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Published: August 8th 2007
Since I was a kid I have always loved watching Wildlife programs and when at home try and watch as many as possible as they are so interesting and a lot better than watching East Enders any day. When we first decided to go traveling again, this part of the world was selected mainly because of the opportunities we would get to see a number of different animals in their natural habitat and up close and personal. So the Galapagos was always a must and nothing would stop us not even the cost!
The boat we choose is called the Friendship and cost 410 pounds each for an 8 day boat cruise. We looked on the net and found that the boat had a bad write up by another traveler about 4 months back and it sounded pretty bad. Since then there have been some good reports so we decided to risk it. We also had to pay 175 pound for the return flight, 50 pound park fee and 250 pound each for 8 dives each and then on top of that, 75 pound for 6 nights accommodation in Santa Cruz whilst we were doing the diving! A grand total
First Sea Lion
He was waiting for scraps from the fisherman gutting the days catch.of 1845 pounds and then our food and drink costs your looking at 2000 for 13 nights! I have mentioned the prices already and they are very expensive but knew it would be brilliant and one of the few times in life when you can say it was a sure thing and worth it.
After our first day of diving, (see the diving blog for details) we were even more excited and couldn’t wait to get started with the tour. It all started very well. We had to get a taxi to the airport to meet the guide and the other passengers. As soon as we left the hotel there was a taxi outside who was waiting for somebody who was going on the same tour and also a fellow Brit, small world!
We were all wondering about the boat as we knew we had picked the cheapest option so was a bit apprehensive, we didn’t need to be the boat was miles better than we expected. Nice, clean and comfy bedrooms with air con and hot water so a bit of luxury for us. It had a nice dining room where you could chill and watch DVDs
No longer so cute!
Scoffing down some fish guts. and a nice sun deck to chill out between tours during the day. The food was good and that’s coming from two fairly fussy eaters, 3 meals a day with snacks in between, there was no chance we would go hungry and could see myself putting some weight on in the next 8 days!
I would definitely recommend this boat to anybody looking for a cheap way of traveling around the islands you will never feel that you are taking the cheapest option and for any backpackers it will be a bit of luxury! We saw some boats double the price that didn’t look as nice, all I can think is they must be eating lobster and caviar for dinner! The boat held a maximum 16 at a time we had a cross over halfway through so got to meet about 20 people which were mixed from 20 to 70, which was great as got to meet lots of nice people. Of all the passengers there was one complaint about the smell of oil near the bedrooms, as that is where the engine room is, we smelt it on the first day but after that didn’t even notice it.
So Cute
He was desparate for some fish and guarded as many as possible. His face was so cute until he worked out that they were far to big for him to eat! Apart from that everybody seemed more than happy. I would say it’s definitely a younger crowd boat so the older generations might feel a bit left out. Take a bottle of rum; it’s a great way of introducing yourself and getting to know people!
The only thing I didn’t like was during the cross over period we were left waiting for half the day for the new passengers, it wasn’t so bad as we were docked in Puerto Ayora which has plenty to do but you could end up docked at Baltra which would be very boring and all you could do is sunbath on the boat. Due to these stops you only really have 7 full days not 8 as advertised as the 8th day is an early morning cruise and then to the airport by 10.
The Itinary
Tue Baltra - Bachas or Caleta Tortuga.
Wed. Plaza Sur - Santa Fe
Thu. Espanola
Fri. Floreana
Sat. Sta. Cruz: Charles Darwin Station and the highlands.
Sun. Rabida - James Bay (Santiago Island)
Mon. Bartolome - Sullivan Bay
Tue. Seymour Norte / Baltra airport
We were both worried about seasickness, especially me as we have done
things similar in the past where I was sick and it ruined the experience. This time we took precautions, we got travel sickness tablets, Dramamine which have worked on bus journeys and also we read that ginger and mint are good, so we bought some ginger tablets and mint teabags. It worked; we took a ginger tablet in the morning and a Dramamine at night and had no problems. We were so glad that we didn’t have to worry about being sick as we saw some absolutely amazing things and if we were sick it could have been a different storey!
