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Published: October 8th 2007
The time had come to head over to the Galapagos Islands, a place that had been at the top of my wish list for quite a while. The diving here is supposed to be amazing and I was hoping that my dream of seeing big schools of hammerheads swimming over the top of me would come true. Along with the great diving the Galapagos Islands are reknown for the large amounts of wildlife, many species found on the islands are endemic to the area, so my expectations of my time in the area was very high as I boarded the plane. For those of you that don't know much about the Galapagos Islands just a little bit of information: The islands are about 300km (I think) west off the coast of Equador with the equator running through the middle of them. Charles Darwin came to the islands in 1535 while he was working on an expedition and was to return later and study the flora and fauna found on the islands, which helped to form his views on evolution. Because the islands are very isolated many of the animals and plants are only found on these islands and many of them
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The sign that sums it upare pre-historic. The islands are affected by many currents, both minor and major currents as well as cold and warm currents.....because of this the waters are very nutrient rich and bring a lot of life to the islands. Regularly sighted are land tortoises, blue footed booby birds, land and marine iguanas, sea lions, hammerhead sharks, sea turtles and large numbers of birds. The islands are a result of volcanic action in the area which means that on the islands it can quite barren in areas and full of volcanic rock along with lava tubes, craters and other affects from the volcanoes....this was also the case under the water. The area became a national park in 1959 but it has an increasing number of problems including the increasing number of visitors to the area as well as poaching of different animals including sea lions and sharks for their fins and also illegal fishing of lobster, sharks and other marine life. There has also many problems with introduced species to the islands. The good thing with the national park is that they realise how special this area is and they are making a huge effort to make sure that measures are put
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A baby turtle in the breeding program in place before it is too late to preserve and protect the area. There is still many problems, especially with the fishermen, as people still need to make a living....so continually there is discussions about how best to do things so the environment and everyone benefits. Because the area is so diverse and there is no where else like it on earth it is very important that everything on the islands and in the waters surrounding them are protected and not lost to stupidity. To help with this conservation the majority of the area is not open to tourists and most of the areas that are open require that you are with a trained guide. This obviously is a great idea for the islands and environment but made it a little difficult for me to do things on the cheap while I was there. I was impressed with guides I saw as they were dedicated to protection rather than doing things to impress their customers which would harm the environment in the process...in other areas of the world including Australia this is definately not the case. You are also required to pay US$100 on arrival to the islands which is
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A baby turtle in the breeding program used apparantly for the research and conservation of the park.....and from what I saw I believe that it actually does go to that cause. I was impressed with all the signage to tell people not to litter, touch animals and to have as little impact as possible - not that that stops some people still!!!! So the islands are a special place because if some animals or plants die out here we loose them forever.......a lot is being done to protect the area but there is also massive problems that are being dealt with continuously. For a week previously I was trying to be organised, as much as I could be..some people would book this kind of trip up to a year in advance....and while I had been attempting to be organised I had found it extremely frustrating as paying for things with credit card when you are not physically there is very difficult in these countries. So when I arrived in the town where I would depart from, Guayaquil, I wasn't even sure if I had a ticket for the flight the following day. A lady at the hostel I was going to stay at also had a travel
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Lonesome George....the rarest animal in the world...he is the only one left of his species. This is a photo of him as he was hiding the day I was there business and said she would organise it for me. On arrival, which happened to be 4 hours late and at night, she told me that she was unable to pay for my ticket and therefore I was not confirmed for the following day. At this point I vowed to never try and organise anything again and just let it all happen.....it has worked for me so far. I got up early the next day and headed to the airport and was happy to have the lady behind the counter tell me that I still had a ticket on reserve. So I was off and heading towards the islands excited about getting my first glimpse of the islands. My hopes were dashed of getting a great panaramic view as I flew closer to the main island, Santa Cruz....the clouds had closed in and as we started to land I realised it was raining as well....I was hoping that it was just a passing shower. After leaving the plane I was boarded onto a bus, a boat and then another bus as we crossed from island to island and then started the drive to the main town of Puerto Ayora. The ride
