More South American Adventures - Galapagos Islands
I am back from the Galapagos - there was pretty much no mobile phone signal, nor net access for most of the time we were there (No, i'm not sure how i survived the trauma either!) so I've saved the writeups until now that I'm back in the hotel in Quito. Lets see how much I can remember....
Day 5
Very early start to the day - 7am we were due to head off to the airport, so was up at 5.30 in order to shower, finish packing, and have breakfast in time.
Three people who were supposed to be joining us in our group to the Galapagos were missing - apparently they had canceled at the last minute. Quite possibly they had come down with very nasty cases of Swine Flu ;-) We did however meet one of our other fellow travelers at this point - Dorn, an American guy down from San Diego. We shared a minibus out to the airport with another group of people who were also doing a Galapagos trip, but were going to be on a different boat to us. From what they said, this was probably going to be a good thing, as several of them are suseptible to travel/sea sickness. Not quite sure why they decided a boat-based tour around some islands would be a good idea!
The plane ride was uneventful - apart from having the overhead luggage compartments sprayed with toxic chemicals before we landed - something to do with the strict quarantine regulations on the Islands. They also sprayed something on our hands as we came through the immigration checkpoints (but not anywhere else...like our shoes. Strange)
After collecting our now toxic baggage, we jumped on two busses and a Ferry to get from Isla Baltra (where the Airport is) to Peurto Ayoro on Isla Santa Cruz where we boarded the Pelikano, our home for the next four days.
Aside from Dorn, we were joined on the trip by Greg and Marion, a French couple, and Rob, a German friend of theirs that they had met while traveling in Australia. There was also a Swiss guy called Waens who was already on the boat, having joined it a few days earlier.
Our itinery for the first day was to visit the Charles Darwin Research Station, which does conservation work and research into the giant tortoises, and is the home of Lonesome George (only surviving member of one of the species of giant tortoise) - However, our guide Mauricio gave us the option of ditching the research center and going up to the highlands to see if we could find some in the wild. We took a vote and unanimously decided to go for the wild option.
We got driven in a bus up to a property that's owner has opened it up to allow tourists to come wandering through, as it is in the migration path of the giant tortoises as the move between the highland homes and the lowland breeding areas - something they would be doing at this time of year. Land owners on the galapagos are only allowed to use 10% of their land for any purpose - the rest has to be left in a natural state for the wildlife, so we headed off through the scrub in hunt of tortoises.
It only took about 5 minutes before we came across one - absolutely massive thing - they weigh about 350kg. He sauntered across our path and started munching on some grass right in front of us.
After a bit more wandering through the trees, we came across a bit of a stagnant pond which had a couple more tortoises taking a bath in the mud. Meanwhile, Mauricio had been pointing out lots of different birds and plants, and explaining how they had originally arrived on the islands, and how they had evolved, and what measures were being taken to eradicate the introduced species that were aggressive and causing problems for the native flora and fauna.
After a few hours trekking around after tortoises, we headed back towards the boat - stopping briefly to explore a lava tunnel. These are formed after volcanic eruptions, when rivers of lava begin to cool on the outside, forming a hard shell, but still having a molten core. Once the eruption stops flowing, the still liquid lava in the middle keeps draining out, leaving a hollow tunnel several miles long. After thousands of years, sometimes pieces of the roof collapse, opening the tunnels up to the outside - so we climbed down into one, and walked a few hundred yards inside it until the next opening to the outside world, where our bus had gone on ahead to pick us up. That was fun :-)
Back on the boat, we had dinner - and set sail overnight to Isla Floreana.
Day 6
After breakfast, we took the small dinghy out to short and made a wet landing (no jetty - - just getting the boat in as close to shore as we can, then wading the rest of the way) There were sea-lions on the beach where we landed - they hardly seemed at all bothered by us - ignoring us unless we came within a couple of feet of them, at which point they would either shuffle away, or make annoyed barking noises at us.
Mauricio took us on a trail around a brackish lagoon, and showed us flamingos that were living there - and pointed out several species of Darwin Finches that we came across. Hopping over the ridge, we came to terrain that seemed completely different - quite green and lush compared to the salty lagoon, and down onto a while coral beach where we waded out into the water to look for stingrays and small sharks. I got stung by a bluebottle / Portuguese Man-o-War, luckily not as bad as I remember them being as a child!
After this, we headed back to the small bay where the boat was anchored and broke out the snorkelling gear, and jumped into the water. We were snorkelling around a reef made of volcanic rocks - lots of bizarre tropical fish swimming around for us to look at.
About 2 minutes later, we were joined by another group who wanted to play with us - about half a dozen young sea-lions had started swimming around us, doing aquabatics, and blowing bubbles in our faces - this was absolutely amazing, and I cant even find the words to describe how incredible an experience it was - tbh, if the trip had ended there, I'd have considered the whole thing money well spent!
