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Published: February 26th 2009
Performing for the crowd
They really know how to entertain!My first couple of days in Ecuador were pretty miserable - I broke my camera in Lima and so spent a couple of days in Quayaquil (Ecuador's largest and nastiest city) trying to find somewhere to get it fixed or replaced. Luckily, a repair shop fixed it in an hour (broken transistor) and so then the Galapagos trip was back on!!! (could never having contemplated going there without the camera...)
I travelled to Baños to relax for a couple of days and started emailing and ringing tour companies to see if there were any last minute (and, er, cheap...) deals coming up. Just as I was starting to get responses, I also visited a local tour company and it turned out they had an 8 day trip for a good price starting two days later. There was very little information on the boat and itinerary but somehow I ended up handing over the cash (lots of it!) and dashed off to Quito to pick up the tickets and information, and then would fly to the Galapagos the following day.
When I got the itinerary, the boat turned out to be the Sulidae, a stunning Danish ketch and over 100
Pelican
Low flying over Tortuga Bay years old. The boat carries 12 passengers and I immediately wondered what they would be like, especially as I would have to share a cabin with one of them. Little did I know...
So off I flew to San Cristobal, one of the main Galapagos islands, and was met by a rep from the company. I knew that normally the tour started on Thursdays, and I had arrived on the Friday and so all the other passengers were already on the boat. I finally got ferried to the boat later in the afternoon, and was surprised to find only five people on board. By the end of the following day, all but one of those people had left, and so began the incredible voyage on Franz and Debbie, on their personal Galapagos tour boat...
It was a slightly weird time, but I think we were unbelievably lucky - no cabin sharing, food for 12 people (I think I ate most of it!), and no queueing or squashing into the dinghy when we went ashore or off on excursions.
And so to the stars of the show... the animals! I never got tired of seeing the iguanas (my
Great blue heron
Comtemplating something, possibly it´s feet... favourite), the sea lions, tortoises, birds, lizards, fish, etc. Most days we would see pretty much every animal, and always marvelled at how tame they were. Having said that, I did see a dominant male sea lion chase a Japanese tourist up the beach, and I think he had every intention of eating him...
After a couple of days on the boat, I became used to the routine: up at dawn, then go and sit on deck. Breakfast at 7am, where the guide, Raul, would brief us on the day's activities. We would go ashore or off in the dinghy in the morning, return at lunchtime to eat, then go off again in the afternoon. We were always welcomed back on board the boat in the afternoon with hot chocolate and biscuits, which we barely had time to stuff before dinner at 7pm. Then if we were in harbour, Franz and I would go ashore for cocktails for a couple of hours, returning to the boat to sit on deck and watch the sea come alive at night with wildlife. We also slept on deck sometimes - a magical experience as the stars were usually visible and it was
Yellow Iguana
Sadly, this one is in captivity also a blessed relief from the engine noise (both our cabins were next to the engine!)
Franz is a keen diver, and luckily he managed to find a dive shop to take him on a trip. I say lucky, but didn't envy him at all when I saw the hideous, rude, fat Russians who made up the remainder of his diving group. (and they turned out to be a nightmare as they wanted to see 'hammerhead shark'. None of them had dived before, so they kicked and thrashed around for a while, then shot to the surface).
Meanwhile, back on the surface, I was taken pony trekking! As part of the itinerary, I was to be given a horse and me, the guide and the horses' owner would trek to the summit of a volcano. My horse was called Rocinante, and looked innocent enough. What could go wrong?
Our route took us up a muddy track, quite steep and slippy in places, to the volcano summit. We headed off and I was quite surprised at the pace: normally, trekking horses plod and go as slowly as they can get away with, yet Rocinante was shooting up the
Marine iguanas
Hanging out in Tortuga Bay after a swim hill as if his tail was on fire. Then I got a clue as to the reason why. He had slowed down a little and then the guide rode up alongside Rocinante and I saw one of his ears swivel backwards. Then the other one did the same as he suddenly changed gear and shot forward again, puffing and wheezing with the effort of racing uphill in the mud. Turns out he had aspirations to be leader and he was not going to let any other horse go first.
I thought common sense would prevail and still trusted his judgement on the slippy path. Until he trotted past a barbed wire fence, nearly tearing my leg off. And then he slipped and fell to his knees (I managed to stay on board, but only just). Then I realised that, rider or no rider (or dead one for that), he was going to be in the lead, whatever the dangers were. I felt a bit more comfortable when the path flattened out a bit, but Rocinante saw this only as an opportunity for a race, and seconds later both horses were galloping along, with the guide laughing his head off
More marine iguanas
Waving at passing ships and me holding onto my hat and wondering if a broken collarbone would heal before the end of my holiday.
The return trip was similar - an angry Rocinante with twirling ears slipped and slid downhill (falling over again) but for most of the ride he was IN THE LEAD and that's all that mattered to him. I survived intact although my thighs were like lead the following day. I also found out that the guide and the horses's owner know exactly what the horses are like (most of them are plodders) and so I can only think it was some sort of practical joke on their part to give me Rocinante.
I felt a twinge of disappointment at not being able to dive (my PADI card is at home and covered in dust) but we snorkelled most days. I was a little bit apprehensive at first as I'm a bit funny about deep water and large things in the water, but after an hour or so I was fine. Until the day we were snorkelling in some beautiful turquoise water, near some rocky cliffs. Raul, the guide, was in the dinghy about 30 metres away and I
Rambo iguana
This one has a camouflage pattern! was happily swimming around until I saw a large shark in the distance. Not being one to make a fuss, I surface, shouted 'shark!!!!' and demanded that Raul come and get me. He just laughed and I ended up swimming in a slightly panicked way to the nearest rock and jumping onto it. It was totally pathetic behaviour on my part (I don't think anyone has been eaten by a shark in the Galapagos) and I laugh now when I think about my silliness. Raul continued to ignore me, and I ended up having to swim very fast to the boat, where he was still laughing.
The final day brought more comedy: I was taken to a tortoise breeding centre on Isla Cristobal for a couple of hours before going to the airport. Now tortoises are fine, but they don't really do much. They eat, walk slowly, um... I think that's about it really. Until this final trip! I was taken to an area where they were eating and a large group of people were stood there photographing them. Then they all left and the fun began. There was a big pile of lettuce on the ground, and I
think one of them got a bit territorial. A moment later they're charging at each other (well, it looks a bit like sumo wrestling actually), hissing, snapping and generally being mean. Then one tortoise mounts another one, which looked very unhappy about the whole thing. And finally, another tortoise stomps out of the feeding area and tries to grab my bag. I suddenly remembered my rather expensive camera lens so stopped laughing and ran over to retrieve it. I do love it when animals go wrong...
I left the Sulidae nearly a week ago now, and still can't quite get used to life on dry land again. It was an utterly magical experience, and we were incredibly fortunate to have the boat to ourselves (helped by a recession, I guess).
There was one small problem while I was on the boat - I got very badly sunburned on my first snorkelling trip and have been shedding skin ever since. In fact, I'm beginning to look like an iguana. I guess that's evolution...
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David Morales
non-member comment
We do not have one in our back yard
there is one in our lake but it does not go in the water but is about 7 feet long. It is still there. pls. send comments to my email - thanks.