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One of the many flowers around town.....a bright red hibiscus over the island was great and the first glimpse at the country side made me realise I had no idea what I expected it to be like. Lots of trees that didn't have any leaves stood up from ground full of volcanic rocks....not very hospitable....but very beautiful. As we headed over the top of the island it was covered in cloud and rained the whole time but started to lighten as we hit Puerto Ayora. Once I arrived I was suprised to see that it was really like any other place on the mainland....not sure what I thought it would be like...maybe a little more developed because it was more touristy.......but there was still the same type of buildings and small shops to buy food etc...as well as the shops aimed at the rich American tourists. First mission was to get to the dive shop and book onto some dives so I didn't miss out. It was interesting to see the set ups here as for months I had been in contact with people at the shops basically pleading with them to give me a job......most of the shops were pretty basic but seemed to have professional staff and good
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Beware of the poison tree! gear. I was intending on heading to another island for a couple of days before diving so I booked on one days dive, to Gordon Rocks - the place I was hoping to see hammerheads. Finally I had things booked and I was much happier and not so stressed about getting there and being told that there was no room.....imagine being on the Galapagos and wanting to dive and not being able to - that is a description of a nightmare for me! After deliberating whether to head over to a nearby island called San Cristobal, I found out that it was going to cost me US$60 return, I decided that I would stay on the main island and use that money to go on an extra dive. The islands are extremely expensive and with my limited funds and the fact that I have apparantly 6 months before I hit home I was definately in tight arse mode. So off to find the cheapest but hopefully not the nastiest hotel in town to camp down. Managed to find a reasonable one which was all good except for the lack of hot water and a toilet seat. After that it was
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Me on the boat heading out for my first dive at the Islands time to realise that I had actually made it and I was now at the Galapagos Islands!That afternoon I walked up to the Charles Darwin Research Station which is just on the outskirts of Puerto Ayora. There is an information centre there which gives great information about the islands, the climate, the currents that affect the area, the vegetation, the animals and then also all the issues that are being dealt with there. I really enjoyed walking around there reading about the history of the islands as well as the reasons to why the islands are like they are. There was also a tortoise nursery there where they bred the land tortoises, many of the species are in danger of extinction so this way they are trying to boost numbers. They are bred at the station and then released back to the islands where their species come from. There was one tortoise there, Lonesome George, who is the last of his species. He was found on one of the smaller islands and has been at the station for many years now. They have made many attempts to get him to bred with a tortoise of another species, they have done
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The seal that I had the pleasure of swimming with many tests to find out which ones are most similar, but he just doesn't want to breed. They are continuously researching ways to keep the species alive and get George to breed....they are thinking about attempting to clone but with the very low chances of success and the high costs they want to leave that option to they have exhausted everything else. Many of these tortoises are huge and may weigh up to 200-300kg. They don't seem to do much and whilst I was there there was a lot of sleeping going on. They have different areas that have both males and female in them to encourage them to breed and their offspring are then reared and released into the wild. I was amazed to see that even with big obvious signs in both spanish and english that people still don't get it. The tortoises have eating platforms that are around 4m by 3m and it states to not walk on them or to disturbed the animals in anyway. There was two large males sleeping on one of these platforms and many times guides had to tell people not to walk on them, something that I thought was pretty obvious
