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Published: December 3rd 2008
Las Grietas pool
Fresh and salt water mix hereBefore flying out to the Galápagos Islands, we spent a week in Quito, the capital of Ecuador. We will add a separate blog entry for Quito after our Galápagos entry.
The Galápagos Islands were most definitely the highlight of our trip so far. While being expensive, we think that they were worth every cent. The Galápagos is a surreal place, with strangely tame animals lazing around everywhere. The animals are the main reason for visiting the Islands; they indirectly made the Islands famous by being so unique and influencing Charles Darwin to develop his theory of evolution. It was specifically the Islands´ mockingbirds that the young Darwin had taken back with him that caused him to start speculating about evolution. One really appreciates that this is one of the last few places left on earth where human influence has been kept to a minimum. This has not always been the case, though, as pirates almost destroyed the Islands´ Giant Tortoise population. After many thousands of years without predators, the behaviour of the animals is the strangest thing about the island: they are not afraid of humans at all.
What also makes the Islands special is the fact that they
are relatively "young" in earth terms, the oldest islands are about 4 million years old. This has caused many evolutionary biologists to puzzle over the fact that so many unique species had evolved in such a short period of time. Geologists have recently found that the Islands are on a "conveyor belt" of sorts, and that there are older islands that have dropped below the surface of the ocean, to the south east. These islands have been dated at 9 million years, giving the biologists an answer to the diversity found on the Galápagos. New islands are formed over a volcanic hotspot in the crust of the earth and as the earth's plates move south-east, the islands start slowly disappearing by moving ever deeper each year.
Our trip:
We left Quito three days prior to the start of out cruise. We planned on staying in Puerto Ayora, the capital of Galápagos for those three days. We spent these days exploring the town and the surrounding areas. We saw Las Grietas, a pool where salt and freshwater mixes, giving crystal clear water in beautiful surroundings. On the way back from the pool, we stopped at a small shack selling
Giant Tortoise
Darwin Research Centre drinks, drank cocktails and some form of local
Mampoer that completely took our breath away. We went to Angermeyer Point restaurant after this for more cocktails and tapas. We were quite unsteady on our feet after this, but it was a fun filled night.
The next day we rented some bicycles with friends Josh and Darran from Oz (we had met them in Salento) and went exploring the Darwin Research Centre, which is famous for its Giant Tortoises and Land Iguanas. These tortoises are seriously huge! The research centre does very good work with them, re-introducing them to a few islands where pirates had eaten them all up. LM had an unfortunate event as we were returning back to the shop: she flew over the handlebars as a result of using the front brake too strenuously. Luckily she was travelling quite slowly at that point and only scraped her elbow and foot, which was easily treated.
The next morning, LM´s exciting adventures continued. Our shower´s cold water supply stopped as LM was shampooing her hair. She grabbed the small hand towel, and rushed across the hall in the hotel, into an empty room that happened to be open.
Here she finished showering. Unfortunately, new guests arrived, entered the room and closed the door whilst she was rinsing in their shower. LM had to exit the bathroom, half naked, explain to the couple what she was doing, and exit the room, blushing. They did not seem too happy.
We started our cruise on the Amigo 1 boat on Sunday, the 9th of November. We were joined by our two Ozzie friends and a girl from the UK, called Izzie. In addition to this, a whole bunch of geriatric Hungarians filled the boat, with a translator to boot. They could not speak English or Spanish, so if one wanted to have a conversation, one needed to work through the translator, which meant that we just did not speak to them at all.
The first day, we went back to the Charles Darwin Station, which was a bit of a disappointment for us, as we had just visited it ourselves. We returned to the boat to start sailing that evening. LM felt quite queasy, but we were provided with some excellent sea-sickness medication by our travel agent and this helped LM immensely throughout the trip.
Day 2:
After
Giant Tortoise
Yoga pose for finches sailing most of the night, we arrived at South Plazas. This is the most strange but beautiful landscape we had ever seen. The island is covered with a cactus forest and a red and orange succulent plant that causes an amazing contrast. Hundreds of Land Iguanas, also coloured orange, lie interspersed between these plants. As with all Galápagos islands, no matter how small or rugged, there were also a bunch of Sea Lions lounging around on the rocks. The one side of the small island consists of a jagged cliff where many marine birds nest and rest.
That afternoon, we arrived at Isla Santa Fe after a short boat ride. Here, we went for a swim and snorkel in crystal clear turquoise water, seeing a white tip reef shark and many fish. After the snorkel we walked up the mountain on the island, looking for tortoises. We were unsuccessful in this, but managed to see many mockingbirds, snakes and indigenous rats on the walk.
