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Published: October 13th 2008
My first sighting
What a wonderful view...........comig in to land on Baltra Island in the Galapagos Island.We left Quito at an early hour to catch our flight to the Galapagos Islands, making one stop on the way at a place I won’t even try to pronounce.
We landed on Baltra Island around midday and were soon on our way to the dock to board our boat, ‘GAP 1’ or ‘Pelikano’, its proper name.
Given that the islands always look deserted when shown on documentaries, the size of the airport took me by surprise.
Once on board, I was also surprised at how nice the cabins were, with a separate shower and toilet, air con and comfy looking bunks.
After we made ourselves at home, we had a quick briefing about the excursion onto our first island that same afternoon. The briefing also told us of the sizes and populations of the towns, 20,000 people in one of them, and I thought this place was deserted.
Our guide Peter, who was born on the Islands, led us on a brief walk and explained about the flora and fauna, and pointed out the wildlife to us giving all the latin names, very impressive.
After our short walk we were allowed to go snorkelling for a while.
Fortunately I had
Welcoming comitee
its just sooooooooo laid back. my underwater camera with me and was able to take shots of the abundance of wildlife under the waves.
Just before we left, two of our group spotted a seal swimming very close to us and decided to join it. It didn’t stay for long but a first encounter none the less.
We got back to the boat and showered and then had cocktails with the crew, and formal introductions were made.
We have a friendly Pelican with us this evening, showing us how to navigate around the boat and catch fish.
Day 2, woke at 6am and got ready for today’s activities.
We all had our breakfast and got on the Panga’s (these are small boats like RIBs, but with a local name I guess), and went to an island for a small hike.
The island, like the others, is volcanic, so you have to wear shoes. I forgot mine so I had to go back to the boat to get them. Sorry guys.
This involved taking pictures of the seals, pelicans and lizards on the beach, none of whom seamed to be fazed by our presence.
We saw many light foot crabs and took some more photos,
Our vessel
the Pelikano, ours for the week. and pictured the scenery, stunning.
After our hike we had a deepwater snorkel session. This involved dropping off the side of the Panga into deep water and making our way around a short stretch of coastline.
Fantastic is how I can describe this.
My first encounter with reef sharks, an eagle ray and a speckled ray.
Many other fish were pictured either as individuals or big shoals, too many to list here.
We had or lunch then went out snorkelling again, this time from a beach.
We swam with Galapagos penguins, another reef shark and much more, including some very big starfish.
Back to the mother ship to change and then off to climb a volcano. Stunning views as far as the eye could see, and only 16k from the equator.
Day 3, up at 5.30 to go straight out for a trek around part of James island. The landing was on black sand this time instead of the white sand we had become used to, more seals and birds and plenty of vegetation to look at. The scenery was as usual very good and many photos were taken.
This island used to have a salt mine on it,
fishes
some of the fish to be found at most locations but this was closed many years ago. The salt was used for the fish that were caught locally.
Back for breakfast, which as usual was very good, with pancakes this morning?
Next stop was Rabida Island, which up until about 8 or 9 years ago we could have seen Flamingos, but El Nino has changed things and the seals have taken over the lake the birds used to feed from, and polluted it with their own waste matter killing all the shrimps etc, that’s why it is now green not the red colour it used to be.
The sand here is red this time, yet another colour change.
More snorkelling from the beach, more fish to photograph, but this time we had a seal follow us around very playfully for quite some time. How good they look in the water.
Back to the boat and shower.
We left our moorings about 1pm and hit some pretty rough waters. This slowed progress and we arrived a bit later than we should, at our next day’s destination. A few people did feel a bit rough for this 7 hour journey, (one or two may have had to use ‘The porcelain telephone’).
The views
pristine landscapes........very nice. Day 4, started early enough with breakfast at 6.30. We said our farewells to the other passengers who were leaving us today and waved goodbye as they left n one of the Panga‘s.
The early start was to get us into the Charles Darwin centre before the 2 cruise liners turned up, and the place got crowded.
We walked through the centre and our guide Peter told us of all the good work being carried out here, and about the breading programme for indigenous animals of the islands, also keeping us well informed of the animals and plants within the centre‘s grounds.
We were shown ‘Lonesome George’ who is only about 80 or 90 years young.
He has been put in a large enclosure, as he is the last of his kind. This has allowed 2 females to be put in with him for mating purposes, although the females are from a different island, they are the closest match to ‘George’.