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A pelican flying around about to dive into the water for fish even if the sign wasn't there. To take the cake though this idiot not only walked on the platform but walked over to the tortoise and then patted it on the foot. Now most of you will know that I am not one to put up with idiots and also not one to stay quiet......I just had to say something and told this guy NO you can't touch the animal and NO you can't stand on the platform. Being spanish speaking he didn't understand, or was that just selective?, but I then pointed to the sign which then left no doubt as to what I was saying. If people do that in a place like the Galapagos Islands where they have come to see this amazing wildlife and where there is numerous signs what the hell do they do when they are in other parts of the world? Sometimes humans annoy me so much that I just can't believe people are do damned thick!!!!! Anyway where was I....also at the station are land iguanas which are awesome looking and again pre-historic. This animal is also under threat of extinction, in fact most of the animals found on the islands are
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Mr Pelican hanging on the roof eyeing off fish before diving in at risk of extinction. A great looking animal, basically a large lizard that is a yellow-orange colour. Also walking around the station I got my first view of the crazy cactus that is found on this island. They were tall like a tree with a crazy red trunk and large round cactus on the top....I took many photos of these as they were so beautiful and unlike nothing I had seen before. So not a bad way to spend my first day on the islands...to finish it off I grabbed a beer just in time for the rain to kick in and then tried some local food from the street vendors for a snack.....gotta love getting that suprise food! I also managed to find a great place to eat dinner, a street full of small restuarants serving up fish, shrimp and other local delights.....a great place to watch people as well. For the next day I had planned on having more of a look around town and then heading over to a beach nearby......but when I woke up in the morning all I could hear was rain and see a grey cloudy sky! Wasn't real happy with this obviously as
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A stork eyeing off some dinner I didn't want to come all this way and then have to stay in my dodgy hotel room for the week. After a walk around town to try and find out what dives were going over the next few days I ran into some guys that I had met in Cusco and who were conveniently in the process of booking onto the same dive boat as me. With all that done the rain had stopped and I could see blue skies heading my way.......great I thought and headed off to a beach called Bahia Tortuga, one place in town that didn't cost to visit. The bay is about 30 minutes from town and a great walk through cactus trees and other wild trees before arriving at a lovely white sandy beach. My first thoughts were that finally I had made it to beach heaven and there is no one else around. The sand was white and soft and the beach stretch for hundreds of metres......such a nice place to be after the mad and noisy Mancora in Peru. There was quite decent surf at this beach and I was told that it was not good for swimming as it had
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A stork eyeing off some dinner strong currents.......after arriving at the beach I decided to take the locals advice. As I walked down the beach I came across something that I have not seen before....there was this brown substance in the water. I am still not sure what it was, my original thought was that it was sewage and all this talk about conservation here was crap (excuse the pun).....but later I talked to a surfer who told me it could be seaweed or some kind of algae. On closer inspection I could see small parts that looked like some kind of seaweed or algae. Further up the beach I came to the end of that bay to find many marine iguanas....I had known that they were likely to be there but had no idea that they were there in such numbers. I nearly stepped on one first, that is how I realised that it was the area to find them. They look reasonable fierce so that kind of gave me a fright and I expected it to run up my leg like a goanna. Around the corner I found many of them, literally piled up on each other and just hanging in the sun. They
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Seals swimming near the dock were aware that I was there but not too fused but they kept spitting, I assumed at first that this was a warning signal to me to not get too close but I found out later that they need to get the salt water out of their bodies after swimming so they spit it out. Further around the beach I found a lovely little inlet that was perfect for swimming, except idiot me had forgotten my bathers. After sitting there for a while I just had to go for a swim as it was so beautiful and also I was hot, my only option though was to either go naked or to wear my bra and g-string...I decided the last one would be more appropriate. There was a few people around but I decided that I would just act as if I did this all the time, also hoped that I wouldn't see them again and also that they might think I was actually wearing my bathers - skimpy bathers are all the rage here! Anyway after stripping off I didn't waste any time getting into the water and therefore saving people being exposed to my mostly bare white arse.
