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Published: August 9th 2007
Well I'm back now from the Galapagos. Of course I had a nice time and saw lots of amazing animals, birds and fish at close quarters. Its true what they say that the animals here really aren't afraid of humans. The scenery too was very spectacular and very desolate since all the islands are made entirely from volcanic activity. Huge lava flows and strange cactus trees grimly hanging on were the order of the day.
I was greeted with bright sunshine on arrival at the airport on Baltra north of the main island of Santa Cruz but it was soon to become apparent that this wouldn´t be the norm. After crossing a narrow channel to the main island I hopped in a por puesto taxi with a random french guy who I´d met during the flight (and had been chatting in spanish with). As we topped the pass to the south side of the island we were suddenly engulfed in fog, and the temperature dropped just as quickly. Apparently it was Garùa season and drizzly sea fog especially on the southern side of the islands (brought in by Humboldt Current) was to be the norm. Ah!
Well I parted
ways with the French guy - he was doing a different and annoyingly cheaper tour - and found myself the cheapest room in town. But still not cheap by South American standards at $15 a night. Also it had a shower that tried on several occasions to electricute me (readers note: always switch off fuse before handling metal taps for any shower, especially those with external wiring, in south america) and some rather unsympathetic staff. The room was nice though.
For the remaining afternoon I took a stroll down to the Charles Darwin Centre, still active in a research role judging by all the gringo phd types ´hard´ at work there, and tagged along behind a tour group to overhear the explanation of the anomalies between shell types of the various tortoises from the various islands in the group. Having taken tortiose photos from every conceivable angle, I (we) moved on to the iguanas lounging on the pier. At this point I got into trouble from one of the guides for what was to be the first of many occasions. Apparently I approached an iguana too rapidly. Poor thing, it got up and scampered away - that´ll teach it
for lazing about on the pier. Telling off no 2. followed rapidly. This time I was informed I wasn´t allowed to climb down off the pier onto the lava rock beach below (black iguanas are easily trodden on when lying on black lava). The Galapagos islands were starting to cheese me off. Or at least the guides of the Galapagos islands were.
On the way back to town I took in the fish landing area where the fish are gutted and sold to restaurants etc. Pelicans and the odd sealion flock here to feed on the scraps. And they have no fear. They´ll tread on you to get a piece of fish gut tossed their way. That entertained me for a good half an hour. I strolled back to the centre at the Muelle (pier) where I´d catch my tour group 2 days hence and found a cafe for a coffee (real coffee! what a surprise) and there met two people kind of randomly. The first was a guy from Colombia called Mauricio who´d i´d first met in Rurrenebaque in Bolivia 2 months earlier. He´d been moving north a bit faster than me, but had ended up staying on
the Galapagos for 3 weeks and was loving it. Well I left him to his group of friends from a tour he´d just finished, but we did promise to meet up in Quito, though it never happened in the end. Then I ended up chatting to one of the people from the tour i´d be following earlier in the day. An Indian girl on a trip with her bro´ and mum. Well I can´t remember anything about what we talked about, but I´m sure it was interesting - I never saw her again though and after she headed off for dinner I watched Ecuador losing again in the Copa America.
The next day I had all to myself to explore the main island. The idea was to do everything in guide book, but as it happened the walk to the nearby Tortuga Bay took the entire day, once i´d photoed a few more iguanas, had a dip in the water, fed some of the local birds, then hired a sea kayak to explore the far reaches of the bay. I had all too brief glimpses of rays, white tip sharks (actually I bumped into one that was sleeping -
don´t know who was more surprised), and sea turtles which would bob their heads up for a second then dive under again. Of course I got horrendously sunburnt too despite the fact that it was only sunny for 30 mins.
So jump to the next day and the start of the tour. Well things started well as I was met promptly at the pier as arranged and taken to the boat. At first glance it didn´t quite look as nice as the others but once aboard I couldn´t help but smile at the wooden finish in the dining room and the rather compact bedrooms (bunkbeds). The rest of the group arrived finally about 2 hours late. But at least I was given a nice glass of tree tomato juice (tastes nothing like tomatoes) and a ham sandwich.
That afternoon we went off to another tortoise park higher up on the island where we (yep you´ve guessed it) took photos of tortoises from every conceivable angle (and also watched some Ecuadorians sitting on the tortoises for a photoshoot - and they didn´t get a ticking off!). So the group consisted of an American family (mum, bro´, sis, and sis´s
friend) from Ohio, an older Uruguaian couple who entertained us no end, a French couple, a Polish couple (constantly ill), a Dutch couple (definitely lesbians) and a young English lad called James who was to be my room mate.
Evening back aboard, we finally ended up setting sail way after 11pm (I was feeling slightly nonplussed at paying for a 4 day tour when one day had so little boat action).
So Day 2. Well we all got on pretty well, especially the English speaking contingent as we toured the islands. The first island had crazy white trees all over it, a few lazy sea lions, and some nice snorkelling with the sea lions. Next we headed to San Fernando. For more iguanas, sea lions, and lots of crabs. Snorkelling this time I came head to head with a rather angry male sea lion. It swam within about 5cm of me. And I´d guess if it really didn´t like me I would have been dinner (i´d estimate it was about 3m long and 1000 pounds). Fortunately I obviously didn´t appear too tasty with my luminous snorkelling gear on. I also swam with some slighly less scary turtles. That
evening we ploughed on in the boat... with people variously scattered dosing an the ship. Somehow it was all very tiring work. That night it was early to bed again.
Day 3, and on to Bartolemew Island. An island formed within the last 100 years by volcanic activity. A bit of a grey start to the day. During the hike up to get the view, more telling off for stepping outside the markers (by this point me and our guide weren´t getting on at all well, but i won´t labour the details). The afternoon the weather improved and we got some more snorkelling in. The promised schools of sharks failed to appear though, likewise the penguins (well we saw a couple). Next we went for a hike over a lava flow that was quite impressive indeed. And pretty much devoid of life, and also rather oppressive in the late afternoon sunshine.
On the way to our final dock for the night (some of) we were lucky to see a whale basking right next to the boat and a few other distant unindentified objects.
That night we all felt a bit more energetic so the cards were brought
out, but still all in bed by about 10:30pm, despite it being the last night aboard.
The final day the garùa didn´t disappoint. Another grey start. This time we went on a brief excursion on dinghy to see some blue footed boobies. Interesting. And also turtles in black turtle cove, before being plonked off at the dock near the airport for the return trip. For some reason I´d got myself on a 2pm flight which meant an extra 2 hours wait after the rest of the group had gone. I took a 20 minute stroll down to the closest beach, and it was there that I got a view of some of the best wildlife of the trip. More birds and turtles in the water, plus a huge shark swimming around. And I also got some extreme closeups of a crab which got itself caught in a niche in a rock and couldn´t escape! Nice!
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Katravels
Katherine
Lovely photos
Love the crab photo! Was it good camara zoom or just a very friendly crab?? Makes me want to go back to the Galapagos already!