Budget blown - The Galapagos Islands
Trip Start
Aug 10, 2008
1
12
48
Trip End
May 2009
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Puerto Ayora,
Ecuador
Monday, September 1, 2008
What it lacked in warm showers it didn´t make up for with spacious cabins but the food was good and the crew were all nice.
Our guide Caesar was very........ experienced, being about 70 with a bad heart and bandy knees but he knew a lot about the islands as long as he could hear you asking questions.
After a rough first night on the sea we arrived at sombrero Chino, the China-mans hat, so called because the island looks like a China-mans hat. The beaches were alive with sea-lions and Sally light-foot crabs and marine Iguanas. It was our first encounter with the wildlife and we couldn't believe how unafraid they were of people.
We saw young sea-lions surfing and playing in the waves and they were very inquisitive, circling around us while we were snorkeling.
That afternoon we went to Isla Bartolome where we saw penguins above the waves and thousands of fish under them. We watched a beautiful sun set from the top of the island and sailed that night to James Bay. That night we sat out on deck and watched the most amazingly clear night sky, where the stars felt so close you could touch them.
James Bay had very interesting lava formations and fur-seals living on the rocks and the cutest little sea-lion pup all on his own. We sailed past the scorched basalt from the last volcanic eruption 100 years ago to the island of Rabida, where the snorkeling was brilliant and we saw turtles, which look a bit cranky but graceful and a marine Iguana munching away on the algae underwater. There was also a shark hiding under a rock but he was too far down for us to go poking at.
The next morning we visited Isla Seymour North where we saw more blue-footed boobies with their fluffy chicks and frigate birds who puff up their red throats like balloons to attract a mate. We then stumbled across a sea-lion pup who was only about an hour old according to the guide, we believe him, there was still blood all over the place!
We said good bye to the Rumba and hello to a spacious hotel in Puerto Ayora,with a warm shower instead of getting hosed down on deck. We visited some pitch dark lava tunnels some 700 mtrs long that afternoon in which the roof looked like some animal had carved it and there was not a sound apart from dripping water.
Monday morning we went to the giant tortoise pens, where they breed them in captivity before releasing them back to their islands of origin. You could wander right up to the tortoises who were busy munching their breakfast, we even saw the most famous tortoise, Lonesome George, who´s the last example of his species - we also witnessed him being not so lonely anymore with one of the females who are his closest relatives. Beautiful!
