Galapagos
There are a few different ways you can "do" the Galapagos, but from what I read the best way, where you make the best use of your precious/expensive time there, is to go on a multi-day boat cruise, where you sleep on the boat as it travels to the next destination overnight. So that's what I decided to do. When I was booking the tour in the Quito hostel-attached travel agency, a friendly Finn named Marko overheard that I needed to go to the airport at the same time as him the next day, so we agreed to share a taxi. As it turned out, we'd be sharing more than that - we were booked on the same tour boat, and sharing the same cabin.
The complications that arose from making a last minute booking meant that Marko and I needed to fly there a day before our tour started, as the daily early flight on the day of the tour was booked out. This meant we had a night to chill out on Santa Cruz, the main Galapagos island, which has a well developed though touristy town named Puerto Ayora. It instantly reminded me of the Azores, which are also volcanic islands that I had visited a year prior. I loved being in the middle of the ocean again, with fresh air that was a nice change from polluted Quito. My excitement levels were really starting to rise - this was the first big hitter, the bucket lister, one of the best places in the world to see life in the wild. This was the Galapagos, bitches.
Getting to the island a day early really paid off the next morning, when Marko and I had time to go check out a ranch full of giant Galapagos tortoises. As soon as we entered the place it felt like we had gone back in time a few million years - these incredible creatures look like they belong to a different era. We didn't need to look around for them - they were everywhere. They tended to hiss if you got too close - an instinct developed in more recent times as a result of the huge amount of turtle "harvesting" performed by the first batches of humans to settle on these islands in the 18th and 19th century. I say harvesting rather than hunting as the tortoises are far too slow to evade human capture - there were so many of them that they were simply picked up en masse and stacked up on ships, where apparently they could stay alive for up to a year without food and water to provide fresh meat to seafarers - a pretty repulsive image when you see how graceful they are in real life.
High on our first amazing wildlife encounter, Marko and I headed to the dock to get acquainted with our sea-going home for the next four nights - the Nemo. It was a nice boat, smaller than expected, but a catamaran, which going by my pub trivia sailing knowledge is faster and less rocky than single hulled boats. The two person cabin we were sharing was pretty cozy, but with an en suite bathroom, it was fancier than the hostel dorms Marko and I were used to. I got the top bunk, but after trying it out and realising I couldn't even extend my legs fully, the slightly shorter Marko unselfishly agreed to switch.
A bell signalled time for our delicious home-cooked style lunch, which was also our introduction to the other eleven passengers, a nice mixture of nationalities and ages. We had an old German couple, a trio of middle-aged Danish ornithologists, and a bunch of others more or less around my age: a Slovakian couple, an Aussie/German couple, another German, another Dane, Marko the Finn and myself. After horsing down our lunch we headed back to land for the first group excursion to the Charles Darwin research centre, which was a great place to get some context on the islands themselves. This was also where we had our first introduction to our guide, Marcos, who spoke excellent American-tinged English and turned out to be generally awesome.
Just on the way to the research centre we had our first encounter with sea lions (hanging about the little fish market) and lots of marine iguanas. The blurb is true - there's wildlife everywhere in this place. After a cozy sunset dinner back on the boat, Marko and I had a good chat trying to get some fresh air to ward off seasickness before retiring to the cabin.
The noise of the water and the slightly rough seas meant it took me a while to get to sleep, but once I did I slept like a log. I slept so well that I didn't hear the wake up bell the next morning for breakfast. I just happened to wake up at 7.20, then scrambled to the dining area with zombie eyes when I realised I was late. Soon afterwards it was time for our first island excursion, to the vast barren volcanic landscape of southern Isla Isabela.
Before we even landed on shore we saw heaps of wildlife hanging about - a couple of flightless cormorants, lots more marine iguanas, and a couple of sea lions. After landing the show didn't stop. We came across a small saltwater lagoon that had some sea turtles and reef sharks swimming about. Bloody hell, there's no messing about with seeing wildlife here - it was straight into it.
After snacks back on the boat, it was time to get wet. I had been snorkelling a couple of times before (most recently in the Great Barrier Reef), so the fish didn't hold too much of a wow factor. For me, here it was all about the sea turtles. They look a little clumsy on the ground, but swimming with them you see just how graceful they are under the waves. At one point there were five or six surrounding me. I had to hold back the smile on my face to stop my snorkel being flooded with saltwater. I don't have pictures because my camera isn't waterproof - use your imagination.
A second landing on Isla Isabela nicely rounded off the day's activities. It wasn't as interesting as the first landing (or the snorkelling), but we did get to see a few land iguanas among the dead vegetation which was nice. Chilling on the top deck of the boat watching the sun fall before another lovely buffet dinner set the routine for the next couple of days. It was nice not to have to think about where to sleep, what to see, or where to find food for a few days.
