Galapagos - A whole other world..

---

We spent the last few days in Costa Rica in Puerto Viejo (lying on the beach so there isn't much to tell, hence no blog entry) before flying from San Jose to Quito. The following day (11th October) we flew out for the Galapagos Islands with great expectations. What can we say about the Galapagos Islands? So much to tell and describe, difficult to do it justice really, they have been referred to as the "Enchanted Isles" for centuries since they were first discovered (although at the time they were called this it was a negative thing, apparently a lot of ships used to go missing here).

Our first encounter with the sealions came before we had even boarded the M.V Darwin (a motor-yacht and our home for the next four nights). We pulled up at the wharf and found about seven of them had taken over the seating area for an afternoon nap (we soon noted that sleeping is an extremely popular pastime of these animals), of course all of us on the tour went "oooh, how cute" and took a hundred photos to the amusement/frustration of our guide who was trying to get us on the boat. We, of course, didn't know this but these where only the tip of the sealion iceburg... we had literally thousands more to see over the following days (funny though, we never got sick of saying "ooooh, how cute" and taking hundreds of photos...). First stop; La playa de Bachus (Bachus beach) for our first experience of how cold the water was (as one of the guys on the boat pointed out, for the males a search party for your testicles was required after most swims...), even in wetsuits. Also the first proper look at the Sally Lightfoot crabs, the loudest crabs I have ever seen, really, the orange and blue against the rocks is hardly any kind of camoflage, is it? A visit to a flamingo lagoon and our first land Iguanas followed. Back on board for the evening and the first of our three course meals (we got very well fed on this trip) and a cruise to our first overnight stop, Las Plazas just off Santa Cruz island. A few on board did a bit of "talking to the big white telephone" at this point, luckily we all had private toilets in our cabins. Everytime the boat began to move we noted the prescence of the Frigate birds; huge black sea birds that would tail the boat hoping for a scrap or two to fall off. These birds wouldn't just tail us at a distance though, they would fly just a meter or two above the top deck, almost within touching distance, which was impressive given the size of these guys.

Next morning we went ashore on South Plaza to see the Sealions (warned to keep at least four metres clear of the big Bull Sealions as they have no sense of humour), Iguanas, numerous birds and to see the somewhat bizare landscape of the Islands. Apparently it was the dry season, so all of the normally green vegetation (Prickly Pear, favourite food of the Iguanas) had turned a vibrant red (apparently it stops photosynthesis and conserves the plants energy don't ya know). Hard to believe the Islands could ever be lush and green, most of them we saw appeared really barren with dead trees, but our guide reassured us that none of the trees were dead and that a little rain in a few months whould bring everything back. Back in the water in the bay here for our first snorkelling with the Sealions. Can't even begin to describe how cool this was, again something I don't think I would ever get sick of. The males are a little freaky in the water (really big with the intention of defending their territory), but the females and the younger ones are a lot of fun. They swim up to you underwater, look into your mask, literally centremetres away, and blow bubbles in your face before swimming off and coming around for another go... ooooh, how cute!! Really an incredible thing to experience, only spoiled by the fact that grinning underwater doesn't work; your mask fills up with water.

Santa Fe Island; we cruised again overnight to wake up in a quiet bay off Santa Fe, with clear aquamarine waters. During the morning and on the panga (zodiac) ride to the shore we spotted numerous large Green Sea Turtles in the water. After a short walk up the beach (I managed to fall on my arse off one particularly slippery rock...) spotting more birds, Iguanas and Sealions. While sitting on the beach some of the local Galapagos Mockingbirds thought we looked like a good option for fresh water which is what they spend there lives doing, looking for fresh water. They could see it in our waterbottles and weren't shy about coming forward, jumping onto bags and bottles and trying to get in. One of the guys couldn't resist and opened a bottle for them and they proceeded to jump onto and stick their heads into it (yeah granted, one of the main rules for the islands is "don't touch or feed the animals") After returning to the boat we went snorkelling again ,and along with the ever present Sealions, saw some pretty cool fish and yellow stingrays (Mustard ray). A short cruise around the island and we went ashore again spotting large groups of Manta Rays and sharks (pretty harmless Black-tip reef sharks) coming into the beach. The walk around this part of the island showed us the relatively rare Iguana which is native to this island (yeah we saw a lot of Iguanas, but to be fair they did differ quite dramatically in colour, size, head shape and temperament: we saw one get pretty active when it came to defending food...), and the massive cacti that cover the island, along with the different species of birds that nested here. On the way back to the beach we walked past a young Galapagos Hawk. Like most of the birds/animals on the islands, this guy just sat quite happily in a tree at head height and let our guide introduce and tell us all about him, and then posed for some photos. They just don't feel threatened by humans; fantastic.

