As we sat airside in our flying mobile we thought we had entered the red bull flying challenge unawares... picture this, you get put into the smallest plane in the world (did you know that there is more room in a 2-seater helicopter?) and a little Ecuadorean man in his orange jump suit appears to give the propellers a tug, not that it seemed to help much but after another 2 guys joined him (I think they worked in the cafe) they finally managed to get it going... at this point Jo is starting to hmmm raiders of the lost ark theme tune and Candi is burying herself down into her chair tightening the seatbelt to a rather constrictive position... we will leave you with those thoughts and jump forward to landing with Jo´s ear semi intact on the island of Isabella (Galapagos) - Jo jumps out of the plane at the airport (or rather a mud strip that was perhaps mistaken for the airport?!) with a spring in her step, a beaming smile and many hand-shakes with the pilot having had an amazing flight.. somewhere in the background Candi ejects herself from the tiny opening with a pale face and shaky legs...On to the check-point where our bags were inspected for organic materials (which are banned here) only to find with much amusement George & Maddie were looking back up at her from their sleeping bag... Enough said on that one.
Moving on... we arrive at Casa De Marita (advertised as the best hotel on Isabella... if I tell you it is the only hotel on Isabella it will probably explain everything... Mmm. It really is in a fantastic, idyllic spot, our room is right on the beautiful white sand beach... there’s hot water... erm... and MASSIVE spiders to keep us warm at night... oh and the other occupants of the hotel are Americans... now in a normal circumstance neither of us have the slightest problem with Americans.. in fact we quite like the whole culture but for some reason every rude, loud, irritating American seems to be staying at this hotel... did you know it is not possible to close a door, you must SLAM it...?? Plus, in all of Jo´s joy of being away on holidays... we awake on the 1st morning stroll into the breakfast room and EVERYONE turns around and stares at us (Candi is wondering whether she has a massive bogey hanging out of her nose?) and Jo says MORNING with glee... to get all of ZERO responses other than a grunt.. Mmm.. we scuttle around the back and sit quietly at our table...
Onto day 2 on Isabella and off on our first trip... much less eventful in the negative sense and much more eventful in the reasons that we are here...
Las Tintoreras - a panga (dinghy) ride across the bay (once again this is a time where Candi just HATEs the fact that she trains powerboaters as a job... a 14yr old sat at the helm of this crusty wooden panga with a 50hp Yam 2-stroke on the back, the kill cord is replaced with a bit of twine wrapped around the button (FYI this was not attached to anything or anyone at the other end just dragging in the water behind us) we manoeuvre our way through VERY shallow waters which are full of MASSIVE lumps of lava rock (very sharp) - every so often the engine would be thrown into the air by the 14yr old to avoid ripping the prop off and then dumped back down where he would then use it as a seat...??? For god sake... can you really mistake it for a seat? and on that note can you really steer it whilst sat on it? - Plus a few of you may be able to appreciate this too... pangas are personalised here in a very special way... t-shirts are cut and fitted to the engine covers... we even saw a Volcom one!! (much respect- he must have nicked it off someone’s clothes line at the hostel).
Animal counts on route (whilst on the panga) - penguins, sea lions, sea turtles, blue footed boobies, pelicans- quite impressive really!
Las Tintoereras is a little island resembling a scene from Jurassic park, firstly the landscape was volcanic lava mounds, but better than that was hundreds of giant marine iguanas (resemble dinosaurs), sally light-foot crabs, and much to Jo´s absolute ecstatic joy white tip reef sharks...just as she is dangling her sandal clad toe over the water’s edge Candi reads aloud the sign a short distance away ´Shark sleeping ground - no swimming´ and I am sure below this in small print it would have said for fear of legs being chewed off.. but alas Jo still wanted to throw herself in amongst 20 sharks so she could stroke them (as she has done before) like they are a pet dog or something?? INSANE... Candi is stood well back at this point... with a very worried expression.
More to come...
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