Unfortunately, it had to come to an end, as it was time for lunch and to move around to the other side of the island, to a spot known as Post Office Bay. This is where for centuries (since the Pirates were using the Galapagos as hiding area from the Spanish Fleet) sailors had been leaving letters and messages in a barrel, waiting to be picked up by whichever ship next happened to be passing through and heading in the right direction. The tradition continues now - where tourists and travellers leave postcards there for others to pick up and deliver if they happen to have the same destination. I picked up one card destined for London and another for Switzerland that I'll drop off once I get back to Europe. Didn't have any postcards to leave myself, unfortunately.
A few hundred meters up the trail behind the post office, lies a cave that used to be the home of the first resident of the Galapagos Islands - an irishman named Patrick Watikins, who had been marooned there by his captain for causing too much trouble on his ship in the 1800s. Apparently he had lived in the cave for about 3 years before being able to make his way back to the mainland.
6 of us headed off to the cave, armed with some torches. Our guide wasn't coming with us - but had warned us a couple of people had broken their legs trying to climb down into it in the past. That wasn't going to stop us. Well. Most of us. At the top, looking at the entrance, two of our intrepid group flagged, and decided to head back to do some more snorkelling. 4 of us descended down the rickety ladder into the darkness. At the bottom of the ladder, the cave went mostly horizontal, sloping down about 30 degrees - but the footing was loose and treacherous, and two more of the group bowed out. Jonathan and I were the only ones left, as we crawled down into the darkness, holding onto a rope as our only means of support. When we reached the bottom, the cave was massive - Jonathan's first thought was that it would make a really good nightclub venue, given the ambiance and the acoustics (apparently the seawater at the back would make a good natural coolant for the beer) I suspect the difficulty in gaining entrance would obliviate the need for a bouncer.
After a few minutes int he darkness, we managed to scale our way back to the surface without suffering any injuries, and rejoined the others for our afternoon snorkelling session.
This time we were swimming with sea turtles. Again - this was another amazing experience that I cant do justice with in writing. I was reminded though of the stoner/surfer turtles from Finding Nemo - and felt they captured the personality of these creatures well. I was really kicking myself for not having the foresight to buy an underwater casing for my camera, like Waens had - he ended up with amazing photos.
Once the activities for the day were finished, we had dinner, and then the boat set off towards Espanola island where we would wake the next day.
Day 5
Very early start to the day - 7am we were due to head off to the airport, so was up at 5.30 in order to shower, finish packing, and have breakfast in time.
Three people who were supposed to be joining us in our group to the Galapagos were missing - apparently they had canceled at the last minute. Quite possibly they had come down with very nasty cases of Swine Flu ;-) We did however meet one of our other fellow travelers at this point - Dorn, an American guy down from San Diego. We shared a minibus out to the airport with another group of people who were also doing a Galapagos trip, but were going to be on a different boat to us. From what they said, this was probably going to be a good thing, as several of them are suseptible to travel/sea sickness. Not quite sure why they decided a boat-based tour around some islands would be a good idea!
The plane ride was uneventful - apart from having the overhead luggage compartments sprayed with toxic chemicals before we landed - something to do with the strict quarantine regulations on the Islands. They also sprayed something on our hands as we came through the immigration checkpoints (but not anywhere else...like our shoes. Strange)
After collecting our now toxic baggage, we jumped on two busses and a Ferry to get from Isla Baltra (where the Airport is) to Peurto Ayoro on Isla Santa Cruz where we boarded the Pelikano, our home for the next four days.
Aside from Dorn, we were joined on the trip by Greg and Marion, a French couple, and Rob, a German friend of theirs that they had met while traveling in Australia. There was also a Swiss guy called Waens who was already on the boat, having joined it a few days earlier.
Our itinery for the first day was to visit the Charles Darwin Research Station, which does conservation work and research into the giant tortoises, and is the home of Lonesome George (only surviving member of one of the species of giant tortoise) - However, our guide Mauricio gave us the option of ditching the research center and going up to the highlands to see if we could find some in the wild. We took a vote and unanimously decided to go for the wild option.
We got driven in a bus up to a property that's owner has opened it up to allow tourists to come wandering through, as it is in the migration path of the giant tortoises as the move between the highland homes and the lowland breeding areas - something they would be doing at this time of year. Land owners on the galapagos are only allowed to use 10% of their land for any purpose - the rest has to be left in a natural state for the wildlife, so we headed off through the scrub in hunt of tortoises.
It only took about 5 minutes before we came across one - absolutely massive thing - they weigh about 350kg. He sauntered across our path and started munching on some grass right in front of us.
