South America (Part 8) - saved the best for last, the Galapagos

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Darwin sailed through the Galapagos Islands during the 1830´s and is famously (apparently) the place where he developed his evolution of species theories due to the differences in the flora and fauna not only between the islands collectively and other places in the world, but between the islands themselves.

The Galapagos Islands are certainly something to behold, and has made it into one of the top 2 destinations of our whole trip (together with China).

We knew this part was going to be one of the most expensive of our whole trip, so we debated for a long time how we should do it. Luxurious boat, budget boat, land based with day trips etc. But in Bolivia, we met a guy that had been on a trip with GAP adventures (similar to Intrepid who we´d done our China trip with) so about a month ago we booked ourselves on the GAP Budget 10 day Galapagos Adventure. This was much cheaper (at about $2k each) than some of the $3-4k luxurious boats you get out there but it seemed to cover everything we wanted so we felt confident about it. In the end, I don´t think we could have made a better choice, value for money wise.

I´ve tried to add some different photos to the ones I posted on facebook but here are the links for those too.



Day 1 - Quito

We first started our 10 day trip in Quito, as mentioned by Patrick at Hotel La Cartuja. What Patrick hadn´t mentioned was that it was probably the nicest hotel we´d stayed in for a while. Not only did they provide towels but they also had hand towels and little soaps. What better could you get?! Day 1 evening we met the rest of the group and it was a nice surprise that most of the people were actually our age or near enough anyway, no 18/19 year olds as the trip was advertised as for the 18-35 age bracket (in fact you had to be under 39 to go on it!).

Day 2 - Santa Cruz

So very early Day 2 we set out to the airport for our 2 leg flight, unfortunately, to the little airport on Baltra Island. We didn´t realise we had to touch down briefly in Guayaquil but the flight was ok in the end. It was quite nice finally reaching some heat (having spent the last 4 months without any!) as we walked off the plane on Baltra, where we were met by a GAP rep to take us to the boat. A 10 minute bus ride, 10 minute ferry, and 45 minute bus ride (through Santa Cruz highlands) later we were met by the boat Zodiacs (dingies) for our taxi out to our boat. The boat, the Galapagos Adventure 2, was a nice surprise. It only had 8 berths for the guests, so at 15 of us it was pretty much full. We lucked out getting a cabin upstairs, as the bottom ones were really noisy being closer to the engine, and although it was bunk beds (guess who´s on the top one?!) we had our own little bathroom. We did have by far the smallest room but being up top certainly trumped the rest of them.

This day would be a slightly different routine from the rest as although we would be on the boat for 7 nights, most of the group booked a shorter tour so would only be on the boat for 3 nights. So 5 of us went with our guide, Julio, into the highlands on Santa Cruz island to go look for the giant tortoises ´in the wild´ whilst the rest of the group went to the Darwin Centre, where we would go on our last morning.

Firstly however we travelled about 30 minutes to get to a lava tube. The islands are all volcanic, so there are apparently these lava tubes everywhere, but obviously the whole islands being managed as a national park, this one was the only one open for visitors. The tube was actually pretty impressive, being quite big and stretching 800m through the rock, quite a strange feeling that once hot lava would be flowing through, not just water. Only half the cave was acessible to ´normal´visitors, but as Julio would keep reminding us, we were on the ´adventure´tour so walking unsteadly over rubble and crawling on our bellies under low overhangs we then went into the more accessible section where we met the geriatrics on the next tour bus. Quite cool to see.

And then onwards ´into the wild´. I don´t know what I was expecting, but I guess giant tortoises aren´t your usual growling scary wild animals so I would say more ´seeing them in the natural environment´ would be more appropriate than saying ´seeing them in the wild´. They are massive things. These are the dome shaped ones. As we would discover more later, each island´s tortoises look different as it depended on what and where their food was. But anyway, these are the biggest ones, growing to about 250kg. We spent an hour or so wandering around finding quite a few of them and then got back to town before getting back on the boat.

