Galápagos Islands - Day 1

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The day started at an uncivilized hour with a wake up call from the front desk that the kids didn’t realize they’d have to answer in order to make the phone stop ringing; fantastic start to the day.

We had an okay breakfast at the hotel’s restaurant, the unfortunately, or perhaps aptly, named Colon. The day before we had lunch there: having scoped out our options it seemed to be the reasonable choice as a sign in front indicated that the buffet was $11.50 a person. We got our bill for over $100US and were flummoxed at Ecuadorian math until Adrianne pointed out the small(ish) print advising the $14.00 per person servico fee. For a buffet. Anyway, we had breakfast then took a short trip to the Guayquil airport where we were ushered through a perfunctory security check during which a very young looking boy shook our carry ons and poked a finger into a random pocket before nodding us on. At the other end there was a much more thorough going through and all our luggage had tags indicating that they had been inspected, reflecting how seriously they take conservation in the Galapagos. In between take off and landing we were given another breakfast which would be the second of three we were served within the span of two hours.

A quick zip in a Zodiak brought us to the Endeavour, a very comfortable ship with capacity for 96 passengers. Apart from us and one other family from Scarborough, all the guests are American. We settled in, happy with our amenities and surprisingly able to scarf down the third meal of the morning, I think these Galapagoneans realize that the fittest survive by packing in the morning carbs; we’ll see if they’re correct. Of course we had to do a safety drill. Usually this is a necessary evil, to be endured in (relative) silence, but this one was fun. The captain is a laconic man with many soft consonants in his name. He got on the PA and, using the tone you might when advising a stranger that they had a bug on them, he repeated “abandooooon ship” three times. We were given an exhaustive list of rules, a bit confusing because sometimes you need footwear and in other circumstances you don’t so hopefully we won’t be tested. What really made the drill fun, apart from the Captain who reminded me of Steven Wright, was the review of safety features. The coolest is the inflatables on the boat’s castle that automatically inflate when they hit water. The idea is that if the boat sinks completely the passengers can admire the sealife while treading water until this craft miraculously appears to bring them to safety. They made it sound like quite a pleasant experience.

At about the time that all reasonable people would succumb to sleep we were summoned to our first hike of the trip. We went by Zodiak to a small island and were thrilled to meet the Sally Lightfoot crabs unique to this area. They are colourful and tiptoe among the lava rocks. We saw a pair fighting but our guide pointed out that what we were witnessing was actually courtship. Love is a battlefield everywhere. We saw birds and lizards and admired sea turtle nests and tracks. Paul got lots of professional looking pictures of these compliant subjects. The finale for that outing was a swim in a lagoon where someone spotted a shark so Adrianne and Josh swam after it, thrilled by the encounter. En route back to the boat we saw another shark – this one as big as the Zodiak we were in. Even the guide was activated by the frigging huge dorsal fin, taking us all along while he tracked it. They promise us more shark sightings tomorrow, this time much more intimate as we’ll be expected to snorkel among them. Just in case: nice knowing you and thanks for caring enough to keep up with our holidaying.

The day ended way too late for those of us who savour sleep. We’ll need a good deal of recovery time after this vacation but if today is any indication of what’s to come, it should be amazing. It’d be better if we had Avery with us.

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Photos

Sally Lighfoot Crabs
Our first encounter with wildlife

Walking on the Beach
The family and one of the expedition guides explores the beach on Batra.