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Published: August 13th 2008
And so we headed off back to Quito airport for our flight to the Galapagos. Despite the hotel being lovely the staff were not quite what we had hoped and the taxi we had asked them to order the night before had not been ordered but we only found out when it didn´t show! Quito airport seemed a little larger than I recalled, or at least the facilities were better, but it was chaotic with queues everywhere of people buying passes for the Galapagos, getting their luggage checked for banned items, checking in and then finally security. And then they showed the flight as boarding but we were all just standing around for ages before they finally let us on. There´d obviously been a problem with the allocated seating as they suddenly decided that seating was open but in the free for all we managed two good legroom seats right at the front - we should´ve known it was too good to be true!
The first ´technical problem´which caused a delay was waiting for a group of American teenagers who had ignored all the boarding calls so once they got on we finally took off. Long story short the plane
had a stop in Guayaquil on the way and unfortunately did not take off again so some hours in the airport waiting for a new plane and not good seats when we finally got on. Oh, well, I already hated flying!
Our late arrival in San Cristobal (capital of the islands) meant that we were unable to have our scheduled first stop on a nearby small island to see a sea lion colony. However, our guide took us on a short bus journey to a nearby beach where there were plenty, to the extent that we had to be careful where we stepped. While apparently unfazed by humans they can be quite vicious if bothered and the guide told us there have been a number of tourists receiving nasty bites because they think it is funny to taunt them. Shortly after this two Japanese tourists appeared, apparently without a guide, and started making noises at some of the sea lions to get some good photos. We were all waiting for the pay back but disappointingly it didn´t happen while we were there. That was one depressing part about the whole trip - even in a wildlife paradise like this
which is expensive to get to there are still people who somehow think that the rules about leaving everything untouched by your presence, as far as possible, do not apply to them. It´s hard to see how we can make people change their behaviour in the rest of the world when even supposed wildlife lovers cannot understand the basic principles.
Anyway, enough of that....
This wildlife extravaganza set the scene for the next few days. It´s hard to remember exactly what wildlife we saw on which island on which day so I will let the photos do much of the talking. And talking of the photos, despite the most twitchiest twitcher (a British male of course!) being on the boat we managed to get back to Quito without having got him to identify all of the finch pictures. So specially for John Peacock we have a spot the finch competition at the top of page 3 of the photos (there is more than one photo of some finches)....
We had treated ourselves to a quite fancy boat, a cruising catamaran which had 16 people and 9 crew so we had a decent room, hot showers and pretty
good food. The travelling was pretty rough at times, from what we can remember even worse than in the Arctic, leaving a number of us a little the worse for wear at times. The crew were from all over Ecuador but our naturalist guide, Daniel, was from a family that has lived in the islands for many years. He was very knowledgeable about the wildlife and the human history of the islands which is also interesting.
Days were full with 7am breakfast, first island visit at 7.45am with a return to the boat around 10am and then usually a snorkelling trip before lunch. Not really being at home in water or hot sunny climes I have never snorkelled before but, on our first full day (which happened to be my birthday), I took the plunge and found I could do it. I saw lots of fish and starfish before the water got a little cloudy. I was also very excited to see a sea lion whoosh past us in the water. Unfortunately the wet suit was a little large for me so was not as warm as it might be. This is the colder period for the islands and,
despite being almost on the equator, the Humboldt current keeps the water quite cool and I got quite chilly. Hugh did more snorkelling than I did and will tell you about one of his trips:
In the afternoon we did some snorkelling around both sides of a submerged crater. We'd been warned that there was a strong current, but it turned out to be stronger than expected so a few people got into some difficulty on the first snorkel (it was lucky Sarah wasn't with us), but as we were being picked up in next to no time by the zodiacs there was time for a second snorkel in the same place. This time everyone just floated with the current and took in the views. As well as many fish I saw two White-tipped Sharks, but was disappointed to hear that some of the others had seen a Sea Turtle.