After a bit more wandering through the trees, we came across a bit of a stagnant pond which had a couple more tortoises taking a bath in the mud. Meanwhile, Mauricio had been pointing out lots of different birds and plants, and explaining how they had originally arrived on the islands, and how they had evolved, and what measures were being taken to eradicate the introduced species that were aggressive and causing problems for the native flora and fauna.
After a few hours trekking around after tortoises, we headed back towards the boat - stopping briefly to explore a lava tunnel. These are formed after volcanic eruptions, when rivers of lava begin to cool on the outside, forming a hard shell, but still having a molten core. Once the eruption stops flowing, the still liquid lava in the middle keeps draining out, leaving a hollow tunnel several miles long. After thousands of years, sometimes pieces of the roof collapse, opening the tunnels up to the outside - so we climbed down into one, and walked a few hundred yards inside it until the next opening to the outside world, where our bus had gone on ahead to pick us up. That was fun :-)
Back on the boat, we had dinner - and set sail overnight to Isla Floreana.
Day 6
After breakfast, we took the small dinghy out to short and made a wet landing (no jetty - - just getting the boat in as close to shore as we can, then wading the rest of the way) There were sea-lions on the beach where we landed - they hardly seemed at all bothered by us - ignoring us unless we came within a couple of feet of them, at which point they would either shuffle away, or make annoyed barking noises at us.
Mauricio took us on a trail around a brackish lagoon, and showed us flamingos that were living there - and pointed out several species of Darwin Finches that we came across. Hopping over the ridge, we came to terrain that seemed completely different - quite green and lush compared to the salty lagoon, and down onto a while coral beach where we waded out into the water to look for stingrays and small sharks. I got stung by a bluebottle / Portuguese Man-o-War, luckily not as bad as I remember them being as a child!
After this, we headed back to the small bay where the boat was anchored and broke out the snorkelling gear, and jumped into the water. We were snorkelling around a reef made of volcanic rocks - lots of bizarre tropical fish swimming around for us to look at.
About 2 minutes later, we were joined by another group who wanted to play with us - about half a dozen young sea-lions had started swimming around us, doing aquabatics, and blowing bubbles in our faces - this was absolutely amazing, and I cant even find the words to describe how incredible an experience it was - tbh, if the trip had ended there, I'd have considered the whole thing money well spent!
Unfortunately, it had to come to an end, as it was time for lunch and to move around to the other side of the island, to a spot known as Post Office Bay. This is where for centuries (since the Pirates were using the Galapagos as hiding area from the Spanish Fleet) sailors had been leaving letters and messages in a barrel, waiting to be picked up by whichever ship next happened to be passing through and heading in the right direction. The tradition continues now - where tourists and travellers leave postcards there for others to pick up and deliver if they happen to have the same destination. I picked up one card destined for London and another for Switzerland that I'll drop off once I get back to Europe. Didn't have any postcards to leave myself, unfortunately.
A few hundred meters up the trail behind the post office, lies a cave that used to be the home of the first resident of the Galapagos Islands - an irishman named Patrick Watikins, who had been marooned there by his captain for causing too much trouble on his ship in the 1800s. Apparently he had lived in the cave for about 3 years before being able to make his way back to the mainland.
6 of us headed off to the cave, armed with some torches. Our guide wasn't coming with us - but had warned us a couple of people had broken their legs trying to climb down into it in the past. That wasn't going to stop us. Well. Most of us. At the top, looking at the entrance, two of our intrepid group flagged, and decided to head back to do some more snorkelling. 4 of us descended down the rickety ladder into the darkness. At the bottom of the ladder, the cave went mostly horizontal, sloping down about 30 degrees - but the footing was loose and treacherous, and two more of the group bowed out. Jonathan and I were the only ones left, as we crawled down into the darkness, holding onto a rope as our only means of support. When we reached the bottom, the cave was massive - Jonathan's first thought was that it would make a really good nightclub venue, given the ambiance and the acoustics (apparently the seawater at the back would make a good natural coolant for the beer) I suspect the difficulty in gaining entrance would obliviate the need for a bouncer.
After a few minutes int he darkness, we managed to scale our way back to the surface without suffering any injuries, and rejoined the others for our afternoon snorkelling session.
This time we were swimming with sea turtles. Again - this was another amazing experience that I cant do justice with in writing. I was reminded though of the stoner/surfer turtles from Finding Nemo - and felt they captured the personality of these creatures well. I was really kicking myself for not having the foresight to buy an underwater casing for my camera, like Waens had - he ended up with amazing photos.
Once the activities for the day were finished, we had dinner, and then the boat set off towards Espanola island where we would wake the next day.