Galapagos

Day 1
Finally, a place where there is no Starbucks. Galapagos, so remote that your average Kiwi would feel right at home.

Now for the geology bit…… The Galapagos consist of 13 volcanic islands, 600 miles to the west of Ecuador, on the equator. It has been formed over millions of years due to a hot spot in the earth’s crust that precipitates underwater volcanoes from time to time. Occasionally, these volcanoes are so great that they break through the ocean surface and create new islands. Galapagos is situated on the Nazca plate which moves steadily eastwards and is dragged under the South American plate. The islands move east with the plate, but the hot spot remains put. Thus, several new islands are formed over time rather than just one large island, and some, of course, are lost to the east as they are pulled back under the ocean. All of this takes gazillions of years, so don’t expect to be hearing about new islands appearing overnight on the news. There are still plenty of active volcanoes located to the west where the hot spot is.

We arrived in San Cristobal, one of 4 inhabited islands, via a short stop in Guayaquill. The harbour is only minutes away, and before long, we were embarking onto the Alta, a 3 masted yacht that would be our home for the next week.


After a short cruise, we anchored near a beach, piled into wet suits and flippers and jumped into the water, which we shared with some playful and inquisitive sea lions and a ray. The sea lions swim up to you quickly and come very close. Just when you think that they are going to collide with you, they veer gracefully away. They’re amazing swimmers. One of them came out of the sea at the same time as me, and waddled along side of me for a while on the sand. “Not so clever on dry land are you?” I taunted.

Just a great feeling being in the sea – it’s been a long time for us land lubbers.

Over cocktails before dinner we had to undergo the cringe making, self introduction routine. Our group consists of 5 English, jolly good chaps; 4 Dutch, herdy gerdy, 2 Americans from North Florida, y’awll; 1 Scot, aye, with his Ecuadorian toy boy, si; and 1 Aussie, strewth its Mags.

We started getting to know each other after dinner when Martin, our Scot, let slip that he used to teach salsa and them gave us an impromptu beginner’s lesson in Salsa dancing. Strictly come dancing – I don’t think so. But at least we could blame the rocking of the boat for our dodgy footwork.

Martin is a really interesting and charming person. He works for the development agency, attached to the foreign office. After a three year stint in Angola, he has now started a new posting in Nicaragua which he was planning to resume after his holiday and a conference in Barbados. He wasn’t fooling us though – definitely a spy.

There were also two lovely American ladies, Suzie and Jackie, who are well traveled, which let’s face it, is unusual for people from their neck of the woods. They have a home in Florida, but are now living in a ginormous motor home in Phoenix, where Jackie works. They take off traveling most weekends.

Day 2
We sailed all night to reach our next destination, Genovesa..

When we booked the cruise, we imagined being gently rocked to sleep as glide smoothly over the Pacific Ocean. That’s what the brochure said. The reality was everyone over to the left side of the bed, followed a few moments later by everyone over to the right side of the bed. Our cabin was also situated above the engine room so we didn’t get much sleep on our first night.

After breakfast, we all jumped into the launch and headed off for a walk on the island. We landed on to some rocks at the waters edge and climbed a few steps where we caught our first glimpse of the Galapagos seabirds up close. An incredible sight as the area was filled with birds sitting around oblivious to our presence. We seemed to be invisible. The birds let you come within inches to photograph them. They are not at all afraid. In fact, we discovered during the week that all the wildlife on the islands is like this. So, David Attenborough, the game is up. Trying to con us into thinking it takes weeks of patience and dedication to film wildlife. It’s easy.


Genovesa, like many of the islands is incredibly dry. Being on the equator, the Galapagos doesn’t have 4 seasons, just 2; wet and dry. We arrived at the end of the dry season so much of the habitat hadn’t seen rain for six months. In many of the islands, areas just don’t receive any rain all year round. Where there are volcanoes, the rain falls on one side of the mountain and gets trapped, never reaching over to the other side. This makes for some astonishingly barren landscapes, - luneresque. Nevertheless, vegetation still manages a foothold in most places. On Genovesa, red footed boobies nest in leafless, white, dead looking bushes that have developed a way of photosynthesising using only their bark.

The Galapagos are famous, of course, for inspiring Charles Darwin to formulate his theory of evolution through natural selection, first proposed in his seminal work, Origin of Species. Genovesa is completely pristine and looks today just as it would have done to Darwin in 1834.

Day 3
Another overnight journey, but we are now sea salty old hands and made sure we had extra wine with dinner. Knocked us out a treat.

We arrived at Isabela, the largest island on Galapagos, and headed off for a walk up the side of Lake Darwin, a collapsed volcano. We encountered some dragon flies, bees, and a beautiful, multi coloured painted locust.

Isabella has 5 active volcanoes which could be a bit of a worry, but the Galapagos volcanoes are not as dangerous as others as they are not explosive, spewing out lots of burning ash. Eruptions just bring lava flows, which is obviously not good news if you’re in the way, but can easily be avoided.

In the afternoon we cruised over to Fernandina, a short distance to the west of Isabella for a walk around iguana central. There were hundreds of marine iguanas lying on the solidified lava flows, baking in the sun, These incredible, prehistoric creatures grow to about 60cm in length and, when sufficiently warmed up, swim around in the shallows feeding in the algae that grow on the rocks. Ugly buggers.

Also on the island were some flightless cormorants. These weigh 4 to 6 kilos when fully grown and would need a 3 metre wingspan if they were to fly. Instead, they have taken to the seas and are now expert swimmers, diving for fish. Their wings are now short, stubby and useless.

