Latin American Escapade Part 2- Galapagos Islands, Ecuador

---

We are currently sitting in the aeropuerto of Baltra - an island five minutes away from Santa Cruz in the Galapagos. It’s Saturday morning and we are waiting for our flight back to Quito after five days sailing the Galapagos Islands.

We flew in to Quito last Sunday 19th February, from Cuba, where we stayed overnight before flying 1,000 km off the coast to the Galapagos on Monday morning. Landing in Quito was certainly and experience! The airport is situated pretty much in the middle of the city, which is surrounded by huge mountains. It provided an amazing view, but also I think the worst turbulence I’ve experienced to date. After landing, our taxi ride was just as treacherous, through torrential rain, hail and flooded streets of Quito. Couple that with an old leaking car without any de-misters and you have an interesting ride! We later found out that we were actually lucky to have landed at all - as apparently throughout the weekend other flights were diverted to other Ecuadorian cities as a result of the weather.

Sunday afternoon was spent on the internet - a real treat for us after the difficulties and expense of access in Cuba. In the evening we marvelled at the choice of restaurants and shops and were quite excited to go out for thai after two weeks of chicken and rice! Coming back into a capitalist country after Cuba really gave us a strong sense of just how different things are between the regimes - with both positive and negative aspects to both sides in my opinion.

Monday morning we flew out to San Cristobel, where we boarded our boat to sail the islands for the next four days. We were pretty apprehensive about what type of accommodation the boat would provide, as the organisation of the trip had been terrible. We pre-booked through a tour company to avoid any hassle, but it had been anything but. After changing the dates of our trip (requiring us to change our flights) and out boat three times, I received a message in Cuba that the company needed to speak to me urgently. Needless to say we were prepared for the worst - expecting our trip to be cancelled and being stranded for a week… not the best feeling when you’re in the middle of the countryside in Cuba! When we made contact, we were told that our boat had been changed yet again, but also that the full cost of both our tours was going to be refunded. Good news that we were still going, great news that we were getting the tour for free (one of the more expensive parts of our trip), but a little scary as to what we were to expect as a result.
Well, someone must have been looking out for us because, somehow, we managed to weasel our way onto what was the newest and best boat on the Galapagos! I can only imagine what the other passengers were paying (it was only us and one other couple who booked through a cheapo, no-frill company), but we definitely felt like fraudsters and kept very quiet about the fact that we weren’t paying for the trip!
The boat was a nine month old catamaran, 16 berth, with a huge dining, lounge area, and 16 sunlounges spread out over the top deck, and around eight crew members to look after the 15 of us. We were treated like royalty with great food and facilities, and it was also a faster boat than any of the others, a big plus for me as I was not looking forward to being on a boat one little bit - so the less time sailing from one island to the next the better! As it turned out, the sea was calm for the trip and with wearing a patch, I had no problem with sea sickness apart from feeling a little dizzy at times.

So anyway, enough gloating (just so nice to finally have something go right!).

On Monday afternoon we sailed down to Kicker Rock - an amazing volcanic formation rising out of the sea around 1km offshore. On the way we picked up some hitchhiking frigate birds who decided to accompany us for a few kilometres by circling and flying with our boat. They were huge, graceful and stunning, and we were all like little children marvelling at our first wildlife encounter.
Whilst sailing around the rock we also spotted sea turtles and sea lions. From Kicker we sailed on to a place called Sea Lion Island, off the coast of San Cristobel, with (wait for it…) sea lions. They were cheeky little (and big!) things with no fear whatsoever. They found it fun to swim around us and nip our flippers playfully. Okay, they didn’t actually nip my flippers as such (Campbell has just berated me for writing that!) - I was a chicken as usual and always tried to keep a little distance… but they were doing it to everyone else.
After the snorkelling, we walked up onto the island where we saw more sea lions, sally lightfoot crabs (with stunning bright red, yellow and blue shells), and marine iguanas.
Sailing back to our cove through sunset was magical, especially when a huge tuna leaped out of the water directly in front of us as we were lying down on the front of the boat, up almost to head height!

On day two we awoke to a new location - a bay offshore from Espanola Island. After breakfast we were transported via our zodiacs (pangas) to the beach where yet more sea lions were basking on the shore. We spent the morning sharing the beach with them, colourful marine iguanas and spotting sea turtles nesting tracks. We also went out snorkelling with tropical fish and white-tipped reef sharks in the crystal clear, warm water.
That afternoon we sailed to another section of the island, where we hiked across the land to see blue footed boobies (foot-tall sea birds with bright blue, webbed feet), masked boobies and their chicks. The ever-present crabs, iguanas and sea lions were also there to provide me with yet more photo opportunities - until I unwittingly got too close to an aggressive bull who literally chased me up off the beach! They may look fat, lazy and slow, but when they want to, they certainly can move!! I had to run back pretty quickly - scared the hell out of me but provided some amusement for the rest of the group!

