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Published: September 19th 2014
The Galapagos islands are amazing, there is so much wildlife that are not afraid of humans. I just found it unbelievable how close we were able to get to so many different animals and birds. The Galapagos islands have 7,214 identified species, and it's estimated that only 86% of the biodiversity has been registered. Another 3,089 marine species have been recorded and 30.8% of species are endemic (native) to the islands. We decided to do a cruise so we could see as many of these animals as possible.
Our Cruise itinerary was as follows:
Day 1: El Chato Giant Tortoise Reserve - Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz Island
Day 2: Cerro Bruno, San Cristóbal and Punta Pitt, San Cristóbal
Day 3: South Plazas Island and Mosquera Islet
Day 4: Daphne Island and Playa Las Bachas - Santa Cruz Island
Day 5: Sullivan Bay, James Island and Bartolomé Island
Day 6: Espumilla Beach, James Island and James Bay, James Island
Day 7: Rábida Island and Islet Sombrero Chino
Day 8: Charles Darwin Tortoise research centre, Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz Island
We had booked our cruise on the New Flamingo, however it was not
new or pretty like a flamingo. I think it was probably the oldest boat taking people around the Galapagos islands. It had space for 10 passengers and 6 crew including our guide. Our room was very small, two bunk beds and just enough room down the side to get to the bathroom, with no storage space for our bags. For us to both be in the room at the same time at least one of us had to be on a bed or in the bathroom.
Our 7 night cruise was broken into two trips, there were five of us that were booked on the full 8 days, a guy from Australia and two from New Zealand. The first part was 3 nights and we had two other couples join us, one from the US and the other from the Czech Republic.
We arrived at our boat around lunchtime on the first day and after lunch headed to El Chato giant tortoise reserve located in the upper part of Santa Cruz island. It is an area the farmers provide for the turtles so they can receive money from visiting tourists. The farmers try to ensure the tortoises stay
by providing them with an environment they are happy in. The turtles wander freely through the reserve, which is based around a lagoon, and are not fenced in. The tortoises range in age with some more than 100 years old
We left Puerto Ayora around 10pm and spent the night at sea on our way to San Cristóbal island. It was a pretty rough crossing so we didn't get the best nights sleep.
Day 2 began with a 6am wake up and I was up on deck as we motored past Leon Dormido, a lion shaped rock, with a channel which is good for snorkeling and diving, unfortunately we didn't get to stop as it wasn't on our itinerary. The rules for the boats have become much stricter and all boats have two different weeklong itineraries they have to alternate between and they can't change without prior approval. The crew is also no longer aloud to fish or go ashore by themselves.
Our first stop was at Cerro Bruno on San Cristóbal, we walked among the sea lions and were surprised how close we could get. We came across a pregnant female with a missing back flipper
sunning herself but she wasn't bothered by us. After our island walk we went snorkeling with lots of schools of fish, turtles, and also swam through a large rock tunnel.
Our afternoon was spent at Punta Pitt on San Cristóbal. We walked up to the view point to see the red footed boobies, nazca boobies, san cristóbal lava lizards, san cristobal mockingbird and frigates. Our walk was followed by the most amazing snorkeling with a young playful sea lion - it was interested in us, our bubbles and our movements. It would race towards us and then turn away at the last moment. It stayed around for a good 20 minutes to half an hour until its mate came along and it was as if he was told your mum wants you home for dinner and you had better not be late and then sadly off he went.
After the sealion left we decided to swim back to the boat, on the way we spotted a couple of sea turtles. Once back on board Gary made the most of the roof of our boat by jumping off it.
Day 3 began at South Plazas island, just off
San Cristobal island. North Plazas is opposite and kept free of people to ensure the animals are undisturbed. South Plazas island is home to the largest sealion colony with approximately 1,000 sealions. We saw many sealions of all different ages including several pregnant females and babies suckling. The male galapagos land iguanas with their yellow chests were very protective of their cactus, if the fruit fell off they would run to get it and if any other iguanas came too close to their cactus they would quickly be chased away. There are no predators for the galapagos land iguanas on South Plazas island so there are large numbers but not huge amounts of food.
We had a morning snorkel before lunch and siesta time.
Our afternoon stop was at Mosquera Islett, home to the second largest sealion colony in the Galapagos. We were free to walk amongst them and enjoyed just sitting and watching. There were several harems each with an alpha male, who generally patrols the waters edge and keeps an eye on the females and babies on the shore. We were watching one group where an outside male was visiting the ladies on the beach, the
alpha male was not happy about this and came racing into shore and awkwardly clambered up the steep slope and chased away the intruder before heading back to the sea.
Day 4 started with a pre-breakfast boat ride around Daphne Island to see many different birds including blue footed boobies, nazca boobies, frigate bird, brown pelican, brown noddy tern, red billed tropic bird, swallow tailed gull, and the yellow crowned night heron.