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Seals swimming near the dock Luckily it was worth it and the swim was great. Along the path home I came across a blue footed booby bird, and true to it's name the bird had blue feet. I was excited to see the bird as I didn't expect to see one while I was here with my limited moving around the islands....so that was a great bonus. So the afternoon turned out to be a great one and with the sun shining I even managed to get sunburnt. That night I treated myself to some local fish on the BBQ........a huge meal consisting of a massive fillet of sword fish, rice, salad, baked potato, beans and rice for all of $4. That night the town was having some kind of fiesta and for nearly the whole night music was played at very high levels and at times someone talking over it on a microphone.....usually it doesn't bother me but I had to dive the next day and the music was horrible. The type of music it was is called Reggaeton and it just grates on the ears and is terrible...I hate it....I was told that it is very popular there and the locals love it....also
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This seal was happy to pose for me that when you dance to it you have to dance very close to the opposite sex. Not only did I have that but some other people in my hotel decided that they would get in on the act and decided to play guitar and sing extremely loud...not sure if singing is the right word as they just seemed to be taking a big breath and then yelling out for as long as they could and this included no words, kinda opera like..they were in tune but very loud!!!Next day was my first day of diving and I was very excited and we had managed to get onto a good deal.....3 dives instead of the usual 2. When I woke again it was grey and raining and it was hard for me not to drop the lip in disappointment. I knew that if it was raining that it was still possible to dive so I just kept the hopes up that the clouds and rain would go so that we would have more light under the water. When I arrived at the dive shop we were told that it was also quite windy around the corner, shit I thougt - this
could be the downfall, but we were told that instead of having to deal with a bumpy boat ride we would catch a taxi to the other side of the island and met the boat there. As we drove over the island all I could see was cloud and rain and my bottom lip kept getting lower and lower......then as we neared the harbour I looked to my left and saw blue skies.....yes I thought there is a chance yet. This is when I realised that once you get out of Puerto Ayora the chances are it will be sunny. Our group was me, my 2 friends from Cusco and 2 brothers from America.......cruisy small group who turned out to be great company. Our boat arrived and I was suprised to see how small it was after being used to working on larger boats and also for the price of the dives in a country like Equador I was expecting luxury and a big boat. As it turns out the boats are made perfectly for the conditions there. Once we started heading out I felt like I was at home again, back on a boat on the ocean - YEAH!
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These two seals didn't seemed fazed by me but seemed to put a show on for me As we took off we headed in the direction of more grey and clouds and left the lovely blue skies and sunshine behind...it was good while it lasted. We did three dives that day and I thought that they were pretty good.......I again have very high expectations and after diving for many years on the Ningaloo Reef, so the diving needs to be great to even rate. There was a lot of fish life and many turtles, not so many corals as the topography was mainly large volcanic rocks. On the first dive I spent most of my time looking out to the blue and above me for some hammerheads but I had no joy. The second dive was again full of fish life and many turtles and then we came across a mound that had up to 10-12 white-tip reef sharks cruising around it. The currents are incredibly strong and the dives are done by drifting so when you want to stop and look at things you have to hold onto the rocks. We were doing this as we watched the sharks, awesome sight but I have seen many of these sharks before so I spent most of my
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My first view of the islands was not the best and unfortuately a sign of what was to come for a lot of my time there time again wide eyed for hammerheads. I couldn't believe my eyes when one came cruising right over the top of the mounds.....I started pointed franatically at it so the others could see it as its not as much fun if you are the only one to see it. In the process of doing this I let go of the rock and drifted back as the shark passed and managed to get a pretty good view at it......wicked my first hammerhead shark and I must say that they are a nice looking shark. Also on the dives I saw a few sea lions that were quite friendly as they swam around me....have not had many encounters with these so that was also awesome. So the day was quite a good one and I was stoked that the sun did show it's head and that I had reasonably good dives....I was just looking forward to the following dives at Gordon Rocks where the hammerheads were more common. The following day I was feeling a little weary, the prevoius night I had gone to bed with a massive headache so there was still a little of that remaining. So I did as little
as possible on this day and with the fact that yet again it was grey and raining in Puerto Ayora I thought I also had the perfect excuse to just read my book. Once it stopped raining in the afternoon I just went for a walk around the area and found a great little lagoon just on the outskirts of town. A perfect place to hang and enjoy the sunshine which is what I did.....I didn't have my bathers as I hadn't intended on swimming that afternoon so I just watched the group of kids there run amok in the water. Also had the pleasure of laughing at this guy that came along with a few other people....he was pretty buffed and wearing tight bike pants, singlet top and a bandana. Straight away I could tell he was in love with himself and I found it highly amusing as he confirmed this to me. Firstly he positioned himself on the dock and asked one of his friends to take a photo of him.....after checking it he was not happy with it so made the poor guy take a few more making sure that he looked good. He disappeared but returned
