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Published: August 11th 2009
I am afraid that my words will not convey how amazing the cruise around the Galapagos was hopefully the pictures will convey some of it. As the title says I have no regrets in blowing my budget and can only recommend people to go on a cruise if they can find the money.
Friday morning found Sharon and I heading to Guayaquil airport for our flight to Baltra. The flight across was uneventful and after a short time we were met outside the airport by Cesar our guide whilst we were on the boat. We then met up with David from the US who was joining us on the trip and so we set off to meet the rest of the group in Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz.
We soon met the rest of the group. There were 7 of us in total including Maria and Fernando from Spain who were starting the cruise with us and then Jesse from Australia and Cenys from Hong Kong (I know I have spelled her name wrong but I have spelt it phonetically) both Jesse and Cenys had been on the boat for 3 days already. So after lunch Ceasr told us that
we would have a different guide for the afternoon whilst he took our bags to the boat and organised the boat for our arrival later that day. It transpired our temporary guide was Cesars father also called Cesar!!
We all piled into two jeeps and were taken to El Chato. El Chato is a reserve in the highlands of Santa Cruz where giant tortoises can be observed in the wild. Cesar Senior (Sr) took us around the reserve where we were able to observe these giant creatures. Needless to say that I called them all Fred regardless of their sex however poor Fred would be squashed by these giants. i explained to Cesar Sr that I had a tortoise at home and we wanted to know if he was from the Galapagos at which point I had to confess I did know what type of tortoise he was he just wasn't the size of these ones - dug myself a hole there!!!!
From El Chato we were taken down the road to a lava tunnel and whilst Cesar Sr assured us it wasn't going t collapse anytime soon there were a few pieces of rock in the ceiling
near the entrance that didn't look too safe so I stayed a reasonable distance away not taking my chances! We then headed back into Puerto Ayora where we had an hour to amuse ourselves before being met at the dockside by Cesar Jr.
Anyway we got picked up in the dingy and headed out to our home for the next few days the Merak. It was a large sailing ship and the living quarters were cosy but fine for what we needed. We had dinner and were told that we wouldn't be sailing that night till 1pm. Quite a few of the group went to bed either without dinner or shortly afterwards as the boat was rocking and so they started to sffer from sea sickness. Once again my strong constitution came in handy and I had no effects on that side. The only problem I had was that if I sat with the boat rocking side to side then it gave me some minor vertigo however if I sat sideways on so I ws rocking back and forth I was fine.
Sharon and I headed to bed eventually and once again I proved my ability to sleep
anywhere at anytime and slept like a baby until they started lifting the anchor up at 1.30am. Once we were sailing I soon fell back to sleep till the morning.
Our first stop of the day was Rabida Island where Cesar took us on a tour along the beach and we got to see the sealions, lizards, sally lightfoot crabs. Cesar explained to us all about the volcanoes and plates. We ended up at a small cliff where Cesar said we could swim if we wnated but it required you to jump off - after a long debate I decided I would go for it. It then meant I had a long debate when I got to the edge but I eventually jumped as the photo demonstrates!! We then made our way back to the beach and went snorkeling.
Once again this is a first for me as I have never snorkeled before and what a way to start! We were swimming for about 45 mins and I got to see - a couple of baby sealions, a turtle, a galapagos garden eel, lots of tropical fish, different coral, sea urchins and various types of starfish. Cesar was
swimming with us and had a waterproof book so he was able to show you what you were looking at. We then returned to the boat and had lunch and at the same time they motored us to Chinese Hat Island.
After a short siesta we went on to Chinese Hat where we were greeted by more sealions and we also got to see some marine iguanas sunbathing. After our tour of the island we got to do some more snorkeling if we wanted so I was one of he few that took the opportunity. I have to say this was probably one of the most fun for me as I ended up swimming on my own and was then joined by a baby sealion, Ceasr had previously told us to copy what they did and they would paly with us, so I started to roll over etc and the sealion watched me and then would copy what I was doing. I was amazing to be so close to the sealion and have him play with me. I saw various other types of tropical fish and could happily have swam forever but it was time to return to our
boat.
Sunday morning we landed on Santiago and once again had a tour of the island which also had us climbing a hill so that we could see the lave flow from the last erruption. We got to see a lot of Sally Lightfoot Crabs on this island and the different types of lava. We also got to see a Galapagos penguin which, as a lot of the animals are, is endemic to the Galapagos an I believe the only cold water penguins!
Later that morning we went for a long snorkeling session and once again we saw some amazing marine life including a white tipped shark!! We saw one shark swim by and then Cesar spotted another one under a ledge so the boys were all diving under the ledge to look at it but I had no interest so turned around and started taking photos of some fish as I turned round I nearly kicked a white tipped shark in the head as it passed within 50cm of me - it scared me thats for sure! The rest of the session was more tropical fish however at one point I fell behind the lads swimming (at
this point I was the only girl left swimming) however as I swam along I spotted a large diamond manta ray sat on the bottom so sat staring at him for awhile.
You will note I said I was taking photos - Sharon and I bought a disposable camera so unfortunately I can't publish them on here and I will have to wait until I am home to see them myself!
That afternoon we did a quick tour of Bartolome Island where we saw the Galapagos hawk and on our return to the boat we motored to our mooring for the night which was between Baltra and North Seymour. Monday morning was an early start and we were up and onto the Island of North Seymour by 6.20am! This time we got to see the frigate birds close up and various other birdlife. We also sat and watched a male and female blue footed boobie in the hope that they would do the mating dance unfortunately they had no interest in eachother so we missed out on this spectacle.
We were then dropped off at Baltra and Sharon and I made our way to Puerto Ayora that
was to be our home for five days before we had to go our separate ways. The end of my time in the Galapagos will follow in the next blog.
Needless to say the cruise for me was well worth the money and for me the snorkeling was the highlight of the trip. I am also glad that I went on a toursit class boat as it meant or group was small and so we got more detail and information from our guide. Obviously it all comes down to personal preference but for me it was amazing and definitely a good end to my three months in South America!
NB Most of the photos of the animals have been taken without using the zoom!!
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Caroline
non-member comment
WOW
Hi Andrea! Just wanted to say - HOW lucky are you!?!!! What a fantastic opportunity to visit the Galapogos , of course the right decision was made - who knows when would you ever get the opportunity again. Thanks for the postcard, we've arrived back from Turkey and had a great time. Chris is off to India next week though, his passport is getting a bit dog-eared, but not as much as yours will be I bet! I will show the kids your pictures of the animals, no doubt Eric will get his atlas out and want to know all about where you are etc. He knows more about countries, flags and capital cities than I do ( I think it all began with an interest in football teams around the world) 3 more weeks left of the summer holidays for me - Hooray! - Take care, Love Caroline