Getting up in time for breakfast was a much better start to day two, and again it was straight into it with an early morning landing on Isla Fernandina. Colourful sally-lightfoot crabs scuttled around the rocky shoreline, but a little further inland from our landing point was one of the most breathtaking sights of the trip - an enormous number of marine iguanas sunning themselves on the rocks. Seeing three of these creatures together on day one got us excited, but now there were dozens, with males bobbing their heads to try and attract a female (it was mating season). There was just so many of them, with more and more lying about the place as you turned your head left and right, all in their natural habitat. Pretty damn incredible.
As cool as the iguanas were, my favourite animals encountered were the sea lions, a family of which we came across on our way back to the dinghy. They seem to have so much fun in the water, especially the cubs. They come across as slightly obnoxious and drunk when on land, which adds to their charm.
After more snacks on the boat it was time for snorkelling round two. Marcos advised us to head close to the rocky shore to see the most marine life. This turned out to be bad advice as there were some pretty strong currents and big waves - not a good mix when there's sharp coral by the shoreline. I hadn't realized this as I was darting inland to see a marine iguana Jesse the Aussie had spotted. I followed him for a few seconds, before realizing I was in quite a shallow area and turning around to see a huge wave coming towards me. I'm not the strongest swimmer, so this wasn't the most ideal of situations. It didn't help when I saw the marine iguana dart part me to get away from the shoreline also. I swam as hard as I could against the wave, and in the end got to the safety of the deeper current-less water, though I was completely out of breath when I got there - not the most comfortable of experiences, but I did see a marine iguana swimming from undewater!
The afternoon snorkelling went much more smoothly, and also had the single most amazing sight of the whole South America trip so far. With pretty poor visibility, it was difficult to spot fish, but it was easier to spot sea turtles. At one point, following such a sea turtle, I looked up and realised there was about ten (!) ahead of me. Then I looked to my left, my right, and behind me. I was surrounded by them. They were everywhere There must have been thirty at least, all moving gracefully through the water, all unperturbed by my presence. I floated there for a couple of minutes, hardly able to believe that I was in the middle of this. My lack of movement eventually meant I had to take evasive action to avoid some of them swimming into me, which was the signal to get out of the gang. What a sight - this image will stay with me as long as I live.
Rough seas that night meant that Anne (the German half of the Aussie/German couple), Marko and I stayed up in the fresh air above deck well past dinner to stave off seasickness once more. We laughed about the incompatibility between Dutch/German directness and Irish/Aussie politeness, something I've experienced in the recent past and something she encounters on a regular basis being married to an Aussie bloke. I got lucky once again with a good group of people, which made the whole Galapagos experience all the better.
Our last full day was disappointing compared to the last two, though to be fair we had felt spoiled by how much we had seen so far. We saw some timid fur seals on our morning landing on Isla Santiago, as well as yet more marine iguanas and sea lions. Our luck ran out for our final snorkelling session, with a full moon making the pull of gravity on the ocean slightly stronger, which meant more debris and sediment floating around, which meant crap visibility - we didn't see much beyond the usual battery of fish and the odd sea turtle.
The afternoon was spent sailing around Isla Daphne Mejor spotting some birds (which didn't interest me much, but was very interesting for the Danish trio, who really really liked birds). The day was starting to peter out when it was jolted to life again by seeing...yep, you guessed it, more wildlife, except this time it was in the sea. Seeing a couple of manta rays was pretty cool, but then we encountered a school of dolphins, who started swimming with the boat and performing jumps in front of us! With the sunset in the background, this was an awesome finale to what had been a few days packed to the rafters with wildlife sightings.
We spent dinner time and the night anchored in sight of the airport which was our final destination the next morning, which made us wonder why they bother with the extra night in the first place. Whatever, it didn't matter now, so we enjoyed a cocktail and a couple of beers in the calm shallow waters after our final dinner together. With all the sights seen, at this point I was looking forward to getting back on dry land again.
I completed my Galapagos experience waiting for my flight back to Quito listening to instrumental Christmas carols in the little airport and feeling bizarrely homesick (I hadn't even realized Christmas was approaching until now). The first big hitter had lived up to expectations, and along with the Ciudad Perdida trek and Medellín, the four days had easily made it onto my "top highlights of travelling" list. I don't think I'll ever see such an amount of wildlife in such a short space of time again as long as I live. A unique, amazing experience - what travelling is all about.
