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Published: December 2nd 2007
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Initially, when planning this trip, we didn´t intend on visiting the Galapagos Islands. We thought it would be out of our price-range and the money could be better spent trying to get to Antarctica from the south of Argentina.
However, whilst lounging beside our pool in Nazca we decided on the spur of the moment that we couldn´t go all the way to Ecuador and not visit the Galapagos Islands. So, we booked a flight (in Spanish!) departing from Guayaquil, Ecuador and another flight out of the Galapogas 14 days later, hoping this would be sufficient time to book a last minute (ie cheaper) cruise around the islands.
We landed on the island of Baltra and were greeted to our first wildlife sighting, a land iguana lounging on the tarmac. We then took two bus rides and a ferry to arrive in Port Ayora on Santa Cruz Island, the main town where tours of the islands are booked.
The Lonely Planet claims that this time of the year is the low season and it would be easy getting straight on a last minute deal. As usual, however, the ¨Lying PLanet¨ has it completely wrong. We have since learnt
Land Iguana
Up close and personal... or alternatively, far away with a very long lens! that there is basically no low season and the Galapogas is busy all year around.
To cut a long story short, after much searching, we had only a few options open to us. So... we booked our passage on the Archipel II, a luxury catamaran for a five day cruise around Isabela Island. The cruise departed two days later so we had two full days to kill in Port Ayora before our departure.
Julien went around town looking for a hostel to book ourselves into in the meantime and we were surprised to find that everything in Port Ayora is incredibly expensive. It seems the entire Galapogas caters to elderly American tourists, examples of which were easy to spot by enormous SLR cameras around necks, bum bags around waists and bright "Galapagos Islands" t-shirts. We ended up in a little Bed ´N´ Breakfast which wasn´t too terrible, dumped our bags and began exploring.
Port Ayora isn´t a huge town but there are some great places to eat (which we did a lot of!). In the days before and after the cruise we also visited Turtle Bay with pristine white sand and turquoise water, and the Charles Darwin
Centre where baby giant tortoises are raised and then released into the wild after they are big enough to fend off predators. The Charles Darwin Centre was fantastic and we were lucky to be there at feeding time as hundreds of baby tortoises were munching on tiny leaves. The adults at the Charles Darwin Centre were also very cool and we could actually walk through the enclosures and see them close up.
On the day of departure for our cruise, we were water-taxied to the Archipel II to be greeted on board by the Captain and shown to our lovely room ( or berth, I suppose it´s called). Our first tour to the Highlands of Santa Cruz was slightly disappointing and we were worried that we had made the wrong decision. We visited two "sink holes" where the vegetation covering the ground had grown so heavy that the lava that it was growing on had collapsed leaving two perfect holes in the ground. We also saw some vegetation and a couple of birds before heading back into town to return to the boat for dinner and an early night in bed (induced by the travel sickness tablets that we
needed to prevent hurling overboard - it took a little while to get used to the motion of the boat!).
Day two saw us load into the Pangas (zodiac boats) and dropped off on land for a trek through lava fields which were millions of years old and scattered with land iguanas. At times the land iguanas covered the track and we had to be carefull to not tread on them. We were surprised at their indifference to our presence: we could go quite close before they decided they´d had enough of posing for the cameras and moved on.
After our walk it was time for a snorkling expedition. We loaded back onto the Pangas and were dropped into the water along a reef where we were surrounded by giant sea turtles everywhere. Again, we were surprised at their indifference to our presence. We were able to get so close to the turtles that we had to be very careful that a wave didn´t push us into them. It was amazing to float with these giant creatures munching away at the algae growing on the rocks below.
Another highlight of our time in the water was a
group of sea lions who decided to put on a show for us, swimming around us and doing flips in the air. Apparently, sea lions are particularly curious creatures who enjoy swimming with humans, a fact that we were very happy with!
We returned to the Archipel II for a shower and another enormous lunch before hopping back into the Pangas to be taken on a boat trip through mangroves where we saw many more turtles and some small rays. Our guide must have been sick of us jumping up and down yelling "there´s another turtle, there´s another turtle over there". He would say "yes, yes, they´re everywhere here".
On our way back to the Archipel II we saw lots of Penguins lounging on the rocks and particularly unusual birds with bright blue beaks and feet called ¨Blue Footed Bobies¨. We were even lucky enough to view these strange birds completing mating rituals whereby the male spreads his wings and coos to his intended, and slowly lifts his enormous ridiculously-blue feet one at a time in a plodding dance. It was one of the most adorable things we´ve seen!
The rest of the day was spent cruising
on the Archipel II to another part of the island, sitting on the sun deck watching for whales and giant manta rays the size of cars! We also saw many more giant sea turtles and sea lions.
We awoke on our third day for another walk on more lava encrusted land to see land iguanas lazing and a tonne of marine iguanas warming themselves on the black rocks near the water´s edge. There were literally thousands of them and they were sometimes so camoflagued with the rocks that they were invisible until you were just about to put your foot on them! You could get to within a metre of them if you wanted to, however, they spit so we decided against it. We saw some that were well over a metre long and enormously fat! On that day we also saw many sea lions frolicking around and posing for our cameras.
Our last full day on the Archipel II was spent on another walking tour of Bartoleme Island where you could see lots of craters of extinct volcanos and a great view of the nearby islands and crystal blue waters. Later in the day we were lucky
enough to also see and play with more sea lion pups who were just begging to be cuddled, but we were aware that if we touched them their mothers would most likely reject them.
We also saw a mother sea lion sleeping with a new baby nestled against her, sleeping on her flipper. A giant male sea lion lurked nearby barking at us if we even thought about going too close. We had read that the animals on the Galapogas are unafraid of people but we didn´t really understand that that meant we would be able to almost touch them! It is unlike anything we´ve ever seen before and totally unforgettable.
On day five we did a short beach walk before breakfast and then were dropped back on Baltra Island. It was sad to leave the Archipel II as we had enjoyed experiencing ¨luxury¨including our best showers in South America so far and great food. We returned to Port Ayora at 10 am to start reacclimatising to our land-legs: I was certain everything was rocking for that first day back on land!
We spent another two days in Port Ayora before changing our flight to Quito to
Sea lion pups
Hamming it up for the cameras. depart a day earlier. We had spent a fantastic 13 days in the Galapagos Islands and loved it all - but the inflated prices are killing our budget! We have two days in Quito before our flight to Santiago, Chile, for the next country on our South America tour!
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