Overnight we cruised to Española Island, the most Southern island and Geologically, the oldest in the archipelago. Going ashore here to see the famous Blue-footed and Nasca (masked) Boobies and the Waved Albatross at the "Albatross airport" where the fledglings launch themselves off the cliff for their first flight. Also in abundance here were the "Christmas" Marine Iguanas; huge bright green and red Marine Iguanas, and of course more Sealions. The Iguanas are classic, getting off the panga we found about 30 of them crowded together and all facing into the sun, completely blocking the path. The Blue-footed and Nazca Boobies are beautiful big birds, and the ones we came across on the path again didn't care about our prescence and seemed more than happy to pose for photos. The surf coming in against the cliff at the base of the "Albatross Airport" was pretty impressive and it sent spray about 30metres up into air and over the clifftop from a blow-hole (although it's got the height, it doesn't have the bass boom that the blow-hole at Muriwai gets on a good day...), with the sun, the wildlife and the clifftop setting it was a pretty magic place. More snorkelling off the island and the best encounter with Sealions. The group got into the water and spread along way out around the rocky point with Marika and I heading around the corner and away from the rest. We spotted some impressive fish and had a brief encounter with a Sealion but when we got further around we found a young pup, about a year old, in a playful mood and noone else around. Diving down to the bottom with it twisting and turning around me... can't think of a way to describe this that will do it justice, so I'll leave it at that. Of course the underwater camara we had produced the usual murky and dark pictures with vague shadows and spots so no photos of this, ah well. This topped off another amazing day.

Cruising overnight again to Floreana island. We woke up in Post-office Bay. Now this Island has an intriguing history with a guy growing veges to trade for rum (spent the bulk of his life drunk until he stole someones boat and made for the mainland) drunk whalers and pirates, four Austrian alternative lifestylers and a baroness with several lovers most of whom mysteriously disappeared. The Bay is named because of the 300year old practice of posting unstamped letters into an old barrel. The whalers started it. They put the leters into the barrel with the hope that another ship would come along, check the addresses and if anybody on board was heading that way they would take them and hand deliver them. This practice has endured and the ritual continues to this day . We checked the contents (actually really hoping there were some there for Auckland; there weren't) and "posted" ours into the barrel. Will be interesting to see if it works. More snorkelling after breakfast found us a whole lot of Sea Turtles. Again spread out throughout the bay, Marika and I saw too many to count, a few of which we got pretty close to. I also had a close encounter with two Galapagos Penguins, watching them dive and play in the water. They were literally only a meter away from me and coming to the surface when a projectile hit the water at blinding speed. A Boobie had dive bombed them! The penguins took off as I watched the Boobie swim back to the surface. Boobies don't eat penguin (at least not full grown ones) so not sure if it just mistook them for fish, or if it was just having a laugh! Our last snorkelling was at the interestingly named Corone del Diablo; The Devils Crown. This place is just off the coast of Floeana and is the crater of an extinct volcanoe with some of the circular crater protruding dramatically from the water. We were warned about the currents and the sharks... the boat was dropping us in the water and going around the other side to pick us up as the current rushed through the centre of the crater with the sharks in the middle (unfortunately just small reef sharks again, none of the famous Hammerheads the Galapagos is known for...). Very cool snorkelling though. We went around the outside battling the swell and the currents to keep off the rocks, spotting yellow Puffer fish and many other fish. When we got to the far side we regrouped in the shelter of the rocks (having lost a couple of people, picked up by the following panga, not lost in the sea!) and the guide tells us we are going into the crown, this after telling us not to go in the middle because of the current. THe instructions; follow him, kick hard against the currents and aim for the shark cave... interesting. The crate was only about a meter deep which made the current strong. Halfway across and I was getting nowhere just kicking, literally staying in one place, so had to resort to freestyle to get to the sheltered part on the far side (completely knackered). When I looked back most of the group were still stuck in the middle with the panga having to pick up a couple more, and the guide had disappeared into the shark cave. Needless to say I didn't follow. The return trip to the boat involved swimming into the middle of the current and going with the flow. Spotted some really big black and red starfish and coral on the way back but no sharks. The afternoon was spent cruising back to Puerto Ayora, the main town in the Islands, for the night. On the way back though we were briefly accompanied by a pod of Dolphins playing in the bow wave, not for long though, I think they were bored by the lack of speed from the boat!

Our last night on board (we learnt that England had gone through to the final of the world cup to the delight of the only English guy on board... YAWN) before we got an early start for our visit to the Charles Darwin Research Station to see Lonesome George, the last remaining Tortoise of his species. They are trying to mate him with two females of a similar species but the old fulla just isn't havin a bar of it (by comparison to Diego, another male returned from San Diego Zoo after they kidnapped him from the islands decades ago, who is single handedly responsible for half of the 1,400 turtles released back onto his island, and who we witnessed trying to increase the numbers even further...). The Station is pretty cool, they do a lot of work for all the animal species in all the islands, including eradication and control of all the introduced species which are responsable for the decline of the endemic ones. Some of the enclosures contain ex pet tortoises which cannot be released; these are the ones you can go in with (see photo of Marika and huge tortoise). The rest of the day was spent travelling, returning to Quito.

Really hard to get across how unique the environment is in the Galapagos, it just sounds like we spent a whole lot of money to look at animals, but it's so much more than that. The place really is magic, go there before it disappears (the biggest cruise boat currently visiting the islands holds 500 people...).

---