More photos from the Galapagos
The complications that arose from making a last minute booking meant that Marko and I needed to fly there a day before our tour started, as the daily early flight on the day of the tour was booked out. This meant we had a night to chill out on Santa Cruz, the main Galapagos island, which has a well developed though touristy town named Puerto Ayora. It instantly reminded me of the Azores, which are also volcanic islands that I had visited a year prior. I loved being in the middle of the ocean again, with fresh air that was a nice change from polluted Quito. My excitement levels were really starting to rise - this was the first big hitter, the bucket lister, one of the best places in the world to see life in the wild. This was the Galapagos, bitches.
Getting to the island a day early really paid off the next morning, when Marko and I had time to go check out a ranch full of giant Galapagos tortoises. As soon as we entered the place it felt like we had gone back in time a few million years - these incredible creatures look like they belong to a different era. We didn't need to look around for them - they were everywhere. They tended to hiss if you got too close - an instinct developed in more recent times as a result of the huge amount of turtle "harvesting" performed by the first batches of humans to settle on these islands in the 18th and 19th century. I say harvesting rather than hunting as the tortoises are far too slow to evade human capture - there were so many of them that they were simply picked up en masse and stacked up on ships, where apparently they could stay alive for up to a year without food and water to provide fresh meat to seafarers - a pretty repulsive image when you see how graceful they are in real life.
Day 1
High on our first amazing wildlife encounter, Marko and I headed to the dock to get acquainted with our sea-going home for the next four nights - the Nemo. It was a nice boat, smaller than expected, but a catamaran, which going by my pub trivia sailing knowledge is faster and less rocky than single hulled boats. The two person cabin we were sharing was pretty cozy, but with an en suite bathroom, it was fancier than the hostel dorms Marko and I were used to. I got the top bunk, but after trying it out and realising I couldn't even extend my legs fully, the slightly shorter Marko unselfishly agreed to switch.
A bell signalled time for our delicious home-cooked style lunch, which was also our introduction to the other eleven passengers, a nice mixture of nationalities and ages. We had an old German couple, a trio of middle-aged Danish ornithologists, and a bunch of others more or less around my age: a Slovakian couple, an Aussie/German couple, another German, another Dane, Marko the Finn and myself. After horsing down our lunch we headed back to land for the first group excursion to the Charles Darwin research centre, which was a great place to get some context on the islands themselves. This was also where we had our first introduction to our guide, Marcos, who spoke excellent American-tinged English and turned out to be generally awesome.
Just on the way to the research centre we had our first encounter with sea lions (hanging about the little fish market) and lots of marine iguanas. The blurb is true - there's wildlife everywhere in this place. After a cozy sunset dinner back on the boat, Marko and I had a good chat trying to get some fresh air to ward off seasickness before retiring to the cabin.
The noise of the water and the slightly rough seas meant it took me a while to get to sleep, but once I did I slept like a log. I slept so well that I didn't hear the wake up bell the next morning for breakfast. I just happened to wake up at 7.20, then scrambled to the dining area with zombie eyes when I realised I was late. Soon afterwards it was time for our first island excursion, to the vast barren volcanic landscape of southern Isla Isabela.
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| Reef shark |
Before we even landed on shore we saw heaps of wildlife hanging about - a couple of flightless cormorants, lots more marine iguanas, and a couple of sea lions. After landing the show didn't stop. We came across a small saltwater lagoon that had some sea turtles and reef sharks swimming about. Bloody hell, there's no messing about with seeing wildlife here - it was straight into it.
After snacks back on the boat, it was time to get wet. I had been snorkelling a couple of times before (most recently in the Great Barrier Reef), so the fish didn't hold too much of a wow factor. For me, here it was all about the sea turtles. They look a little clumsy on the ground, but swimming with them you see just how graceful they are under the waves. At one point there were five or six surrounding me. I had to hold back the smile on my face to stop my snorkel being flooded with saltwater. I don't have pictures because my camera isn't waterproof - use your imagination.
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| Land iguana |
A second landing on Isla Isabela nicely rounded off the day's activities. It wasn't as interesting as the first landing (or the snorkelling), but we did get to see a few land iguanas among the dead vegetation which was nice. Chilling on the top deck of the boat watching the sun fall before another lovely buffet dinner set the routine for the next couple of days. It was nice not to have to think about where to sleep, what to see, or where to find food for a few days.
