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Galapagos Day 1 - Boobies Galore!
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DAY ONE
The taxi arrived very early and so when we got to the airport in Quito we were the first to get there. We looked around quite nervously not sure who our fellow passengers would be - we needn't have worried though. The first of the six we got to know were Kevin and Brigitta. An American/Swedish couple from Chicago who'd just come from a week in the Ecuadorian jungle.
The flight went via Guayaquil and bizarrely in the airport there we bumped into Dawn and Steve our friends we kept meeting in Argentina - such a small world. On the second part of the flight we met Pat who was to be my cabin mate on the boat. A retired PE teacher from Essex, I think we were both relieved we weren't sharing with ravers.
We met the final three passengers in Baltra airport. Herman, Isolde and John are all Dutch and keen naturalists. For once Jim was out done in the camera stakes - Herman's equipment bag weighed 12 kgs, our entire backpacks weighed about 14kgs each!
We met Maria, our guide for the week, at the airport and set off on the bus to the quay to boat M/S Sea Cloud. At the bus shelter we had our first encounter with some Galapagos sea lions - they were lying on the benches as if waiting for a ride.
We were introduced to crew as soon as we got on board - Omar was the captain, David was the engineer, Marco the cook and Juan and Cleaver were the sailors. We were assigned our cabins; having spent time on Jim's parents boat we were just about prepared for the size of them - tiny! But worth the space sacrifice - we'd really wanted to be on a sailing boat and not one of the massive cruise liners.
We had a delicious lunch and then motored the short distance to North Seymour island. Maria told us about what we'd see before we got there, so we could just spend our time wandering around. The group was really great as all of us were either keen naturalists or photographers so everyone kept quiet. It was incredible!
We saw our first Blue-Footed Boobies - and guess what their feet and beaks are brilliantly blue! The colour's apparently caused by their diet and when they die, the colour disappears within a few days. They were busy mating, flirting, nesting and just being comical - we took lots of pictures.
The other main attraction here were the Magnificent Frigatebirds. The male of these species is definitely the more striking - they inflate their bright red pouches and wobble them around to attract mates - quite a spectacle. We also saw a whole load of Land Iguanas - they were introduced here from Baltra in the 1930s and there aren't many of them around, but this was our first experience of getting lucky (!) in the Galapagos. We also saw plenty of the darker, smaller meaner-looking Marine Iguanas and some delicate Lava Lizards.
Back on the white sandy beach we walked through a whole colony of sleepy sea lions - you have to move out of their way as they have no fear of coming right up to you. It was amazing. We went for a quick snorkel and saw a Sting Ray and a small White-tipped Reef Shark - never thought I'd take to the water with any of those around!
We had welcome cocktails at dinner that night and had an early night. Jim was keen to get to bed as he wasn't sure how the movement of the boat would affect him. He'd suffered from sea-sickness before and it was likely to be bad on such a small boat, especially as we had a seven hour navigation to get to Genovesa before breakfast.
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