We then had a snorkel on the other side of the crater where the current wasn't as strong and we had at last five minutes watching a pair of Eagle Rays circling beneath us and then, just as I was about to get back on the zodiac I
was rewarded by the sight of a sea turtle which swam past in the distance. ¡Que bueno!
Back to S:
After lunch there was at least one more stop on an island for more wildlife and on each return to the boat we were greeted with a snack and a drink.
The island visits were quite incredible though and there were days when we really were having to watch where we put our feet so as not to step on lizards, iguanas, seals and even birds. We saw blue footed boobies feeding tiny chicks, a big fluffy lump of waved albatross chick, sea lion pups feeding from their mothers, shiny red sally lightfoot crabs fighting and eating. As the boat travelling it was accompanied by huge magnificent frigate birds - they´re the ones who display the big red throats for mating for those who have seen the BBC series. In the distance from one beach we saw humpback whales while watching sting rays in the shallows.
One afternoon we stopped in Post Office Bay which was a regularly used stopping place for passing boats of all kinds long before the islands were inhabited. Somebody had the
idea of setting up a ´post box´- a barrel on a post into which passing sailors put messages for their families. The next boat would collect any with an appropriate address for hand delivery on their return. It´s still in use today but sadly we didn´t find any postcards destined for Leeds...
H and I stayed a couple of days in Puerto Ayora, the largest town in archipelago on the island of Santa Cruz. This is where the Darwin research centre is which houses a small collection of giant tortoises, most rescued pets, and the famous Lonesome George. He is the last known one of his species and comes from one island in the group. Scientists have been desperately trying to find another one in zoos and private collections all over the world but so far with no success. He was housed alone for a number of years but in recent years has had a couple of females from a closely related species in his enclosure. After years of apparent indifference he actually mated with these females earlier this year and the scientists are waiting for the eggs to hatch. Although these will be hybrid babies they are maintaining
the eggs at a temperature that results in females so that those with the closest DNA can mate with him in the future (despite being around 90 he has many years to go yet!) with a view to purifying the gene pool.
We also got to see a little island life in Puerto Ayora, a town of around 6,000 people. The tiny fish market is open all day as local fishermen bring in their catches along with a collection of sea lions, pelicans and other fish loving creatures. The weekend we were there had a festive air though we never quite got to the bottom of the reasons. The Saturday night as we strolled along the main street for dinner we came across a Naval band playing away before we arrived at a small stage in town where they were clearly gearing up for entertainment. Before it all kicked off we spent a good half an hour standing on the small pier jutting into the harbour watching sea lions whip around in the clear, well-lit water, fishing - quite spectacular. The first entertainment was a group of folk dancers from San Cristobal who put on a very energetic performance.
Unclear as to the link the next spot was to be taken by the final of the Open Bartender competition 2008 with cocktail throwing being the order of the day. Being a little tired we decided to pass on this one so sadly we don´t know who won....
The following day there were parades by drum majorettes, military and police groups and then a display by police motorbike riders down the main street with large crowds watching....until the final display bike toppled over at the end of the road. There were screams and gasps from the crowd followed by sirens and police trucks arriving, one carrying a stretcher. Not sure why the ambulance didn´t arrive (we had seen one in the town). However, we didn´t see anybody really upset and there was no sign of serious problems when we walked that way 20 minutes later, thank goodness.
Luckily the return flight was less disrupted and Monday evening we arrived back at our hotel in Quito with 2 days left before our final long-haul home. We´re both (at least I know I am) excited about getting back to our house and families but we´re sure that the real world
will hit us with a bit of a bump. Still, we´ve got all sorts of exciting plans (mostly based not too far from home!) for the next year. There may be one or two more blogs to wind things up. We´ve been having trouble with bits of text dropping off the blogs so if you´re finding bits missing (this bit probably!) then it´s a site problem, not our bad proof reading.
Please ask the rain to stop for our return.....
Lots of love
S + H xx
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Claire Smith
non-member comment
Soooo jealous
WOW, can't believe your sat next to a Galapagos Tortoise what an amazing experience. They make my Ant and Dec look so small :-) (for those of you who don't know, Ant and Dec are my two Horsfield tortoises)