Galapagos Islands

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Change in plans II

After I changed my plans in Huaraz, I took another nightbus to Trujillo on the north coast of Peru. My plans here was to visit Huanchaco for one day/one night, go to Chiclayo after and then Chachapoyas.
I arrived in Trujillo around 6 am, took a bus to Huanchaco and jumped out along the beach in this little fishing town.
After been watching the famous fishermen who paddle out on small, selfmade boats for fishing, I was thinking; This is actually what I came for, the weather is bad so I can't stay on the beach. What to do now, the clock is just 8 am!!

I went through my plans and figured out that I could do the main things in a couple of days. But I would still have one and a half week left. I was thinking about taking a spanish course in Lima the last week, but then I suddenly got a new plan; Maybe Galapagos!?
I've been adding that to my plans many times, and then removed it again. But this last time I actually did something about it : ) It was just another nightbus (the fifth in seven nights now....) up to Guayaquil in Equador, so I gave it a chance. And it worked. I booked a 4 day boat trip out there and flew out last thursday!

Guayaquil

The first Equadorian destination was Guayaquil. This is actually the biggest city in Equador, situated by the river Guayas.
Guayaquil is the next best place after Quito to book a boat trip on Galapagos, if you're not out there already.
The city itself wasn't to bad to be a big city. They had made some nice gardens and ports along the malecon. And a walk up to Fortin through a restored part of Barrio La Peñas, payed off with a great view over the river and city.
But of course.... it was just another city, and I only spent some days there waiting for my flight to Galapagos.

Galapagos Islands

As you might remember I started my long bus-journey in Ushuaia, in January. And as you also might remember, this was one of the first places Charles Darwin came to, and started his explorations. So what's more natural than finishing my travels on the Galapagos Islands, where he made the base research for his evolution theories!?

The only way to get out to Galapagos is to catch a plane from Quito or Guayaquil in Equador (unless you have your own boat and sail out there...)

Day one
We boarded the boat "Amigo" around lunch time and met up with a group of other tourists that had been on board for four days already.
Our first activity was a panga ride (going out with a small boat) to watch the wildlife along the north coast of the Santa Cruz Island.
We spotted some blue footed boobies, sea tortoises, pelikans, and a few other kind of birds. A nice start : )
After this we startet sailing towards the next destination, Bartolome Island and Sullivan Bay.
The ride was a bit rough and my appetite wasn't to good at dinner time ; )

Day two
The next day we started with walking up to a view point on the island and got some information about the geology in the area. I also got a good foto of an Galapagos Hawk who sat quit close to us for a little while.
After that we took the small boat in to the beach and went snorkeling. That was the first proper highlight with a whitetip shark, who passed me on only a few meter distans, on the list!
Next activity today was a short trek on the lava flow on the Santiago Island. A penguin wished us welcome when we arrived, together with a few lava lizzards. The lava itself could offer intersting and spectacular formations and "pictures"
We had some company on the boat as well. The pelikans obviously liked to hang around on the "panga-boat" (see the pictures)
In the evening we had the option to do another snorkeling. It wasn't as good as the first but we saw a nice collection of fish.

A few of us decided to try to make a party this night. We started off quit good before dinner with music on the deck, and a bit of dancing. After dinner we continued dancing, and along with a few beers and the waves, we felt pretty good on the floor : ) It slowed down a bit after a little while and I was thinking it was bedtime and far over midnight. But after been checking the time, it was only ten o'clock!! : ) Thats how it is when you are on a boat for a few days, forget about the time and start the party too early ; )

