Galapagos Islands aboard the Alta
Trip Start
Oct 01, 2007
1
17
81
Trip End
Oct 01, 2008
Puerto Ayora,
Ecuador
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
There aren't words to describe the beautiful scenery and abundance of wild life in the Galapagos Islands. On the plane ride over, if it's a clear day, you get the areal view of the islands as your making the final decent. The water is crystal clear and reflects all shades of blue, aqua and green. The landing was smooth, but surprisingly desolate. The landscape surrounding the airport is arid and dry. There are trees everywhere with gray/white limbs and no leaves. The fierce wind that almost blew me over when we debarked from the plane was full of dust and sand which ever-so-pleasantly nestled into my eyes blurring my vision. And that's when I spotted the dinosaur size iguana leisurely strolling across the tar mack. Rubbing my eyes in disbelief, I turned to Rory and was immediately reassured that my eyes were not playing tricks on me as his were just as wide with amaze. Nothing but moments like this one were to follow in the next 12 days.
Our venture into town, Puerto Ayora on the South side of Island Santa Cruz, lasted a shocking hour and 20 minutes. I was expecting a quick jaunt by bus, but it turns out you need to take a short 5 minute bus ride to the canal that connects Baltra (airport island) and Santa Cruz. After removing your bags from the bus and placing them on a passenger ferry, you take a short ride for .80 cents across the canal only to remove your bags again and place them on another bus costing $1.80. This bus takes about an hour to get into town because the police on the island time you from the canal to the bus station and if you're under a certain amount of time, they know you're speeding and give you a ticket. However, I disagree with this theory after taking note of all the speed limit signs and comparing them with the turtle-like speed of the bus. The trip should have only taken about 30 minutes according to me - but hey, I'm not the boss now am I. Anywho...even though we were completely impatient and annoyed, the bus ride turned out to be pretty interesting. After climbing the large, but extinct, volcano of the island, the atmosphere changed entirely. At one moment, you're staring at dead-like trees and piles of lava rock, and the next you're covered by a thick fog staring at mossy covered trees with bright green leaves and millions of tiny plants covering the ground like grass. Talk about a 180. Turns out, the island is like this 6 months out of the year and unfortunately, Puerto Ayora was cloud covered as well. I was expecting extreme heat and beaches, but we got cloud cover and cool breezes. Needless to say, I was still satisfied.
Once into town we quickly pick a hotel and headed out to find a dive shop. Academy Dive was a hop, skip and a jump away and happened to have one of our old travel buddies from Colombia sitting at the information desk. We sat down next to Nat and listen to his frantic rant about how this was the best dive shop ever and the dive master, Hugo, was the coolest person ever. Well, we were sold. We looked through about 100 of Nat's underwater photos and Rory almost came in his pants. Hammerheads, sea turtles, manta rays, stone fish, octopus, barracuda, you name it! The very next morning a scuba trip was leaving for Gordon Rocks - the place for hammerheads - so we signed our lives away and called it a night for our early morning departure time.
I wish I had a more exciting story for you, but as it turns out, the archipelago was not on our side. The visibility was shit and the current was strong. It was an exhausting dive even though I was hanging on to rocks to relax while the rest of my body was being swayed to and fro by the current. We saw a few turtles and a lot of fish, but nothing too exciting. Rory was really bummed. Fortunately, we were leaving for our luxury boat cruise the following day so we had something else exciting to look forward to.
Our trip back to the airport was a little rocky, but $20 later we figured things out and made it right on time to meet our naturalist guide aboard the Alta. The other passengers were a little late, so we had time to chat with the recently re-married English chap who soon became our best friend on the boat. As the others started filing into the airport from the charter plane, Rory and I gave each other a disappointed look. Old, old, old. The first couple we meet had to be in their 80s. Oh god, here we go, for 8 whole days. I immediately stereotyped them all as "bird watchers" and sulked in my misery.
As it turns out, all the retired, old couples were very nice and sometimes even funny. We made sure to start the trip by introducing ourselves to everyone and instantly making friends. The boat crew motored us out to the Alta by panga where we were assigned our rooms. The cabins were immaculate and very cozy. The plush down comforter was my favorite. The first day was basically and introduction to the crew, some lunch, a short land visit, dinner and then sailing at night. So far, so good.
Each day after that had pretty much the same schedule. Wake up at 6am, breakfast at 6:30, land visit at 7. After the land visit we would either return to the boat and go snorkeling or head to our cabin for a nap. After lunch, we would go back to shore for another hike and maybe an afternoon snorkel. In the evening we would watch the sun slowly sink below the ocean and the settle into the dining room for a buffet style dinner usually consisting of something fresh from the sea and then off to bed for another early morning. This may sound boring at first, but I haven't gotten into what we actually saw during these snorkels and hikes.
The animals of the Galapagos are not afraid of humans because they have never been taught to fear us. Most have no natural predictors and therefore just stare at you as you walk by. We saw so many animals I probably won't be able to list them all, but here's a start: Sea lions - obvious, Blue Footed Boobies - white and gray birds with large webbed blue feet, Red Footed Boobies - take a guess, Nazca Boobies - white and black birds with green webbed feet, Sea turtles - 100s of them, Hammerhead sharks - only a few but we saw them and swam with them, White tipped sharks - small, but sharks non the less, Mata Rays - huge schools of them, Penguins - tiny little dudes, but cute as hell, Hawks, Galapagos Sharks, vibrant fish, and many other types of birds. Most of the islands had tons of sea lions just saying around barking a symphony of grief, as we liked to call it, flipping in the water and sleeping on the sand. One little baby even wobbled right up to me and smelled my toes. His whiskers tickled.
I'm not sure what else to say here because my words just won't do it justice. You'll have to wait until the photos come out. However, there was one more very interesting story to add to the boat cruise story. One of the British guys on the boat decided to end the trip with a short rehearsed Agatha Cristie story, read and performed by himself dressed in a white suit and detective hat. It was absolutely hilarious to watch, Rory and I were busting up. His story was a murder mystery aboard the Alta in which the sweetest old lady on board, Rose, brutally murdered Rory, changed him into his wetsuit and threw him over board to make it look like a snorkeling accident. We have the whole story typed up if anyone would like to read it. Crazy old chap.
After the boat cruise Rory and I decided to make one more dive back at Gordon Rocks to try and spot the hammerheads. Rory ended up spotting three large ones and I saw maybe 2 smaller ones on the second dive. Once again it was a little disappointing when you hear that Galapagos is supposed to have the best diving, but it was all worth it to see that smile on Rory's face.
We flew away from the Galapagos and were ready and raring to go to Quito for some late night partying. Little did we know that the week of December the 6th in Quito is Founders week where they have street parties every night, all week long, that last until sun up. Guess what we did for a whole week??