Later on, after dinner, we starting chatting away to Bob and Bren, 2 of the English contingent. Anyway, we were enjoying ourselves supping a few brandies, but the barman was nowhere to be seen, so we decided to help ourselves. I think the measures were a tad larger the standard. After a couple of rounds we realised that two thirds of the bottle was gone - so we thought we’d better finish it.


Day 4

Day 4 was a quiet day for us. We had a lie in - I wonder why, and decided to skip the breakfast and the morning activities. Just as well as 2 of the girls got stung by jellyfish, and Mags would definitely have copped it, turning instantly into elephant woman.

I did manage a little light snorkeling in the afternoon, and found myself swimming with the cormorants and a penguin. The Galapagos penguins move incredibly quickly, flying through the water.

We also swam into a cave that was turtle city. These quiet, placid creatures glide gently through the seas and are content to cruise along side swimmers and divers. I swam with one for a full 3 minutes.

Day 5
We spent day 5 on Santiago and embarked on a hill climb before breakfast. There was absolutely negligible green, and it was probably the driest and most desolate place we visited. This island has had relatively recent volcanic activity and has black lava fields where the elements have yet to oxidize them and turn them brown. Subsequently, hardly anything can grow here. Conversely, its waters are rich with plankton, and this attracts numerous fish which, in turn, sustains a large population of sea birds.

The walk to the top wasn’t too strenuous and we were rewarded with magnificent views of a number of volcanic craters.

Back at bottom, w e saw a Pelican eating a fish whole. This was hilarious, as the fish was almost too large for it to swallow, so it had to make several attempts to get it down.

More snorkeling after breakfast. The sea was clear and provided probably the best visibility of the trip. There were lots of fish, and we saw a reef shark – harmless, but quite scary to be in the water with it.

We then swam to the beach, and walked a short distance across sand dunes through mangroves to a second beach, where there were 4 white tipped reef sharks swimming in the shallows, with two turtles mating. A conversation I had with an Australian lady at the beach who I’d never met before.

“You English, right?”
“Yes”
“See those turtles over there, one on top of the other?”
“Yes”
“Well, when one gets on top of the other like that, it means they’re mating. You wouldn’t know that being English”

Day 6

We spent the entire day on land at Santa Cruz, the most populous and developed island.

We had a fellow Chelsea fan on-board, Mike who, like us, had been sweating on the Man United versus Chelsea result all week. Mike has a few season tickets for Chelsea and has promised to let us know if and when he has any spares. Mike, if you’re reading this blog, you’re a top bloke. I don’t care what the others said. We came across an internet café in the town centre and popped in to find the result. 1-1, but we were away, so a good result. Unfortunately, we also found out the cricket score which had been looking bleak for England when we left. Australia won by, well, a cricket score. Mags was insufferable.

The highlight on Santa Cruz was the Giant Tortoises. These were hunted mercilessly by pirates and early settlers. No surprise, they’re not difficult to catch. Some sub-species are extinct as a result but, thankfully, they are now protected. We visited a farm in the highlands where we saw about 20 of these magnificent creatures lazing about. They appear to spend all their time sleeping or eating slowly.

We visited the Charles Darwin centre in the afternoon, where they run a breeding programme to try to increase their numbers and reintroduce them to islands where they have been wiped out. There’s one poor tortoise there, lonesome George. He’s the last known individual of his sub-species so, unless they find another or clone him, that sub species will be extinct too.

Day 7
Our last day was a real highlight, on Espanola island. This is the only breeding ground for the wave albatross. It was the end of the breeding season when we visited. Most of the mature birds had left for the high seas, but there were a smattering of juveniles still there and some fledglings. These are large, heavy birds with a comical face and an even funnier walk. We were lucky to see one taking off close up. An incredible sight as it needs a fair run up to get enough speed and lift for take off. Although clumsy in the ground, they are awesome in the air, hardly needing to flap their massive wings to stay airborne.

Espanola is also home to a colony of blue footed boobies. Yes, they really do have blue feet. Like the albatross, they dance to attract a mate. Dance may be putting it a bit strong, they sort of lift one leg up, put it back down, then lift the other leg. Very entertaining.

The boobies are all expert fishermen. There are three, the Nazca, the red footed and the blue footed. They dive headfirst into the sea to catch their prey. The Nazca is the fastest, reaching speeds of up to 60 miles per hour and diving up to 30 metres. The Nazca boobie can become punch drunk from the repeated diving into the sea at high speed.

We had one last snorkel where we saw three sting rays, like the ones that did for Steve Irwin. We didn’t get too close though.

Finally, we had to leave. What a fantastic and enthralling place. We had a great crew who looked after us. Our guide, Nicolas, answered all of our stupid questions patiently and even made a souvenir DVD for us, for a few dollars naturally. So you can see for yourselves when we get back, if DVDs are still in use by then. Our fellow passengers were all lovely and interesting people. That is, except Heine. Well, there’s always one, isn’t there? This Dutch lady just wasn’t happy about anything. The food, the air con, her cabin, having to get up too early. I thought she was a little strange during the introductions when she insisted in the guide trying to pronounce her name correctly. Now I know that it’s not great when your name is mispronounced, but she’s Dutch, she should be used to it. The rest of us just don’t have the vocal skills. She soon became known as HF, for Hatchet Face. We all had great fun bitching about her. Everyone kept saying that they felt sorry for her husband. I wasn’t. He married her.

The Galapagos is a hassle to get to but well worth the effort, and more. I think everyone who visits (except HF) must have a terrific time, even people not that interested in wildlife. The scenery is stunning and the snorkeling is jaw dropping. If you still don’t fancy it, you can just lay about sun bathing in the perfect climate.

Oh, and I didn’t even mention the whales and dolphins swimming alongside the boat.

Off to the Amazon next. It’s a hard life.