Before I started my Galapagos trip, I crammed in a horse trek on my last day in Quito. Problem was when I woke up it was torrential rain and you could barely see more than a few metres in front of you. Not great for spending the day sat on a horse. I phoned up to cancel but was assured the weather wasn´t usually as bad in the volcanic crater we were heading to an hour or so outside of Quito, and anyway, they had already prepared everything. So I put on practically all my clothes, and my cowboy boots came in very handy at this stage to avoid me getting drenched feet from the many puddles on Quito´s pavements. (I had the urge to write ´sidewalk´just then...what´s happening to me?!)
The American couple who were also coming along weren´t convinced about the weather either but it did seem to be clearing up and when else was I going to ride a horse through a volcanic crater? Dominic and Margot seemed lovely at first, until Dominic´s constant business talk and necessity to always be right started to get on my nerves. In the end I just sat there and nodded along, knowing that arguing was not the best idea. He reckoned he was going to sue Continental Airlines for making a scheduled change on a flight. I know Americans sue anyone for anything but come on.
They´d also said they were advanced horseriders, whereas I´d explained I used to ride a lot when I was younger but it´d been a while. After one canter when Margot ended up at right angles to the horse, they decided to take it easy and just trot along, whilst the guide, Astrid, and I cantered along, and also mistakenly galloped at which point I nearly wet myself as I haven´t done that since I was about 9 (either galloped or wet myself).
Despite the rain, it was a great day out and I got to go back to my luxurious hotel in Quito, courtesy of the first day of my GAP trip, which slightly intimidated me but I did appreciate the bathtub and TV, even though the hairdryer was rubbish and singed my fringe.
I shared a room with Tammy, from Clapham, who was doing a series of GAP trips round Central and South America (nice commission for that travel agent). I haven´t really done a our before so didn´t know what to expect but it was really well organised. Not entirely my cup of tea as you´re a little shielded from reality, but it is a lot easier, especially when your Spanish is as bad as mine. If I´d been left to my own devices who knows whether I´d have made it to the airport.
They stuffed us with food on the flight, even thought it was only about 45mins to Guayquil and another hour or so to Baltra, in the Galapagos. This possibly explained why I never saw a skinny Ecuadorian.
We arrived in Baltra to be greeted by Randy, a name which I always find funny. 4 of us (myself, Tammy and an American couple) were then transferred by bus, ferry and taxi, to the rest of the group who had already been on our boat for the past 4 days. Out of the 15 of us on the boat, only 5 of us were under retirement age so a lot of early nights were ahead. I wasn´t particularly keen on drinking anyway, in case it made me sick, and especially since I was on as many sea sickness tablets as I could possibly take.
They were a nice bunch anyway, even if I did only ever learn half their names.
Our first stop was the Charles Darwin Research Station, where our guide Gino (the mention of whose name always made me want to burst into the theme for Gino Ginelli ice cream...why do they not make that anymore?), explained the plight of the Giant Galapagos Tortoise and tried to introduce us to Lonesome George, the famous Tortoise who is the only one of his species left and won´t mate with any other tortoises no matter how much they try to entice him with various books and videos.
We sailed to Rabida island, where a red sand beach covered in sealions awaited us. Being my first sealion encounter I was quite excited, but by the reactions of the others it was a common sight which they were now bored of. The island was covered in palo santo trees (sandalwood) which apparently ward off mosquitos. Not that there were any mosquitos
really as it was too cold. But at least that was one less thing for me to deal with. Just as well since my insect repellent had leaked all over my bag anyway, leaving everything with a vague smell of citronella.
Along with sealions we saw many marine iguanas, land iguanas and an octopus which Gino plucked out of the water to give us a closer look. It was also my first sighting of the Blue Footed Boobies (kind of like out gannets) who, as the name would suggest, have bright blue feet (although not as bright as I thought so I might digitally alter my photos) and look a little bit dumb when they do their little mating dance, swaying from foot to foot.
We took a cruise round the coast in the dingy and spotted Galapagos fur seals (90% of the animals here are called Galapagos something or others..I suppose because they´re endemic, at least it makes it easy to remember).
Back on the boat we sailed towards a volcanic crater, where we spotted flamingos in the lagoon and the captain very nearly sank our ship by crashing it into the rock.
Sulivan Bay, on Santiago, was a haven for crabs. Funnily enought these are one of the only creatures no prefixed with Galapagos, and instead are called Sally Lightfoot crabs which I think it crap and they should be called Galapagos crabs. They´re mostly bright red, with some yellow and blue in them, and although I thought they were pretty cool, Tammy wasn´t a fan of crabs as her boyfriend constantly picks them up and puts them in her face whenever they´re on holiday. The landscape here was an old volcano so its covered in black lava of a variety of shapes. It sort of reminded me of the mud pools at Rotorua in New Zealand, but the lava was sufficiently old and cool enough to walk on, and it didn´t have the sulphur stench of the New Zealand town. After a spot of snorkelling, where a sealion swam right past me and nearly made me drown with shock, we sailed over to Bartolomé island and took a cruise around the coast in dingys to try and spot the Galapagos Penguin. They were huddles in pairs on various rocks looking majestic as usual, as slightly scared when our dingys came a little too close and threatened to knock them off. We had another chance to go snorkelling later on and so got up close and personal with them although I got into a little trouble when I got stuck between some rocks. But it was worth it to swim with the little birds.
Gino told us we were going to climb up to the summit of Bartolomé to get the classic guidebook view of the area with the famous Pinnacle Rock. But it was 375 steps. Ouch.
It actually wasn´t that bad and I could still partially blame my cold on the fact I had to stop a few times. On the way down I only counted 364 steps, but I did get interrupted by the rare appearance of a Galapagos snake which slithered past me and hid before anyone could take a decent photo.
Santa Fé provided us with some slightly different land iguanas, which have evolved to have more spikes on their neck in order to prevent predators attacking them. Visiting all the different island, you can really understand how this place represents the theory of evolution. Gino has been a guide for 18 years and had exceptional knowledge about everything and a great sense of humour to match. Yet more sealions greeted us and there was a sectioned off batchelors club for males who were outcast from the rest of the colony and came here to recover from the wounds of their fights. There was also one very dead sealion whos body has been there for 5 years and has become mummified - they flesh is all gone but most of the skin is still intact, with the odd bones protruding here and there. The sad thing is, someone has smashed it face in order to extract it´s canine teeth, which Gino reckons must have been a guide as no one else can walk alone on the islands.
Santa Fé is home to some massive Prickly Pear Cacti and the remains of what was the largest, standing at almost 11 metres high and 4m in circumferance, still remains. Nearby, Gino spotted Deano the land iguana, who he fed a small piece of cactus. Deano rolled it over and over in an attempt to remove some of the spikes, which was pretty much in vain, before he devoured it.
Some of the sailing was a little rough but my tablets did the job and I didn´t puke once. However, when I asked for the least seasick-making room possible, i.e. the cabins in the bottom of the boat rather than on deck, I neglected to mention that I also wanted some sleep, and being on the bottom meant being right next to the anchor and even with the assistance of earplugs its pretty hard to sleep when you can physically feel the anchor being raised and lowered.