Day three was spent at Floreana Island. Our first activity was to board our pangas for a cruise around the rocky outcrops and islets to spot wildlife up close. With our day paks and cameras on board we were ready to spend some time relaxing before going snorkelling. In the panga with our tour guide on board, we decided to go close in to a rocky islet where penguins frequent - specifically for Campbell and I as we were leaving the tour before getting to Bartolome Island where most of the penguins live (turns out we did go there on a day trip yesterday anyway).
Whilst scanning for movement we didn’t notice a freak wave building in front of the boat, until it reached breaking point - right in front of us! We all (including the guide and driver) got a huge fright as the wave crashed over the panga, completely soaking us all. I’m not sure what ran through my head - I think I stood up and held my camera over my head - but I definitely expected to be thrown from the boat and lose everything. We all of course had cameras, and Campbell had our video camera too, but luckily there was a little sea spray earlier, so I put my camera into its case and Cam even put a waterproof cover over his backpack (the first time he’s ever used it!). This was the only thing that saved us, and apart from getting completely drenched from head to toe and being a little shaken, all was okay.

After that little event we finished our ride, and instead walked to a peak of the island for an aerial view.
It was with apprehension that I re-boarded the panga to go to the beach for snorkelling, but from that point on all was fine, apart from the constant picking on the poor little driver!
Snorkelling was amazing, punctuated by swimming within arms length of a large green sea turtle for a few minutes. A definite highlight of the trip!
We also took a snorkelling trip to the remains of a volcanic outcrop called Devils Crown later in the morning, where we followed thousands of tropical fish, stingrays, sharks, sea lions and turtles.

That afternoon we went inland to see a flock of flamingos perched gracefully on single legs in a lake, and also watched a couple of them feeding - in a manner not unlike a big pink vacuum cleaner hovering across the bottom of the shallows and leaving snake-like trails in their wake! We also visited a beach where sea turtle colonies come to lay their eggs and watched the hundred of dark patches swimming back and forth along the coast.
Most of us decided to go back snorkelling after that - the constant 35 degree outside temperature and beating sun made the water our favourite place over the last week, and so we went back out to Devils Crown for another stint.

Thursday, and our last day with the group saw us on Santa Cruz Island. We bussed up into the central, forested part of the island to play the Galapagos Giant Tortoises a visit. We excitingly were able to get very close to these 100-plus year old creatures, and watched them lumbering around the cattle farm in which they have taken up residence, and in and out of their waterholes.
We visited the Charles Darwin Foundation in the afternoon, where we saw ´Giant´ Tortoises of just a few weeks old, no bigger than a tennis ball, through to the children, teenagers and oldies of the centre. The foundation is currently breeding the various species of Giant Tortoise in captivity to try to revive the population that has dwindles from 250,000 in the 1500´s to just 15,000. They are now up to 18,000and so slowly but surely are getting there (what was that story about the hare and tortoise!??!). We did meet one species that sadly cannot be saved however, with its last living descendent, ´Lonesome George´. At only 80 years old he’s just a boy, but, I think in a silent protest, refuses to mate with any females from other species he is kept with. So, although unlikely in our lifetime, we’ll sadly lose at least one of the Galapagos Giant Turtle species.

We finished on the boat that afternoon, and stayed overnight on Santa Cruz Island for the next two nights. Yesterday, as mentioned earlier, we took a day trip out to Bartolome Island. After our recent luxury the boat was small and slow, but it was a good reality check for what standard we should be setting herein. Bartolome is one of the most recent volcanic islands and the site of the Galapagos Penguin colonies. We firstly climbed to the top of the island for an awesome view over the lava flows, tuff cones, parasite cones, Pinnacle Rock and stunning coast. We followed this by spending time on the beach swimming and snorkelling with various fish and penguins (and of course sea lions, crabs and marine iguanas). The highlight of the day was on the trip back, where, out in the open ocean we sailed into a pod of over 50 dolphins. It was so exciting to watch them diving in and out of the water and they took turns in ´riding´ the boats wave - being pushed along by the water at the bow of the boat - and performing twists and leaps for their audience.

And so now, we’re about to board the plane back to Quito.

It’s been an awesome five days, I think the perfect amount of time to appreciate what the Galapagos has to offer, experience life on the sea, and leave with a sense of accomplishment but also and interest in what the other islands have left for us to explore one day in the future.

Now all I have to do is manage to type this up when I get to a computer…. Wish me luck!

---

Photos

Santa Cruz Island
Two Galapagos Giant Tortoises taking a break

Santa Cruz Island
Trekking through a lava tube

Santa Cruz
A Galapagos Giant Tortoise

Bartolome Island
Dolphins catching the wave of our boat!