Cruising in the Galapagos Islands

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  Galapagos Islands, Ecuador
Monday, April 7, 2008

We both agree that sailing around the Galapagos Islands for 7 nights is quite possibly one of the greatest travel adventures going around. The Galapagos Islands are really, really warm during the day and by night the temperature is unbelievably perfect for lying on the roof of the boat and watching the stars of both hemispheres. The water temp was magic. Our days consisted of land visits on different islands, snorkelling and usually during the night the skipper would set sail for a new island, so we woke up with a fresh view each morning.

It is a hard job to portray the islands in words so hopefully the pictures will help do justice to the place. The National Park Service, to its credit, are extremely serious about protecting the islands and this included cleaning all shoes before leaving for the next island so that material from one environment could not contaminate the ecosystems on other islands

Bartolome Island

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While we left with the notion of the Galapagos Islands being like the Whitsundays full of prehistoric animals, the islands are bigger than we expected and fairly well spaced, with some sailing trips taking 7 hours. Amazingly each island is unique in terms of its habitat and animal life. All the islands are volcanic but some are more recently formed than others, which is evident from the barren landscape and relatively fresh lava flows running into the ocean. In contrast the older islands have a reasonable cover of vegetation.

There are so many highlights. We snorkelled with sea lions most days and the little buggers are just so inquisitive and friendly that it became common for them to swim up within 50cm of your face and blow bubbles at you for a while before showing off with some backflips and then swimming away. We swam with penguins one afternoon beneath a giant rock pinnacle and they too were not shy to come up for a close look. Lying in the water above the shells of large sea turtles feeding on the ocean floor was also incredible.

On land the abundance of life is just as astounding as in the water. Spotting blue footed boobies always drew an inevitable comment such as `I love boobies´

Galapagos Sunset

. The male frigate birds have an impressive wingspan but more impressive is the mating ritual we witnessed where they puff up their red throats into a huge bubble. Land and marine iguanas are everywhere, so much so that you need to take care not to mistakenly stand on them as you are walking around the volcanic rock shelves on the ocean edge. So many animals.....albatross, red crabs, finches, hummingbirds, white and black tip reef sharks - we also sailed alongside several pods of whales at sunset. The abundance of animal life is unlike anything we have seen.

On one island there is a huge colony of sea lions that seem to spend all day lazing about on the beach.....and they dont mind if you sit next to them for a sleep either. Someone on the beach counted over 600 sea lions in a stretch of beach maybe one kilometre long. They have a thing for lying all over each other, despite having plenty of empty sand around them.

We visited the Charles Darwin Research Centre, where they breed endangered species such as the giant tortoise in captivity and return them onto the islands once they are old enough to fend off predators. The giant tortoise are aptly named, with some of them weighing in at over 300kg and living up to 200 years old. The best example is a fella called Lonesome George. George is the last remaining giant tortoise from one of the islands and he lives in a special enclosure with two females from one of the other islands. They have been trying to get him to mate and reproduce, unsuccessfully, for 8 years. If it doesnt work out for George, his sub-species will become extinct when he dies. But hey, how many 150 year olds are going to get busy and how many females are going to get excited by an old guy who weighs a quarter of a ton

Giant Tortoise

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We have to say that we are disappointed with Charles Darwin. Yes he wrote the famous ´Origin of the Species` book which outlined the theory of evolution. Yes his theory came from his study of the various types of finches that he found in the Galapagos Islands. We thought the guy lived there for years and became some kind of local legend. We were shattered to find out that he visited the islands for a total of 5 weeks and then spent the best part of his life back in England studying and writing his theory.

To wrap it up, our trip in the Galapagos was beyond our wildest expectations. The environment and wildlife is like nothing else we have ever seen and while the week was full of activity, it was also so relaxing. Could not recommend a better place for people who love nature and the outdoors.

Post your own travel photos for friends and family More Pictures

Iguana	Lazy Sea Lions	Male Frigate Bird Mating Ritual	Relaxing With The Sea Lions
Sea Lion Up Close	We Are All Friends Here	We Love Boobies

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