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The harbour where we caught the boat from on Santa Cruz Island ten minutes later on a kayak....padelling down the lagoon and looking at his muscles as he went. He then pulled over towards the dock and got another friend, an older guy who didn't have much experience with digital cameras, to take his photo. He wanted it zoomed in so that he was the centre of the photo rather than the beauty that surrounded him...the old guy was having issues with the camera so heman yelled out to ask me to help him. This I did and thought that my job was done but heman wanted many photos of himself from different angles so I spent the next 20 minutes helping the old guy and laughing at heman. The day had finally arrived to dive at Gordon Rocks, the dive site that I had been told was the best place to see schooling hammerheads. I was very excited but again woke to grey rainy skies and realised that this was just how it was going to be. I was optomistic as the other day things had fined up and the diving had been pretty good. Again we drove to the other side of the island and boarded the boat to take
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A funky shop in the Puerto Ayora on the main island of Santa Cruz off to the dive site. As we headed out in choppy seas I was impressed with how the boat handled the conditions and realised that they have these sorts of boats here for a reason. I had to go through the process of doing a try dive to make sure that I knew what I was doing....I found this funny as I had told them that I was an instructor but didn't complain as I know what whinging customers are like.....painful!! Finally we headed to the dive site which is actually a volcano crater which I thought was pretty cool. There was a couple of large rocks that sat out of the water and underneath there was a crater....inside the crater it was around 25m deep and once you get to the outside of the crater it goes down for a couple of hundred metres. The currents are quite strong here but that is what brings in the pelagic animals including the hammerheads. We got dropped in and after descending I could see that the visibility was pretty shite and made it hard to see further than 7-8m.....still optomistic and hoping for the sharks. There was a lot of life
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A map of the islands...if you can see it but unfortunately on the first dive no hammers....annoyingly the other group had about 7 swim past them and then some manta rays.....damn I hate that - its bad enough when you are working and that happens but now I was paying. The second dive was at the same site and I was willing some sharks to come on by. The currents are pretty strong and the only way to stay in the one spot is to hold onto the rocks ....we were doing this as we moved along the site with no luck with sharks. Near the end of the dive we stopped and about 3 metres away we saw a hammer....still I hadn't got a real good look at one and there had always only been just one. Not long after that another shark came right by me and I got a great look at it....was very excited and ready to see more but that was going to be it for me as someone else ran out of air and we had to ascend. I was a little disappointed at not seeing the schooling hammers in numbers but I had to be happy that I had seen a few
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Another map of the currents that affect the area and is the reason why there is so much diversity here of them and some close up. I was tossing up with the idea of diving again before leaving the islands but decided against it for a few reasons....I had been getting bad sinus squeezes while divng which was giving me headaches (a result of having a continuous cold for the 3 months prior), the weather and the realisation that it wasn't going to be any different the following day and after checking my bank balance and seeing that the exchange rate was less than I had thought which meant that I had already spent a lot of money. So my time in the Galapagos Islands came to an end earlier than planned when I decided to leave the islands earlier......a few reasons for this including the weather, being sick and also money. I had realised that with my budget and also my time limit that my expectations had been too high and so I was disappointed with my time there....but now that I write this I can see that I did actually have a pretty good time. The way the islands are set up you need to have more money to actually see the best of it and preferrably more
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Some local kids playing at the lagoon just out of town time to experience the beauty of it. I am sure that this place is very special, unfortunately I only saw a little bit of it, but I am already planning on returning when I am grey and old and have more money to do it properly. I did sus out the options to work on the islands as I believe that's the best way to see an area, but they are very strict on who can work there. You have to Equadorian and also you have to complete a wildlife and conservation course....this is all great and I agree with it but it doesn't help me....either that or I need to marry an Equadorian. I might be biased but from what I saw in my time there I have already seen on the Ningaloo Reef, that is in the ocean not on land, and I think that our reef rates right up there with the islands. I have obviously had many more hours out on the ocean on the Ningaloo Reef but I have been witnessed to people coming to visit and having amazing weeks and encoutering numerous different animals and being blown away by what they see. I was
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Also down the lagoon I found a heman on a canoe posing for photos and getting angry when the old man with him couldn´t do it properly hoping for this kind of experience in the Galapagos but was unlucky in a way.......I am sure that these experiences do happen and that the islands are a special place.....but I am happy to be going back to the Ningaloo Reef as I know I can have amazing encounters there on a regular basis. So I said so long to the Galapagos Islands, actually I nearly missed the plane as I was listening to my MP3 player rather loud and missed them calling me about 6 times, and boarded the plane heading to Quito to met Sharyn that was arriving in a few days from Spain.
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