Day 3:
We arrived at yet another island called Isla Española in Punta Suarez, where we saw Blue Footed Boobies and albatrosses for the first time. They really are quite cute birds. The albatrosses
have this strange mating ritual and according to the naturalist guide, they practise for this ritual. Please look at the video for this. When they walk, they sway their heads from side to side in an exaggerated fashion. They are quite awkward on land. We saw many lizards and Iguanas and, of course Sea Lions. That afternoon, we snorkelled in Gardner Bay, where there were many baby Sea Lions and mockingbirds that were very interested in us.
Day 4:
We woke up early to a view of Kicker Rock, or Leon Dormido. This is a huge monolithic rock, the remains of a lava cone eroded by the sea, rising 153m high from the ocean. We sailed past this impressive site toward San Cristobal Island to the town of Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, to visit a Tortoise centre and a volcano. The volcano crater was unfortunately covered with cloud, so nothing could be seen. It was somewhat of a disappointment.
That afternoon we visited Isla Lobos (Wolf Island - Sea Lions in Spanish are Sea Wolves) where there is a huge concentration of Sea Lions. We saw many Blue Footed Boobies with eggs, one was busy hatching. Very nice place,
Frigates and pelicans
Hoping for scraps from the boat kitchen but stinky.
Day 5:
The Hungarians departed the boat on this day. We also got a new, nicer crew on the boat. We spent the day on a beach on Baltra Island waiting for the new guests to arrive. The new guests were a mixed, younger crowd. We took the panga (small, wooden boat) to Black Turtle Cove, which is a large mating area for turtles. We spotted many of them in the water from the panga.
Day 6:
This day was one of the most amazing days on the Islands. This place will vividly remain in our memories for the rest of our lives. We spent the morning on Bartolome, Isla Santiago. There is a huge outcropping called Pinnacle Rock in a beautiful bay. A volcano crater is present in the sea, this crater is responsible for all the formations surrounding it. Quite amazing, as the crater is in the sea with many hills and islands around it. We snorkelled around the Pinnacle and saw many sea stars and literally thousands of fish. The water was extremely cold.
We walked up to a viewpoint on Bartolome over a lunar landscape of fine volcanic dust and volcanic
rock. Many lava cactuses grow here as well. This place was surreal, with the contrasting textures, colours and amazing views of a turquoise ocean. We went walking on lava plates on Isla James that afternoon. These plates were formed by the flow from a nearby shield volcano, that erupted near the turn of the the 20th century, making it quite young. The lava plates here are mostly Pahoehoe lava, or Ropey lava. Lava plates are formed differently, depending on the temperature and viscosity of the lava as it flows. See the photos of this lava to understand why it is called ropey lava. Many tubes and bubbles can be seen, as well as deep cracks, giving one a nice view of the lava layers and colours. This was also an extremely strange landscape. Where the lava flows ended, there were rubble-like mountains of little yellow-brown pebbles, looking almost man-made.
Day 7:
We started this day by walking on an island called Sombrero Chino (Chinese Hat). We were very lucky and saw a Galápagos Hawk, quite a rare sighting. As always, hundreds of Iguanas and Sea Lions as well. We went snorkelling with the Captain of our boat and saw
Galápagos Penguins swimming around and feeding on fish. These are the only penguins that live on the equator, and are able to survive due to the cool temperatures brought on by the Humboldt current and up-welling of deep, cold water from the equatorial current approaching the Islands. We also saw a Marine Iguana under the water, eating some plant between the rocks. Sea Lions were swimming with us, putting up a show by blowing bubbles and doing tricks.
Our last afternoon was spent on Puerto Egas, having the coldest snorkel yet, but seeing many, many turtles. The beach and coastal sea-bottom had black, volcanic sand, creating a nice background for contrasting the colourful fish. We went walking, seeing "Darwin´s toilet", a rock pool that fills up with water and "flushes", as the waves come in and go out. While walking back from this, we were presented with the most awesome views of the opposite shore and mountains, filled with lava flows and plants.
Day 8:
We went to the highlands of Santa Cruz Island, to see Giant Tortoises in their natural habitat, then visited some old lava tunnels. We then finished our boat cruise itinerary.
We stayed
on an additional 3 days in Puerto Ayora to do some dives, as we could not resist the opportunity. They were expensive, but we reckoned that we were in Galápagos only once. We did two dives in one day, the first at Gordon Rocks, second and North Seymour. The conditions were not very good, but Bernhard still thinks it was the best dive he has ever done. We submerged at Gordon Rocks, stayed put on one spot for the entire dive. Thousands of animals constantly passed us by. We saw many rays, Sea Lions (entertaining us as usual with their antics), Hammerhead sharks, Turtles and thousands upon thousands of fish. The biggest schools of big fish we have ever seen, dodging the Sea Lions swimming inside these schools.
The Galápagos is a different world, nothing like we have ever seen or imagined. We would highly recommend going there. It is a place that never fails to constantly awe.
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Liesl Pottas
non-member comment
Galapagos islands
Can see you guys are still having a whale of time!!! Lot of strange looking creatures that side of the world :)