to fling her out of our tent.

Okay, this spider, it was grey/brown, and about the size of my palm.  It was in/on/near my stuff, considering my boots were right next to my bed, I was basically snuggled up with it all night.  Shudder! For a week after we returned I had horrible nightmares that Ms. Spider put her little spider baby sack into my bag and I would have monster spiders born and roaming around the house. Trust me I dumped everything in that bag into the washer and turned the water on hot, hot, hot.  I had some people tell me to throw my bag out into the snow, the cold would kill things off. I said nope. I think it would just freeze them short term and when they warmed up again they would come back to life. Good news is no monster spider babies have been roaming the floors here (yet).