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Sun, snorkelling and sealions in the Galapagos
Entry 8 of 15 | show all | print this entry |
26 February - 5 March 2007.
After the Cotopaxi Challenge we were about ready for a bit of R&R and boy did we get it. We didn't have to think for ourselves for 8 days and the most we moved was bobbing around in snorkelling gear getting friendly with the fishy locals.
We flew from Quito via Guayaquil to Baltra, the main airport on the Islas Galapagos and were met at the airport by our fab guide Leonides. We were bussed straight to our boat, the 50ft called Merak. Unlike most boats in the Galapagos she was a sailing boat and is the smallest of the 80 vessels allowed to sail around the islands holding 8 passengers and 4 crew. Normally you'd pay premium for such exclusivity but she was the cheapest option we could find. We later realised it was due to the lack of a/c and a slightly erratic but lovable crew, which all added to her charm. The first 5 days there were only 6 of us (although we were full 8 for the last 3). 5 Brits including us and a nutty young Canadian named Ryan.
Our voyage was to involve visits to the Islas of Mosquera, Santa Fe, Espanola, Floreana, Santa Cruz, Bartolomé, Santiago and North Seymour (I think that's it in the right order) and basically our days were filled with landings on the islands, where we'd go to see that island's endemic animal or bird, the most amazing snorkelling you could possibly imagine, (and that is no exaggeration), filling ourselves full of food and chilling out, soaking up the sun, beer in hand on deck whilst we sailed to our next location and then jumping in the turquoise clear waters to cool off.
Whilst the land mammals and birds were fascinating, the time in the water was absolutely incredible. The first afternoon we were broken in quite gently with seeing a couple of flamingos in a lagoon, some turtle nesting sites and some pelicans. The next morning we went to Mosquera which has a huge sealion colony. We were to encounter sealions pretty much everywhere we went over the next few days but never ever tired of them. Before I go on, I should point out that aside from the fact that many of the Galapagos animals/birds/fish etc are endemic (i.e. found nowhere in the world) to these islands and this therefore begs the question as to how they got there considering it's a tiny archipelago 1000 km's off the shore of Ecuador (various theories abound including one about tortoises floating on their backs all that way ....... hmmm); the main reason for coming here is that as these islands were undiscovered and uninhabited until relatively recently (i.e. 1800's) and the animals not hunted (other than the seals which there are now very few of) as nobody really had time to do this before Charles Darwin arrived, subsequently developed his Origin of the Species/ Surivial of the Fittest theories and they were then hailed as a scientific marvel (or something along those lines). As such they haven't developed a fear of human beings and so you can get right up close to them or if you don't they'll come to you. This is quite unbelievable; baby sealions who come and squeal at your feet (on land) or mask (in water) (you musn't touch them because their mothers will abandon them if they smell funny - i.e. of humans); Blue Footed Boobies (ridiculous looking birds which despite appearances have a killer dive when fishing and are the most famous inhabitants of the islands due to their mad coloured feet and silly goose-stepping mating dance). Darwin's theory of evolution extended from the fact that many species on the Galapagos are endemic as over however many years they have been there, they've developed unique characteristics. s, for example, whilst there are Cormorants in many places in the world, the Galapagos has the only flightless Cormorants as over the years they realised they didn't need wings as they had no predators to fly away from and just need to fish which they can do as well as penguins ... pretty nifty theory I reckon.
I've decided that rather than giving you a dull day by day account of life in paradise, I'll list our highlights - bear in mind that the sealions are a highlight at every stage:
- Spotting a hammerhead shark whilst sailing to Santa Fe (fortunately whilst safely on the boat!);
- Snorkelling on our second day at Santa Fe with two Greenback Turtles, an Eagle Ray and a large Sting Ray and a small octupus catching a ride on a large fishes tail;
- Ryan (from somewhere in the middle of nowhere near Winnipeg in Canada) and his straight faced use of the terms "Holy Mackerel' and "Holy Moly" and his fabulous enthusiasm for everything including his ideas on what he'd do with his penknife if a shark wanted to bite him ...;
- Hearing the munch of parrot fish eating stuff on rocks whilst under the water;
- Marine iguanas basking in the sun - strange looking prehistoric things;
- Heaps of small stingrays floating in the shallows of a white sand beach;
- Seeing a baby booby hatching in front of us;
- Ryan's exclamation and extensive laughter when he saw the results on Ben's back of snorkelling without a t-shirt .... "I've never ever seen a sunburn like that" - he was a very very very very pale ginger and applied SPF 40 every 10 minutes but still got burnt, so that smarted a little for Ben;
- Snorkelling at Gardner Island off Espanola and coming face to face with the whiskers and large brown eyes of a sealion, then rounding another corner and having six or seven of them playing around us within arms reach. Dodging the large male who could probably bite us in half and can bark underwater, we had the most amazing time, as they showed off to us, somersaulting, jumping, diviing and twisting around us;
- The Devil's Crown (Corona del Diablo) - the sunken top of a volcano's crater which we snorkelled round and saw everything you could ever want to see underwater (and perhaps some you'd rather not) ... schools and schools of fish (and also blue finned tuna, parrot fish, angel fish, puffer fish and all sorts more), more turtles, sealions and rays and two 1.5m white tipped reef sharks. Scary but very exciting to see them swish a couple of metres below us.
- The clearest clearest most beautifully coloured water you can imagine;
- The stark lava landscape of these new (and some still very active) volcanic islands;
- Snorkelling along and being overtaken by 3 Galapagos Penguins - like bullets in the water - watching them fish is a lesson in efficiency;
- Seeing four of the above sharks in quick succession and one of them coming just a little bit too close ....;
- Cannibal crabs eating their friends;
- Watching our very drunk chef cracking onto some of the English girls in town when we were in the capital Puerto Ayora for the day after having served us breakfast giggling incessantly, t-shirt on inside-out, stinking of rum!;
- Giant Land Tortoises (no need to say anything except they are just so cool and so big.);
- A fabulously passionate guide who was just fun;
- Frigatebirds and their bright red inflatable love balloon ..... on their neck to attract the girlies of course ...;
- Standing one foot away from a Blue Footed Booby and staring each other out (he won, he doesn't blink ever);
- Getting chased by a sealion on land - she was never going to win that one ... I didn't think I was too close (3 metres away - others come up to 1 metre away from you), but she was obviously grumpy as we'd woken her up;
- Watching baby giant tortoises falling off rocks and miraculously righting themselves;
- Ryan's story about his Grandad hosing a skunk ... it's the way he tells them;
- The cycle of life; birth, eating, mating, sleeping, dying ... somehow it doesn't seem so bad when it's going on all around you in such a lovely environment;
- Sealions, sealions, sealions.
There is so much more I could add, but you'd get bored of my gushing. Needless to say it was worth every single cent and I really really didn't want to leave. I'd say to anyone if you have the chance to go to the Galapagos do it, we almost didn't and that would have been such a shame.
Paradise is a small sailing boat, some crazy creatures and the most perfect beaches and water you can possibly imagine (oh and getting a killer tan!).
Latest Comments (1)
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Hello (reply)
Apr 4, 2007 10:24 EST by jaz0
Hey there Chas and Ben
You sound like your having a fantastic time, so jealous! Managed to get IT to let me have access to the pictures but they have blocked it again!
Look forward to the next epic adventure, longest I have been sat down for ages!
Missing Ya xx
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