This morning the crew woke us up pretty early so we could see the famous “Leon Dormido” or Kicker Rock close by. It is a very impressive rock formation shaped like a sleeping sea lion. There is no access on that rock but lots of birds nesting over there. We spent over an hour on the beach of Isla San Christobal and we were able to do whatever we felt after. What a paradise – again! The sand is as soft as it can get and pure white. Lazy sea lions everywhere the eye looked… And it was warm amazingly. I wouldn’t have mind if I could have had stayed longer since it was so peaceful and the first time of that cruise I felt not stressed by the guide who always wanted everybody to hurry. Later we went snorkeling with the sea lions. The afternoon was spent in the village of San Christobal what is very small. Part of the program was a visit in the local museum and after that we had a few ours for ourselves… I went to Punta Carola a beach near by. Just relaxing and watching the lazy sea lions surfing the waves…

Leon Dormido – Kicker Rock

Isla San Christobal – beach

Isla San Christobal – Punta Carola

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Even though everything you see in Galapagos is amazing I was really looking forward to today since I was finally supposed to see the giant tortoises I had dreamed of for so long. There are so fascinating animals looking like from a different world. I was so excited… After breakfast we left early in the morning to the Charles Darwin Research Station which is primarily an international research station. Located just outside of Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz it is home of the famous tortoise “Lonesome George” who is probably the last of his kind and people try to breed him since years – so far without any success. The station is not that big and you see baby tortoises, bigger tortoises divided by female and male. I arrived right at feeding time and if its about food big tortoises can become quite fast. I saw “Lonesome George” and his female companions. George is very special looking and got a very long neck. There are three types of tortoise shell shapes: saddleback, dome shaped and in between. The different shapes were found on different islands. While saddleback tortoises live in dry habitat, dome-shaped ones are found in moister areas with lush vegetation. In the afternoon we were able to visit the Rancho Mariposa in the highlands. It is a private place to watch giant tortoises in their natural habitat. Being private got one major advantage – we were able to see the tortoises closely. Steven Divine the owner of that ranch does have lots and lots of tortoises migrating to his property. So he offers visitors to see them. So far that was my favorite experience and I am thinking about to visit it again. It is just so wonderful to be close to these majestic but slow animals. The walk brings you first to a dense forest and two smaller caves were we saw an owl and wild goats. Later on former cattle ground you will see the tortoises – everywhere. I think it might be between 20-30 of them. What a great site!

Santa Cruz

Charles Darwin Research Station

Rancho Mariposa

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Probably the most famous picture while thinking of Galapagos is a panorama of the view point of Bartolome island a small island on the on the east coast of Santiago island (James island). In the morning we did a “wet landing” and could see few rare penguins and some sea lions. Then I was climbing up the hill and to be honest the view is magnificent. On the agenda for the afternoon was walking across the lava tubes and ashes. The landscape looked like the moon and the lava rocks were very sharp. There grew nothing except some lava cactus every now and then. It is hot at the lava fields. The eruption what formed these fields is not that long away at the 19th century. I didn’t find much animals here except a few finches, lava lizzards and grasshoppers. We left the same afternoon to Santa Cruz and arrived after 5 hours around 6:00pm.

Isla Bartolome

Lava fields

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Overnight we arrived at Santiago or James island. The islands mostly have two or more names over here. Charles Darwin himself spent about 9 days on the island to observe animals. Later in the 1920’s and 1960’s it was used for salt mining. Early around 6:00am we left the boat for the first “wet-landing” on the island. We arrived at Puerto Egas and walked along the trail observing seal lions and marine iguanas. On the way we arrived at the tidal pools where you can see the rare fur seals. These animals were hunted until almost extinction because of there fur but meanwhile they about to recover. It is unbelievable how friendly Galapagos animals are. They don’t know the fear for humans. You can go very closely and sit in between them to observe. Amazing! It is better than I ever expected it could be! After a quick break for breakfast on the boat we went for a snorkel and saw beautiful turtles. From the boat I watched actually a shark hunting tuna… In the afternoon we visited another site of that island with sea lions hanging out on the beach everywhere. We did a hike up through an area with lots of cactus while observing several birds like the finches, mockingbirds, frigate birds, boobies and pelicans. Everywhere you look there is abundant wildlife!

Puerto Egas at Isla Santiago
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Snorkel  near Isla Santiago

Isla Rabida

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This day started with a short night. Sleeping in the Mercure Hotel in Quito was kind of unpleasant. The bathroom was dirty but I didn’t mind. I found hairs of previous guests. But I was angry after I had washed my hair and the hairdryer was not working properly. Calling the reception and asking for a new one seemed to be difficult. Even more they suggested me to bring one in the morning – but my hair was wet – NOW. Finally I got a hairdryer and also only three more hours of sleep. When I woke up some coins felt out of my pockets and while I was reaching for them I found something else – a used sock what was not mine! This actually never had happened to me before. Not even to mention that the organization of my trip was very unorganized! I didn’t even received the welcome letter with the trip itinerary. So I had missed the meeting with one guide what was the previous evening.
Well in the end we arrived at the airport and around noon in Galapagos.
Galapagos. Finally my dream become true of the islands known to be the Garden Eden and the island where Charles Darwin came up with his evolution theory.
I had done so much to fulfill that dream that it seemed surreal sitting in the plane to it. While checking in at customs I even felt sort of sentimental and had to swallow to not cry because of happiness. At the airport of Baltra our guide Fabian (Yes same name as the other Fabian in Quito.) picked the group up and brought us all to the little harbor where our boat San José was waiting for us. I got lucky and got the best cabin what was behind the bridge of the boat at the upper level – room 5. That day we had lunch on the boat and went with the little dingy boats for a cruise at Caleta Tortuga Negra (Black Turtle Cove) at the mangroves to spot the first animals…. We saw three species of mangrove, red, white and black and all can be found here. Galapagos was what I thought about it. You just need to be awake and look out and you will see so many animals. On the way to turtle bay the boat was surrounded by flying fregatte birds everywhere. We observed several birds like brown pelicans and noddies who simply wait until the pelican catches some fish and then steal it. Funny to watch these naughty birds! Then we watched mating turtles and white tip reef sharks. I still had to pinch myself to realize that I was there… But I am!

