26-JAN-11: Sombrero Chino The Flamingo chugged along during lunch and siesta until we reached an island called Sombrero Chino mid-afternoon. It really did look like a broad-based conical Chinese Hat. Not sure why I didn’t take a picture of it. Our underwater shots the prior times snorkeling had been green…
25-JAN-11: Isla Isabela After snorkeling, we had a panga (Galapaguena for “Zodiac” boat) ride along the cliff-coast of Isla Isabela to see penguins and flightless cormorants and blue-footed boobies. I shot well over 800 today, but we saw so many blue-footed boobies on this ride, even I got tired and…
25-JAN-11: Isla Isabela In the afternoon, we snorkeled in a bay on Isla Fernandina. The conditions and visibility were atrocious. I kept my head down under the water mainly to avoid looking at the scum floating on the surface. Oddly enough, I wasn’t bothered by my hair going through the…
25-JAN-11: Isla Fernandina Another long night of dozing, not sleeping as the Flamingo crawled about 150 miles west to Isla Fernandina; from the northeastern most island, to the far northwest of the archipelago. Within five feet of our landing point, there were six or seven iguanas sitting there amidst a…
24-JAN-11: Isla Genovesa Seriously. Just. Plain. Stupid. This was my first reaction to the Nazca Boobies we encountered on Isla Genovesa. They were just standing there, on the ground, waddling like penguins and not moving when we got close. What bird doesn’t know to fly away when a human gets…
31-JAN-11: Isla Santa Cruz That’s basically all we’ve done for the past 24 hours. Hopped in the pool, walked around Puerto Ayora, had a couple meals. I’ve been entranced by the little band of ducks that live in the hotel pool. They’re tiny and cute. My back is getting better.…
I took a perfect picture today in the last 30 minutes of my visit to Thursday’s market in Chichicastenango (gallery), the last real 30 minutes of my vacation. It was of a young woman–maybe 15, though she could have been a few years younger and maybe even 10 years older–wearing…
No, not incredible: well-nigh infallible. I once spent four hours wandering aimlessly in White Sands National Monument, going a dozen different directions among acres of indistinguishable white sand dunes, and came out just 30 feet from where I went in. Yes, mind you, I thought I was 30 feet above…
I was out on the nature path by 7:15 a.m. this morning. I was actually weirded out: this was a very different jungle, and it was obvious no one had been on the path in days, if not longer. I was utterly alone. Within five minutes, I heard a huge…
It occured to me a map of Tikal might make it easier to figure out my wanderings in the park. To enlarge, just click.