Day three
It was a short ride over to Chinese Hat Island, our next landvisit. Here it was other animals who welcomed us. A few seals was relaxing on the beach and they were pretty curious when we arrived.
Along the short trek a big sea lion was blocking the road, and got a bit angry when we passed a bit to close : )
A crowd of "Sally lightfoot crabs" was "dancing" along the shore and quit a lot of lizzards had a gathering on a rock!
We went out snorkeling again after the walk, but didn't see any sharks today : (
Another short ride after lunch took us to the other side of Santiago Island where we did the last walk and more snorkeling.
After all the snorkeling I can put up these fishes on the list;
- Bluechin Parrotfish, Bicolor Parrotfish, King Angelfish, Mexican/Streamer Hogfish, Gold Rimmed Surgeonfish, Dusky Sergeant Major, Razor Surgeonfish, Blue-banded Goby, Bumphead Parrotfish (google this one and you understand the name...), Yellow Tailed Dansel and The White Tip Shark, a Galapagos Shark, Crabs, and different Sea Stars as well. Not to bad is it!? : )
Other Animals seen on the tour:
- Blue Footed Booby, Galapagos Hawk, Great Frigatebird, Galapagos Penguin, Pelicans (a lot...), Lava Lizzards (a lot too...), Land Lizzards, Sea Lions, Fur Sea Lions, Galapagos Sea Lions (I think it was one with this name as well...), Seals (Not the Navy Seals...), Tortoises (both sea and land ones), and a lot of others (who I have no idea about the name of, or I don't remember it...)

Day four
After been sailing the whole night, we waked up in Puerto Ayora on the Santa Cruz Island this morning. This is the main Islang on Galapagos, and the final goal of our trip. We got on land and took a bus for half an hour to have a look at some giant land tortoises. This place was not a zoo, but the animals in the natural setting. We could see two of them today, and I promise you; It wasn't too much action this guys came up with ; )
Since this was our final activity, we said goodby to half of the group who was going back to the mainland, and booked into a hotel in Puerto Ayora. I decide to stay a couple of days after the boat trip, so I could explore more of Galapagos on my own.

A great trip and I got to see a lot in just four (or practically just two and a half day) days. The only thing I'm really pissed off on, is that I didn't have any under water camera!!

PADI-Open water course

I got really inspired when I did some snorkeling on the boat trip. I've been thinking about taking the Padi course for many years now, so why not do it here on Galapagos, and see some more of the fantastic marine life in the same time!?

PADI - Pay And Die Immediately,

After a bit of searching on sunday, I went to change my plane tickets on monday morning and started my course just after.
I started with a bit of self studies, reading my book, before we jumped into the pool in the afternoon. Some basic skills have to be practised before we go to the open water.
Tuesday was the first highlite. We (actually just me and the instructor, Inti) went out in the bay outside Puerto Aroel and did two dives. It's really exciting the first time you jump in and swim around under water breathing : )
Wednesday was the day for my written exam. It's a multiple choiche exam, which I passed : ) and to celebrate I went out fishing with Moa, a local sportfisher, in the afternoon ; ) We caught some Tuna, the biggest one about 15 kg, and barbequed it on Café del Mar in the evening!

Anyway, my final dives was on thursday. We (this time two other tourists, and one more guide as well) took the boat out to Santa Fe and did three dives. The first two as a part of my course, and the last one totally free, after passing my Open Water certification : )
A Galapagos shark, quite a few tortoises, and again a big amount of colourful fishes was marked off on the list after the dives.
And I'm now a diver as well. My mom is gonna be really happy after I added another "extreme sport" to my list! (But of course, this is really safe, just do the right things and nothing can go wrong... ; ) )

Meeting people

When you travel you meet loads of interesting, funny, boring, beautiful (women...), friendly, unfriendly and special people! Some people you just meet for a few minutes, and others you go well along with and travel together for a while. Other again, you meet one time, then another time somewhere else, and then again......
For example; Ian and Helen from UK, who I lived with in Bariloche during the spanish course, I met again in Bolivia. and then I bumped into them here at Galapagos again! These meetings are always really nice since you know them from earlier and have to update eachother on the last travel experiences and so on.
The funniest meetings I've had is with two guys from Israel. I met them for the first time on a trek in Ushuaia, and then pretty much on all stops up to El Chalten. After that I didn't see them for a couple of months before Uyuni in Bolivia. And then I bumped into them here at Galapagos again!! : )

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Photos

Massage boat or" love boat"?
One of the big ships had its own massage boat!!