Ecuadors capital Quito is wonderful. Everywhere you see old colonial style houses and churches. The streets and especially the Plaza Grande. After the coup the army was standing around the Palacio de Carondelet. I actually felt like a giant between all those small people. Even the soldiers were smaller… It is good to be back in South America. The people are so warm and friendly and it is easy to talk to people everywhere.

synthroid shelf life Basilica de voto nationale

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I got up around 6:00 am to be ready to start my new adventure with the flight to Atlanta. Over there we did a stopover for a few hours and then checked in the plane to Quito. The plane arrived earlier than planed around 9:35 pm. The airport was packed. Lots and lots of people were waiting for someone to pick up as well as travel guides tried to find all to their travel group belonging members like a shepherd their sheep. It was so noisy but still interesting to watch. While still sitting in the plane my Spanish came easily back so while waiting for Karl I checked already how to come to the place we stay over night and got a map of Quito to not get lost. I had organized the night ago another couchsurf place with Fabian who is photographer in Ecuador and had already published amazing picture books about Ecuador. He had given me great instructions in English and Spanish as well how to come to his house and it worked quite well to find it even in the dark. Did you know Quito was that high in altitude? It’s like Bogota and the temperature at night was 11°C! The roads are very curvy and the city was way bigger than I expected.
Fabian is a very nice guy and had so many interesting stories about the political situation and traveling Ecuador, Galapagos and South America. Since he does pictures all over its interesting for me even more. The coup was actually just a show the president once a prof at university had made to get more attention internationally. More show than anything else but people had to die for it.

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As I looked out the window this day was becoming a great sunny day.  I was unsure about what to do since the friend of mine Karl who is going to help me with filming the Galapagos adventure for the first two weeks arrived today by plane. I have no proper working phone at the moment (Yes I know – but in the jungle I don’t need it…) so it would be difficult to reach him and best seemed to wait until he pops in at Anthony apartment. I had hoped he could stay there for one night but in the moment the doorbell rang Anthony had different plans what I needed to accept. So the big mission started to find Karl a place last minute to stay in NYC for one night. It was ridiculous! After having a few soda we were looking desperately for a room. But all about $500 for one night! In the end we found him a decent place for $300! I would have never expected that since NYC seemed to be so full of places to stay…
We didn’t do anything at night I was simply to tired and exhausted…

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I still have to recover my jet lag. I am so tired – I think I slept for ages. At least I missed nothing since the weather was rainy and cold and the best thing to do was enjoying the view from the 39th floor of the building I stay in at the east side. I ordered some Chinese food and waited for my host Anthony to come home… At night we left for some American Macaroni and Cheese and I checked out the cameras at night. I took some Big Apple night impressions of couple of building like my favorite – the Flat Iron Building.

View 39th floor

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Let the new adventure start. And yes it was an adventure right from the beginning. After getting up around 5am I was dropped off at Berlin TXL airport. I decided to be more than early – just in case and because I wanted to declare the cameras for my trip at the customs. To be honest that wasn’t working because of the German way of things. The customs wanted me to show some papers / bills what says that these items belong to me. But I simply didn’t have them because I didn’t buy all of them and I didn’t knew. Anyhow I will be fine. Later while waiting for my first connection flight to Dusseldorf what had more than 1h delay I met first Timo and later Patrick from Hawaii. So I actually had some nice conversation while waiting for ages. Fortunately my second flight was waiting because too many people had connection flights to the US. But again, while sitting at the plane to NYC one passenger had the crazy idea not to fly out of a sudden. So the plane had to stop just because of that traveler and they needed to find his baggage what took them over an hour again! Then we lost our starting slot and had to wait again. Finally we left. Meanwhile I was so tired that I just simply wanted to sleep! And so I did. When I woke up they had put a new neighbor next to me that is a successful German artist who lives for years in the Big Apple. We started a conversation and this one lasted until we arrived in JFK airport. I have to say this guy Clemens actually could talk even more than me! But all very entertaining so time was passing by quickly. We took the train and I took another bus to find the place I wanted to stay couchsurfing. A girl accompanied me and showed me the way to the building where I finally arrived. My host Anthony lives at the 39th level and the view is great. Maybe not as great as it could be if it wasn’t raining. But still impressing. Actually I am not even the only couchsurfer at his place at the moment. Another girl from Lithuania stays at his place already since a few days.

I took this snapshot while sitting in the train to Manhattan… Typical NYC!
Look closer… Can you tell me what is wrong?

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