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Published: November 8th 2006
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After a mad dash around on the Friday in Quito, we managed to get ourselves onto a 4-day cruise of the Galapagos Islands starting the next Monday. The weekend before was spent relaxing and drinking, culminating in us making a sharp exit from a bar of seriously crazy dutchmen, one of whom was determined to get us to spend the early hours of the morning snorting cocaine, another who claimed to be the nephew of the Palestinian leader (he was whiter than us!) and the leader of their group who was a six and half foot rake-thin skinhead who had a large gun under his leather jacket that he kept flashing.
We were both a bit worried about the Galapagos as we suffer from seasickness (and it did happen), but the tour turned out to be truly amazing. We sailed around the Northern islands, and each day we did walking tours, along with snorkelling - both along the shore and deep sea. The guide we should have had got ill just before we arrived, so from our first day till the end of the tour we ended up with a top-grade guide (who stood for the other one) who was
a degree-trained biologist and spoke fluent English. She was really good. She was used to working on the first class luxury liners though (with about 100 passengers) and she had quite a regimented way of running things. Lucy quite liked the order and strictness, but she scared a lot of people, especially the Austrian/German men and maybe myself a little.
We saw most of the animals we would have been able to see (certain species are only endemic to some islands) and the most amazing thing was how tame they all were. Birds would hop out of their nest on the ground (as they have no predators so no need to nest in trees) and would walk right up to you and mill around. It was the same with all the animals. Only the giant tortoises were a bit shy, and it's understandable as people on some of the more remote islands are still hunting them. However as their reaction to shyness is to make a strange hissing noise and retreat into their shell for a couple of minutes it is not really a problem. They soon get their confidence back when they realise you are not going to
hurt them and poke their funny heads back out and continue their relentless eating.
Among the highlights of the cruise was the interesting volcanic scenery, seeing all the different boobies, (no dodgy replies back from you please H.) red footed, blue footed and Nazca, all the other different birds that also seem to just stare at you strangely as if to question what you are doing on their islands. Also the Sea lions feeding their babies, the young ones frolicking in the sea and coming to see what the strange snorkellers are up to. From the boat we were also lucky enough to see a pair of hammer head sharks and turtles including two mating. We did snorkelling every day at different places and both of us didnt panic too much when we saw sharks. As Lucy has just reminded me though that isn't strictly true and she did scream quite a bit as hers was the groups first sighting. We saw a huge variety of multi-coloured fish whos names like the birds I have already forgotten despite our stern guide repeatedly telling us when we asked. I´m just thankful there wasn't an exam at the end. My favourite
part of the snorkelling was on the final day when I found a penguin sat on the rock who kindly jumped into the water for a gentle swim with me. For about 10 minutes he led me on a circular swim around the bay swimming alongside me only a metre or two away the whole way, every now and again peering across at me or sticking his head out the water to see what I looked like above the water. This summed up how the Galapagos felt to us, the wildlife seemed as intrigued at what we were doing as we were of them.
Following the cruise we spent another four days on firm ground staying on the main town of the islands, Puerto Ayora. We took this quite easy as it took at least half a day walking around and a 12 hour sleep to stop the swaying, rocking feeling that we were still on a boat. We spent our time on the beach, at the Charles Darwin Centre and on a couple of day trips. One was to the Highlands to see the giant tortoises in the wild and the lava tunnels. We hired a taxi for
Not a boobie, more of a tit
Our boat the Angelique in the background this who bought his amusing six year old son along with him who spent a lot of time nattering away to me. I would ask him a few basic questions but unfortunately my Spanish is so basic I never understand anyones replies but he didn't let this bother him and just kept going. It was the six year old who led us through the lava tunnels (as its named, huge tunnels in the ground bored through from volcanic lava) which we found quite funny. We soon discovered the reason as we got halfway and had to crawl through tiny spaces and along the ground on our bellies. They were spaces designed for six year old kids not lanky Englishers or fat taxi drivers sensibly sat in their cabs above ground laughing to themselves with a pie in their mouth.
The other day trip was to another island North Seymour that thankfully involved no seasickness but a chance to see Magnificent Frigate Birds. We'd seen them referred to in books and on postcards and thought they must be great as everyone thinks they are magnificent. We finally twigged that is actually part of their name. However as it turned out
Bartolome Island
Home of the friendly penguin they were magnificent, the favourite bird that I saw. This is because at mating season, that we were fortunately in, the males to try and attract the females inflate a little red sack that they have under their neck. When inflated this becomes a like a massive red balloon stapled to their chest and they just sit in the bushes with their beak resting on it waiting for the ladies to come. It seems to work as we saw a few doing it and we also saw a few Frigate chicks.
Now we are back in Quito, avoiding the bar with the crazy dutchmen (pity, its a good bar) and the rain that starts at 2.30 every day. Next stop the jungle.
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Jackie Fishface
non-member comment
Hello
This sounds absolutely amazing - it sounds like you were in an animal documentary. Just a tad jealous.