At this point you’re probably thinking, “jeez, are there iguanas and sea lions everywhere?” Yes, 1000 times yes. So, so many iguanas and sea lions. But I mean, that’s…why we came here. And this is free, so quit your complaining. There is a post office with postcards from around the world. They’re unstamped, and you’re supposed to find one near your home that you can deliver in person. Sure enough, there was one for Brooklyn Heights. Too bad I accidentally threw it out. And too bad our tour guide never mentioned the post office, so none of us had postcards ready to go. Oh well. Finally, check out this shot of Layla and me in the “chiba,” which is a form of transport that’s kinda like a cross between a pickup truck and a wooden box. No doors, no windows, no seatbelts, NO RULES. “Chiba” means female goat in Caribbean Spanish, and it also apparently is a term for weed. So there’s that.
Floreana has a long, strange history I won’t go into here. Basically there were some pirates, then the Wittmers came from Germany, and now it’s an island with 150 people and one of the few natural sources of water in the archipelago. There are no longer any native tortoises here, because sailors were careless in mixing species and leaving them here. So the national park decided to set up an enclosure and let the tortoises live out their lives in peace. Here we learned about the “sweet dream” trees whose flowers produce a compound akin to Rohypnol, so from here on out we joked that we’d be sweet dreaming people if they didn’t stay in line. Continue reading
Waking up early after a long night out in Floreana (yes, there is such a thing as a “bar” on this 150-person island), we strolled along the black sand beach admiring the sun-gathering sea lions, crabs and marine iguanas. I’m including a few photos of our hotel (if you can call it that…what’s hot water?), the cute restaurant where our meals were served, and one of the many Siamese cats roaming around.
After the bumpy boat ride, it seemed that only Team LadyBoyTime were up for the sunset snorkel on the beach of our basically majestic beyond words Floreana hotel. Well, rip currents be damned! Donning our wetsuits for the first time, we set off in search of sea turtles. “Where are they, Juan,” I gurgled through my snorkel several times? “Over here,” he replied, pointing as jagged rocks darting in and out of focus. Alex and I made our way over, as a sea lion broke the surface to get a quick glance at us before darting away. I’m not going to lie, the water was pretty cold and dark, and not just a few times did I think I was going to beach on a rock and/or drown. At the last minute we spotted this huge, slow, amazing sea turtle. I followed him/her for a few minutes, and before I knew it everyone had made it back to shore. “Michael, what are you doing?” “Sea gurgle turtle gurgle.” Spoiler alert: I didn’t drown. Then the sun set over the ocean horizon — our only chance to see such a thing on this trip.
Lady Boy Time 