On the afternoon of Christmas Eve, we took the 2-hour boat ride to Isla Isabela accompanied by our friend Mike who had just returned from a 3-day cruise of the southeast islands. That evening the hotel staff at Casa de Marita prepared a delicious Christmas meal complete with turkey (yum!) and spice cake for dessert.
Compared to the hustle and bustle of Puerto Ayora where we live, Puerto Villamil on Isla Isabela is a small tranquil town with sandy streets and a beautiful long beach. Except for Mike’s hike to Volcan Chico, we took it pretty easy and still managed to see flamingos and penguins.
The most exciting thing to happen was the rescue of a frigate bird. Mike and I watched from a distance as a group of boys threw what looked like a piece of fish or meat into the air for the frigate birds to catch. It turned out that the bait was tied to a reel of fishing line, and the “successful” bird became completely ensnared. It was heartbreaking to watch it soar into the air only to be pulled down and entangled further. Eventually it crashed to the ground, and Mike followed the line to reach the bird. While Roger held it (with beak scars to prove it), Mike carefully cut the line. Once released, it wobbled for a moment and then flew away, so we hope that there was no lasting damage. We’re not sure if the boys intended to harm the bird (more likely they were just not thinking through their actions) but we relieved them of their fishing line.
Mike left on the 27th for the two day voyage back to Vancouver by boat, taxi and plane(s), and Roger and I stayed a few more days extending our reservation by one night. When we did try to leave at 6am on the 30th we found we weren’t on the list and the boats were full, so back to the hotel until another boat left in the afternoon.
Here are more photos from Isabela.
The day we left Isabela we received the sad news that my cat Stella had died. She was 17 years old and hadn’t been well for the past few weeks. Many of you know that I’ve had Stella since I moved to Vancouver in 1995 because she “came with the apartment”. Since then, she moved with me numerous times, sometimes sharing her space (albeit unwillingly) with others like Pudding, Kat, Mickey and Yogi. She came to Ontario with me when I was finishing my thesis, and she actually moved in with Roger four months before I did. I’ve been fortunate to have such good friends to take care of her over the years, and that Jackie and Dave stepped in at the end when her health failed. Stella spent her last few days at their cabin on the Sunshine Coast eating, sleeping and sitting on Jackie’s lap. Here are a few photos of Stella.
Not wanting to end on a sad note, here is a photo that we took today at the beach near the Darwin station. We wish everyone all the best for 2011! Apparently, Puerto Ayora is quite exciting on New Year’s Eve with burning effigies and loud fireworks, so there may be interesting photos to come.
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