Since the cruise its all become one big blur and its hard to remember what we saw on each day as we saw so much from one place to the next. We read that the animals were friendly and unafraid of humans but we were still not prepared for it and we couldn’t believe how close we could get as we are so used to them running or flying away.
The sea lions seemed to be the most common animal we seen as they were everywhere and on every island we visited and at times had to
be careful not to stand on them as after a while you just get so used to them you think they are rocks and there were a few close calls! We took hundreds of pictures as they look so cute especially some of the young pups lounging about and sunny themselves, suckling mums or they would be in a playful mood chasing each other into the sea. What we didn’t see were many males, believe me you knew when they were there, absolutely huge and very noisy barking at any tourist or trying to chase the boat out of his territory!
We saw hundreds of marine iguanas another famous animal from the islands as they are not found any where else in the world. It was strange to see an Iguana swimming and diving into the water, apparently they can dive to 12 meters deep, we didn’t see any on our dives but witnessed a few from the surface disappear for 10 mins or so, it could have been less as couldn’t tell if it was the same one we were watching or another that popped up! They were funny to watch but if you got to close they
would blow a snot bubble of salty water at you to warn you to stay back, nice! Each island has their own variation too, some all black others with small red or yellow patches. There was also the giant land Iguanas that would get very close to you. If you just sat about watching they would crawl over your legs and feet and not be at least bothered, not surprised as they have a hard enough life eating the spinney cactus fruit, it looked painful just watching.
Not surprisingly some of my favorite animals were the birds, especially with some of them being named Boobies!! The blue footed bird variety that is! They were very cute and very inquisitive and we were there during the mating season so had the added bonus of watching them during the courting ritual. There was lots of dancing, whistling, flapping of wings, trying there best to entice a female to his nest which he had been building of the last few days. Not a very spectacular nest more of a hole in the ground with a few trigs and nice splattering of bird shit! The birds themselves have such a dopey look about
them you have to laugh. If a female was interested they would land close by to the nest and let him do his dance, there would also be other males close by trying to impress, so the females eyes were all over the place so the male had to do his best to keep her watching him. He would give offerings of trigs to try and keep her near his nest before she walked off to somebody else’s. I thought this doesn’t look so hard and got in on the act. I did the dance gave her a few trigs and I pulled, she was well up for it and flashing her boobies at me and following me around, I presume trying to work out were my nest was. The male took offence and got between us both and stayed between us until I was away from his territory, so jealous! I felt a bit guilty as he put a lot of hard work into it, so I got him a few choice trigs and left them near his nest. The female liked his macho style and pile of new trigs so all sorted! The Blue Footed Boobies are monogamous
so hopefully they will now mate for life which is about 20 years. They can thank me for that, not sure if I will get an invite to the wedding but without me he would have blown it!
We also saw a colony of Waved Albatross, these birds are beautiful and looked so regal, definitely our favorite. They are also monogamous and live with the same partner their whole lives. They were so majestic and graceful, especially in the air, they have the largest wingspan of all birds of around 2.5m.
We also saw got to see the Frigate bird again the same type we saw in Belize. Surprisingly it wasn’t as impressive as Belize as the birds here were more spread out so we didn’t get to see as many. It was still impressive seeing the males inflate their bill to a bright red sack trying to entice the ladies. We saw lots of chicks so the males must be doing o.k.! What I didn’t know about these birds is that they can’t swim. They get their food by stealing it from other birds. They would wait until a bird had a catch and then pester them
until they dropped it and then they would swoop and pick it up mid air before it got into the water!
For the first time we got to see nesting Pelicans. This was very strange these large birds with their webbed feet for some reason nest in trees. This looks very strange as their feet are not meant to balance on branches and they would be falling all over the place!
Other strange birds were the pink Flamingo, who we got to see feeding in the salty pools. The pools were very silty and you could see as they were feeding they would leave a trail of where they have been. (see pics)
We also got to see a few Galapagos penguins, which are supposedly the smallest in the world at 30cm high. They would look very cute stumbling on the rocks but then so quick and nimble in the water. I got to see one when I was snorkeling but only for a few seconds!
