Galapagos & giant tortoise Farm

We landed on Baltra, a former WWII base for America and currently one of the Airports located in the Galapagos. The airport was nice, open-aired so the wind breezed thru the airport. We paid our $100 admission fee to the Galapagos National Park and were taken to the ferry that took us across a strait to the Island of Santa Cruz.

Instead of going straight to our hotel, we immediately were taken to see the highlands of Santa Cruz, which are not high by California standards. Rain and mist wafted over us as we viewed the sights. It was amazing to go from the humid air port, to the rainy highlands, in a matter of 45 minutes or so.

The giant tortoise farm had giant tortoises wandering loose around a larged fenced area (several acres). Before finding any tortoises, we encountered scat, giant scat as might be expected from a giant tortoise. It was in fact giant tortoise poop. Shortly after encountering the scat, we saw the source. One of my roomates and I are pictured with our first giant tortoise.

Off to the Galapagos!

With the first swimming meet out of the way, we are finally on our way to Galapagos, the main reason for the trip (for most of us). Several of us, desperate for a good cup of coffee, walked over to a more expensive hotel than our own and got real, brewed coffee before catching our early morning flight. As the picture shows, despite the early hour, we were happy with our coffee!

Winning Relay

One of the advantages of being an older swimmer is outliving the competition! Since only two ecuadorian women over the age of 55 were competing, the DAM 55+ women won the 4x100 relay. Although 3 of us are 60+, we had to compete in the age group of our youngest swimmer, Nancy. Pictured are Betty, Nancy, Leslie & Me.

Brass Band

Did I mention the brass band? Yep, they had a brass band play a few numbers. It was either a police brass band or a transit police band, don't remember which. Ecuadorians do like their ceremonies! This is the only swim meet with a live brass brand that I can recall in my entire life. The Ecuadorians certainly know how to make things special!

Pomp & Circumstances at the Swim Meet

The Ecuadorians like pomp & circumstance and they started the swim meet with a parade, unexpected by us since swim meets in the USA usually start with a blow of the whistle. But suddenly, we had to line up and then they got the officials in some sort of order (not understood by us, probably head official first, stroke & turn judges following, etc) and then this woman in high heels and a dress was put into the parade (see picture, the woman with the pink color in her dress). She was the only person wearing a dress at the pool. I asked who she was & what her function was, and one of the Ecuadorian swimmers explained, in broken English, that she didn't know who she was but it was customary to have a pretty woman at the head of a parade. I wondered if she was Miss Guayaquil (or maybe the reigning virgin of Guayaquil. . . . just a though I didn't utter). And then we and the Ecuadorian Team and the one swimmer from Brazil paraded around the pool (I am wearing my swim cap since I was in the first heat).

The Swim Meet

This trip to Ecuador was a Swim Team Trip (Davis Aquatic Masters), so naturally, at some point, we had to compete. In fact, we had two competitive swims on this trip, a pool meet in Guayaquil and an open water swim in the Galapagos! The first open water swim ever in the Galapagos!

Our host was an Ecuadorian swim team located in Guayaquil. Our swim coach was a peace corp volunteer in Ecuador back in the 1960s and his job was to coach young ecuadorians. The fruit of his labor, adult swimmers, hosted us and put on the swim meet.

We were not very wide awake when we arrived at the swimming pool. The lack of decent coffee (Ecuadorians, like many Latin Americans, love their instant Nescafe. Good, freshly brewed coffee was difficult to find in Ecuador) was taking its toll. All of us could have used a double shot expresso. As could the Ecuadorians since they were not moving very fast either. The meet was suppose to start at 9 a.m. but didn’t start until almost 11:00.

Beach at Salinas

Because it was not warm, most of us sat on the sand, under rented umbrellas ($5 a day), as the bathing beauties in the picture did. Only a few got in the water (except Ryan and Becky and their dad, pictured). Myself, I walked up and down the beach and took pictures of those sunning themselves and fended off trinket salsement. It wasn't quite the warm, sunny day at the beach that we had hoped for!