Day Two
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| Marine iguanas |
Getting up in time for breakfast was a much better start to day two, and again it was straight into it with an early morning landing on Isla Fernandina. Colourful sally-lightfoot crabs scuttled around the rocky shoreline, but a little further inland from our landing point was one of the most breathtaking sights of the trip - an enormous number of marine iguanas sunning themselves on the rocks. Seeing three of these creatures together on day one got us excited, but now there were dozens, with males bobbing their heads to try and attract a female (it was mating season). There was just so many of them, with more and more lying about the place as you turned your head left and right, all in their natural habitat. Pretty damn incredible.
 |
| Sea lions |
As cool as the iguanas were, my favourite animals encountered were the sea lions, a family of which we came across on our way back to the dinghy. They seem to have so much fun in the water, especially the cubs. They come across as slightly obnoxious and drunk when on land, which adds to their charm.
After more snacks on the boat it was time for snorkelling round two. Marcos advised us to head close to the rocky shore to see the most marine life. This turned out to be bad advice as there were some pretty strong currents and big waves - not a good mix when there's sharp coral by the shoreline. I hadn't realized this as I was darting inland to see a marine iguana Jesse the Aussie had spotted. I followed him for a few seconds, before realizing I was in quite a shallow area and turning around to see a huge wave coming towards me. I'm not the strongest swimmer, so this wasn't the most ideal of situations. It didn't help when I saw the marine iguana dart part me to get away from the shoreline also. I swam as hard as I could against the wave, and in the end got to the safety of the deeper current-less water, though I was completely out of breath when I got there - not the most comfortable of experiences, but I did see a marine iguana swimming from undewater!
The afternoon snorkelling went much more smoothly, and also had the single most amazing sight of the whole South America trip so far. With pretty poor visibility, it was difficult to spot fish, but it was easier to spot sea turtles. At one point, following such a sea turtle, I looked up and realised there was about ten (!) ahead of me. Then I looked to my left, my right, and behind me. I was surrounded by them. They were everywhere There must have been thirty at least, all moving gracefully through the water, all unperturbed by my presence. I floated there for a couple of minutes, hardly able to believe that I was in the middle of this. My lack of movement eventually meant I had to take evasive action to avoid some of them swimming into me, which was the signal to get out of the gang. What a sight - this image will stay with me as long as I live.
Rough seas that night meant that Anne (the German half of the Aussie/German couple), Marko and I stayed up in the fresh air above deck well past dinner to stave off seasickness once more. We laughed about the incompatibility between Dutch/German directness and Irish/Aussie politeness, something I've experienced in the recent past and something she encounters on a regular basis being married to an Aussie bloke. I got lucky once again with a good group of people, which made the whole Galapagos experience all the better.
Day Three
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| Fur seal |
Our last full day was disappointing compared to the last two, though to be fair we had felt spoiled by how much we had seen so far. We saw some timid fur seals on our morning landing on Isla Santiago, as well as yet more marine iguanas and sea lions. Our luck ran out for our final snorkelling session, with a full moon making the pull of gravity on the ocean slightly stronger, which meant more debris and sediment floating around, which meant crap visibility - we didn't see much beyond the usual battery of fish and the odd sea turtle.
The afternoon was spent sailing around Isla Daphne Mejor spotting some birds (which didn't interest me much, but was very interesting for the Danish trio, who really really liked birds). The day was starting to peter out when it was jolted to life again by seeing...yep, you guessed it, more wildlife, except this time it was in the sea. Seeing a couple of manta rays was pretty cool, but then we encountered a school of dolphins, who started swimming with the boat and performing jumps in front of us! With the sunset in the background, this was an awesome finale to what had been a few days packed to the rafters with wildlife sightings.
We spent dinner time and the night anchored in sight of the airport which was our final destination the next morning, which made us wonder why they bother with the extra night in the first place. Whatever, it didn't matter now, so we enjoyed a cocktail and a couple of beers in the calm shallow waters after our final dinner together. With all the sights seen, at this point I was looking forward to getting back on dry land again.
Day Four
The final "day" was just breakfast and goodbyes. Marko and I made plans to get in touch if either of us happens to be in the area of the other. It turns out that Anne and Jesse (the German/Aussie couple) were planning to spend Christmas in The Wild Rover in Cuzco, just as the Irish couple I had met in Medellín and Quito were. The Wild Rover is the place to be for Christmas in South America, it seems. I was starting to think I may have to adjust my plans to be there for the 25th.I completed my Galapagos experience waiting for my flight back to Quito listening to instrumental Christmas carols in the little airport and feeling bizarrely homesick (I hadn't even realized Christmas was approaching until now). The first big hitter had lived up to expectations, and along with the Ciudad Perdida trek and Medellín, the four days had easily made it onto my "top highlights of travelling" list. I don't think I'll ever see such an amount of wildlife in such a short space of time again as long as I live. A unique, amazing experience - what travelling is all about.
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| The Galapagos Gang |
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