Even when we were on the boat going from one island to the next we would see some form of wildlife from the Frigate birds, Albatross which
Our home for 8
days looked like Teradactuls with there huge wings to pods of Dolphins and the occasional Whale! So there was always something to be looking out for.
To get up close and personal to the Marine life we snorkeled every day and it’s probably the coldest water I have ever been in and we had no wetsuit to keep the cold away. You could probably snorkel for an hour at the most after that you would be frozen. We should have hired a wet suit, oh well! It was all worth it though as got to see some amazing things from probably about 20 white tip reef sharks, 7 all together at one point, huge sting rays up to 2 meters across and wide variety of bright and colorful fish. One of my favorites was a huge shoal which was like a carpet of fish and moving as one underneath me as I swam through them.
Each island was very different from white sand beaches that wouldn’t look out of place in the Caribbean to red or green tinge sand beaches. Isla Santiago was covered in a huge lava eruption which covered large parts in hard black volcanic rock
which still looked alive from a distance, the only things growing here was the odd cactus.
Isla Floreana was the beach with the greenish sand and great snorkeling at Devils crown where we got to see most of the marine life mentioned above. The island is also famous for the old whaling post box; it was first used in the 1800s. When any boat passed they would either drop of mail or pick some up if they were going to that place and then post it when they arrived. It’s now a tourist gimmick, we put one in for home, well it works and it arrived 2 weeks later! We picked up a couple for the States because that is where we end our trip in seven months. We will post it when we get there and in that time it would have traveled through another 10 countries! So a nice surprise for the people when they receive it!
Isla Espanola was my favorite Island as this was the island with the most wildlife, Blue and Banded Footed Boobies, Albatross and other bird life. The marine life was also great and there are small rock formations of the
beach which has a small cave where we seen the 7 White tip Reef Sharks which the guide said are always there.
My favorite islands were the southern islands of Espanola and Floreana and are a must see for anybody going. With them being 6 to 8 hours from the main land there are not as many tourist and have the islands to yourselves which was great. It would have been great to see the far northern Island but can’t have it all. We will have to do them when we come back one day!
On the main island of Santa Cruz where we based ourselves whilst diving, we visited the Charles Darwin centre. Which is home to some of the islands Tortoises including Lonesome George, unfortunately he is the last in a long line of giant tortoises from Pinta Island, he’s around 170 years old which is so hard to imagine, he has about 30 years left and then after that his species will be extinct. The centre are trying there best to stop this and have given him a mate from one of the other islands which is closest to his species, up to now he
is not interested, but things move slow in the tortoise world so hopefully he will get his pecker up in the next 30 years to keep his species alive! Whilst there we were lucky to see two tortoises mating which is a very strange experience, lots of moans and groans and shell scrapping. Unfortunately the two tortoises were male and the tortoise on top was at the wrong end so we got to see the 69 position. I felt sorry for the tortoise underneath as he was there for about 30 mins and we also got to see what he had to look at during that time and it wasn’t pretty and got a bit messy! (See pics). Maybe this is why George is having problems, he is also gay! If so, there goes the Pinta Island Tortoise!
After the cruise we had a spare day before we went diving and visited Tortuga Bay. This place was beautiful, deserted white powder sandy beaches that wouldn’t look out of place in the Caribbean and we can safely say of all the places we have visited this is the nicest beach on the whole of our travels. We just lay about
amazed on how beautiful this place is and how lucky we are to be here.
The Galapagos was an amazing experience and would recommend it to everyone and nature lovers it has to be a must. Like so many places we have visited I would recommend going soon, as travel is getting bigger and bigger and the longer you leave it more expensive and hectic it gets and less of a unique experience you get. For example our guide was telling us that the Ecuadorian government has been thinking of putting the price of the park fee from 100 US Dollars to 1000 US as they want to try and limit the number of tourist before it has an irreversible impact on the environment. If this happens it will only be the rich that can even think about going to such a great place!
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