This blog could very quickly become very long, so I´ll try cut down a bit, but in general this was our movements for the next 6 days. It would be a 7am breakfast, followed by a dry (shoes) or wet (flip flops) landing on one of the islands, then back to the boat for a snorkel from the zodiacs, followed by lunch, then another dry or wet landing, another snorkel, then back for snacks, a briefing about the next day´s activities, and then dinner. All quite jam packed. The food was very good and there was certainly enough of it.

Day 3 - Floreana

So after an overnight sailing, we arrived to the island of Floreana. The wet landing on the island produced our first sighting of the very cool blue footed boobies, as well as several other birds, and the seal lions which we would eventually see everywhere. On the very first snorkel we were lucky to swim with the sea lions. Well everyone else did anyway as I was already trying to warm up back in the zodiac (the waters around here are freezing during August unfortunately, about 17-18 degrees which is definitely not ideal swimming temperatures, even with a wetsuit!). On the way to the second site of the day we saw loads of dolphins swimming together in the open water, and even some swimming alongside our boat. On the second snorkel we would also swim for the first time with a turtle. The afternoon wet landing was very cool going to a beach where there are stingrays in the shallow waters which you can stand right next to (as long as you stand feet apart to allow them to go through if they get behind you!). This was a great taster first day.

Day 4 - Espanola

After yet another (really rocky this time) overnight sailing we arrived at Espanola island, which was our guide´s favourite island. Julio I should mention was a really great guide. He was a level I guide (which means he is relatively new compared to some of the other guides, and doesn´t speak that many languages) but knew enough stuff to keep us interested, and was very enthusiastic and fun to be with. This island was probably where we saw the most animals on the trip. As soon as we arrived on our first landing sight we were surrounded by loads of sea lions and marine iguanas. Most of the group snorkeled off the beach here but I saved myself for the second snorkel as I decided it was much too cold, and apparently a good choice as there wasn´t much in the water. The second landing sight was on another side of the island and full of bird life, including my now favourite blue footed boobies, and their very cute babies, the Nazca boobies (black footed), albatross, and lots of other birds, the names of which I obviously wasn´t paying attention to. What was noticeable on both these landings was how close we could get to all the animals and birds without them even flinching. A trait developed from having no predators for most of their (and their ancestors) lives. The main rule of the Galapagos is however not to touch the animals, no matter how cute!! Back on the boat we also saw a humpback whale with its baby. Unfortunately it was quite far away for pictures but quite a sight to see.

Day 5 - Santa Cruz and North Seymour

This was an early start to take a zodiac ride into the mangroves at Punta Cormorant, Santa Cruz. It was actually lovely to be in the calm waters just as day broke, watching pelicans diving into the water for their morning feed, as well as seeing all sorts of rays (sting and eagle) and also loads of baby sharks in the shallow waters. We were back to the boat by 8am and 10 of our group departed to head back to Quito. Although the waters had been pretty rough, so not particularly comfortable being on the boat in the evenings, all of us remaining agreed it would have been terribly disappointing if we´d had to get off the boat at this point. The sun also greeted us, having been shrouded in cloud since we boarded the boat, so 4 of us, excluding Patrick, sat up the front of the boat, and in the end got thoroughly burnt, which Patrick then felt very clever having not done it! During our wait for the next group to board we had fun shark spotting from the boat, with the boys lying on their bellies at the back of the boat with their faces (with masks) ducked in the water. We did see quite a few sizeable sharks, funny they wouldn´t let us snorkel with them at this point!

The next group of 11 people (mixed 7 and 10 day tour) finally arrived at lunchtime, together with a new guide in tow. Julio wasn´t feeling well so unfortunately had to leave us and we swapped him for Franklin. Franklin was a level II guide, and had lots and lots of knowledge but doesn´t generally do the GAP tours (he was drafted in at the last minute). He normally did the 100 person boat tours, which I can only assume was full of over 80 year olds or 10 year old kids, as that is how he proceeded to talk to us like for the next 5 days.

So, anyway, that afternoon we had a dry landing on North Seymour island, which was the mating ground for the frigate birds, who puff up a big red balloon under their chins to attract mates. We also saw a lot more baby boobies of differing ages, and of course the very friendly sea lions. No snorkeling this day, but the crew would use big fish heads to bait more sharks as we sailed to the next island. Very cool.