After breakfast we headed to Baltra island for a change of passengers for the last 4 nights. We were joined by two Americans, a couple from Switzerland and a guy from India.
Once everyone was onboard we headed to Playa Las Bachas on Santa Cruz Island a nesting area for the sea turtles. We didn't see any sea turtles but visited the Flamingo Lagoon where there was a solitary Flamingo calling to its mates before eventually flying off to find them.
Walking down the beach we had the joy of watching a young brown pelican learning to fish. Pelicans are funny to watch when they are fishing as they bomb into the water and then quickly float to the top. At this point others
birds will try to steal their catch if they have been successful.
There were also large numbers of blue footed boobies flying over and fishing together which looked like a swarm of locasts like you see in the movies.
We went snorkeling and while in the water a pelican flew by very close to the surface, it was great to see it from a completely different angle and so close.
In the evening we stopped at the refuel point, where we saw several black and white tip sharks around the boat, the largest was about 2 meters long.
Day 5 began with a walk around Sullivan Bay, James Island. The area was fascinating and made of lava 140 years ago after one of the nearby volcanoes erupted. We saw lava cactuses, lava heron, lava lizard, and sealions.
We had another amazing snorkel where we saw a penguin fishing, he would swim away from the school of fish and then quickly turn around and chase the fish. He also swam right between Gary and I. It was unbelievable the speed he could go with his little flippers. We bobbed about watching him for about 10 minutes
before he took off and we couldn't keep up.
We headed across to Bartolomé Island for some snorkeling in the afternoon. We saw a couple of large stingrays resting under rocks, and were able to get really close to the Blue Footed Boobies sitting on the rocks.
Gary and I decided we had had enough so we were waiting in the water by the beach, over Gary's shoulder I saw a penguin floating on the surface. We thought he would be gone by the time we put all our gear back on but we got lucky and were able to catch him. We followed him all the way to the rocks where he got out of the water and sat on the rock.
After snorkeling we did a walk to a lookout point for one of the famous Galapagos islands views, Pinnacle Rock which is a remnant of a tuff cone. On our way back down from the lookout a little galapagos snake was spotted, it was very thin and only approximately 60cm long.
In the morning of Day 6 we arrived on Espumilla beach, James Island. The beach is a sea turtle nesting area and
we could see a couple of their trails from the sea to the nest and back to the sea again. We were given free time to just wonder along the beach and go where we wanted. There were lots of sally light foot crabs which would run and hide down holes when we got too close. I also enjoyed watching the brown pelicans & blue footed boobies fishing. We were also lucky enough to see a galapagos hawk on the beach and another one eating a baby turtle.
After our beach walk we went snorkeling from the dingy, it was another of my favourite snorkels as we were joined by a sealion playing with sea cucumbers. He was incredibly cute as he picked it up and threw it about before dropping it and starting all over again. We also saw two white tipped reef sharks and a massive lobster unfortunately we couldn't take it home for dinner.
In the afternoon we headed for James Bay, James Island and walked around the shore, where we saw lots of marine iguanas warming themselves in the sun. We stopped by an area with a sea cave and a bridge to take
some photos but there was a young male sealion protecting his area and chasing us away each time we got too close. We carried on around the rocks and found some fur seals sunning themselves with some youngsters playing in one of the holes in the rocks.
We went snorkeling from the beach and started headed round the rocks when a male sealion started checking us out and trying to move us out of his area. We decided it was best if we left him in peace and carried on towards some other rocks where we found a sea turtle feeding.
Our last full day on the boat began at Rábida Island. We did a guided walk up to the look out point that had great views over the bay, on the way we passed lots of lizards and a galapagos mockingbird. We stopped at the flamingo lagoon and saw another solitary flamingo.
Later we were snorkeling near Rábida island when Gary tapped me, I looked to where he was pointing and there was a Galapagos shark. It gave me such a fright as it was much bigger than the reef sharks we had been seeing all
week. It didn't hang around long before it headed out towards the open sea.
Our last stop before heading back to Puerto Ayora was at Islet Sombrero Chino (China hat). We walked along the shore and saw a sealion mother feeding her very young pup in the shallows and many iguanas sunning themselves.
During our last snorkel we saw the usual fish as well as a white tipped reef shark and a barracuda.
We woke up on the New Flamingo for the last time in Puerto Ayora. After breakfast we headed to Charles Darwin Tortoise research centre. It was similar to the one we saw on Isabela island the week before. It was also home to some tortoises over 100 years old.
We had two nights staying on the waterfront in Puerto Ayora, we enjoyed having space and relaxing before catching our flight to Quito.
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Galapagos on our short list
This is a place we've wanted to go for years. Hopefully soon.