Eggs have been laid on 3 separate occasions, and those that look in good condition, have been transferred to an incubation unit to ensure the survival rate is high.
We stsopped at the shop here and I purchased a
Welcome to
The Galapagos Islands........its almost deserted.........exept the wildlife.......Galapagos Homosapiens. book aand some post cards. The proceeds from the sale go straight into supporting the centre, very worthwhile cause.
Back to the boat for lunch.
2pm and we are on or way to a ranch to see tortoises in their natural habitat.
As we arrived the bus driver stopped and Peter pointed to a bird in front of us in the roadway.
There are only 48 left on this island, some other birds are eating the eggs and the chicks, not good.
More pictures were take, wildlife, plants etc,adding to my ever expanding collection.
Back to the boat after a brief walk around the town at the harbour we are moored in.
On the boat we met the new influx of holiday makers who replaced the ones we parted with this morning.
We left our moorings at around midnight for a six hour cruise through what was to be some slightly choppy sees. I did take some anti motion sickness tablets to help me sleep, they seemed to work ok, and the sees were not too bad.
Day 5, 7am breakfast and onto Floreana Island, landing at Punta Cormorant for a small hike to see the wildlife, this included
Sally Lightfoot Crab
every where you look. more seals, some flamingos and stingrays. The stingrays were all lined up in the shallow waters to catch the newly hatched turtles, this made walking in the see difficult as there were so many of them.
There were quite a few turtles swimming just off the beach awaiting nightfall to come ashore and lay their eggs.
Back on board the boat and off to Champion Island, this allowed us to do some deep water snorkelling. Many more fish, more than at the other locations, and a family of seals to play with today.
Time for lunch followed by our next location, Post Office Island, so named that when the Whalers wanted to send mail home a makeshift post-box had been erected. This was so that passing sailors could pick the mail up and hand deliver it if they were going that way. It is still in use today, I picked up a card for L.A. and a card for Auckland as I shall be going this way soon.
More snorkelling, but this time the visibility was not good and not too many photos, but I did see a different type of ray and three very large turtles swimming around.
The
crew from our boat played football against the crew from another vessel, this is a regular weekly thing they do. I decided to join in, and ended up after half an hour with the biggest blood blisters on my feet I have seen. Bare feet and sand don’t mix.
We travelled through the night to reach our next destination, about 6 or 7 hours, by far the roughest of our tour. Anything that was left above floor level was soon on the floor. I felt sorry for the few people who suffer from motion sickness and those who have there cabins upstairs.
I did take the precaution of taking another special tablet after my evening meal, and ear plugs of course.
I had to go to the bathroom during the night, that was quite amusing.
Day 6, usual start, 7am for breaky, (and after lancing my blistered feet so that I could walk), today we visited Punta Suarez on Espanola Island. Here we found Blue Footed Boobies and a different type of Iguana from the ones we had already seen, and sea lions of course. We also visited an area that is used by Albatros as an
airfield and breeding ground. The iguana’s were very colourful, and plentiful. The boobies were in their mating season, so some had eggs and some were practising. Also saw albatross chicks, very big.
After this visit we got back on board Pelikano and went to Gardener bay. Here was some very soft white sand, ideal for my poor tootsies, and a large colony of sea lions. I opted to go snorkelling straight away and took more shots of rays, sea lions and different types of fish.
A fairly quiet day really as some of it was spent moving around.
We are currently sailing off to our next destination, hopefully moored up before we go to bed this time.
Day 7, after the best nights sleep yet. We are moored off Santa Fe Island.
We go out for a hike around the place and see some inhabitants only found on this particular island, birds, iguanas and a snake, my first on these islands.
We then did a bit more snorkelling, seeing few of the fish that we are becoming used to, and all this after being told that some people have been attacked by the sea lions……..now he tells us.
Back
Itinery
this is how the days were planned out. for lunch and we move off to Plazas Island, we are able to see a very colourful iguana and a beautiful landscape of red and green with mainly cacti growing around. This area also has a main breeding beach for the sea lions, and the male sea lions who don’t make the grade have their own beach around the other side of the island. Some very colourful sea birds were flying around, but it was hard to take pictures due to the strength of the wind. The bird I would like to have pictured the most was the Tropicbird, it has a long, long tail feather and a red beak, but the just flew by too quickly.
A cake was made very hastely for 2 of our guests, I think they had just got married or something. The were from Denmark.
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