Day 6 - Rabida and Santiago Island

Rabida island was a red sand island, caused by different crystallization of the volcanic rock (I´ll save you the 20 minute version provided by Frank). There wasn´t much animal life on the island so it was more about the flora, which didn´t really float our boat a huge amount! We did see some flowers which were hard to come by at this time in the Galapagos, it being dry season. Most of the islands were quite dry, so very little green, but lots of cool cactus. This snorkelling off this beach was very colourful though with star fish and parrot fish and again some playing sea lions.

The black sand island of Santiago, was again not full of animals but I quite liked the scenery of the black lava and red brush, covered with loads of marine iguanas. The snorkel however was memorable as Patrick and I came across 5 turtles swimming around. We even had to back away as the biggest one came right at us at one point. Just amazing.

Day 7 - Sombrero Chino and Bartolome

The island of Sombrero Chino (China hat, so called because it looked like one!) was a very stark island but very exciting for me as it was our first sighting of the Galapagos Penguin! There are less than 800 pairs of these penguins, so sightings are not guaranteed. But we saw a pair early morning before our landing on the island, as well as a baby penguin. So cute! The island itself again was a little dull unfortunately, but interesting to see how different the islands are in terms of scenery. The snorkelling in the area was quite good through as we saw a big sting ray and a shark hiding in a cave and lots of fish.

After a short sail we arrived at Bartolome island which was even more stark but had a nice view point at the top overlooking some of the islands. The best snorkel so far though as we found a penguin to swim with, eventually with only me and Patrick with him as well as the rest of the group had gone on to find other things. This was however my highlight and was happy to watch him dart very quickly around the water for a good 15 minutes before he decided he´d had enough playing and darted off again. So so cool and I went to bed happy.

Day 8 - South Plaza Island and Santa Fe

Our penultimate day on the boat and it was a good ending to a great cruise. Today would be land iguana day. South Plaza island was very scenic with a red covering of brush, and cool cactus. Here we´d see loads of birds again and the land iguanas with yellow heads.

Santa Fe island was very dry, and we´d only see here the completely yellow iguanas and loads of sea lions again. Somehow I never tired of the sea lion pups, and as we were leaving the island we´d have an encounter with 2 pups who bounded up to the group so we all had to back away again so we wouldn´t touch them. I couldn´t stop myself taking yet more pictures of them. Anyone need some sea lion photos?!

Our last snorkel of our trip ended wonderfully swimming on top of loads of eagle rays and a final swim with some sea lions. I don´t think there was more we could have asked for on all our snorkel trips.

Day 9 - Santa Cruz

Our last day started early doors to run through the Darwin centre. Our flight was at 10.40am so unfortunately there wasn´t as much time at the centre as we would have liked but we pretty much saw all we needed to. The Darwin centre was established in 1964 to help the tortoises breed. Unfortunately sailers through the 19th century came through the Galapagos, taking the tortoises off the island as they were good sustainable food (as they could keep them alive until they needed the meat) as well as introducing new animals (goats, rats etc) to the islands. This has resulted in the demise of the tortoises in the Galapagos from 15 species, down to 11, and extreme small numbers of those left. One of the species, from Pinta island, has only 1 tortoise left, Lonesome George (google him), and given the species vary from each island there is no one for him to breed with (although they´re still trying). It´s a very sad story for the tortoises but the centre does a great job and breeds them to release them on islands at about age 5 when their shells are hard enough so they´re not eaten (by rats etc).

Unfortunately we then headed to the airport to fly back to Quito and had one last night out in the Mariscal area with some new found friends.

If you´re still reading this, well done! But this tour was one of our highlights of our whole trip. People keep asking why, and I can´t quite pinpoint it accurately. But the diversity of the islands, their plants, the animals, birds, and how close you can get to them, is all amazing. Quite a once in a lifetime trip (although maybe we´ll return in our old age?) and very unforgettable.

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Photos

Pelican diving for fish
Lucky catch shot!