Galapagos Part Two

And then there were six. After saying farewell to the others at the airport we took the bus, ferry (well little tug boat), and then 4x4 taxi across the island to Puerto Ayora where we all ended up staying in the same hotel. Across the road from our hotel was the local fish ‘market’ a very small affair with far more pelicans and sealions than customers. And that entertained us every day as the sea lions begged at the feet of the fish mongers not dissimilar to Labrador dogs! The pelicans and one brave heron weren’t much better...

Lades and Duke returned to the US after a couple of days leaving us and Dale and Karen. A fantastic couple from deepest darkest Canada (Labrador) who have sold every one of their belongings and started a new life travelling. What was embarrassing was that their bags were about a quarter the size of ours!

We spent a great deal of time eating in the local street market, or sharing ice creams from the very conveniently placed new gelataria next door to the hotel. And discovered the local beach.

As you can see absolutely stunning, but blimey it was hot. Hence I am trying to cover every bit of my body in this photo:

Even the local beach was fascinating with a cactus forest,

marine iguanas,

baby sharks and very curious little birds.

We were due to leave the Galapagos islands on the Monday morning, having finished the cruise the previous Wednesday. But, about two hours before our flight we were at the airline office changing it! And so the four of us headed by speed boat to Isla Isabela. Here we found sand streets and a beautiful little family hotel on the most gorgeous beach. We could have spent the next week just standing in the door way to our room looking at the view!

Isabela is a quiet but very large island in the Galapagos archipelago. There are 6 volcanoes all of which are considered to be various degrees of active! But only a very small part of it is inhabited. Small but with two very nice bakeries – of course we discovered these quickly!

We hired bikes and cycled to the Wall of Tears – a giant wall of rocks built by prisoners for no purpose but to torture them it would seem. As if that wasn’t harsh enough all but two escaped and tried to sail to Panama but were killed en route. The two that stayed however were pardoned and still live on Isabela.

The cycle back was fun, avoiding lots of wild tortoises of various sizes in the ‘road’...

...and stopping at ‘lover’s beach’ to discover that it was an iguana mating ground. Not quite what the romantic in me had imagined! The last bit of the cycle was along the beach and was glorious.

We also had a great time snorkelling in a nearby lagoon and saw a mobilous ray feeding and lots of very curious fish.

The walk to the lagoon was fun:

The lazy sea lion who seemed to have a bit of a cold just stayed with our bags!

Finally we admitted that we couldn’t stay on the islands forever, despite the fact we could have happily done so! So we had our last cocktails on the beach with Dale and Karen followed by a giant pizza and left them to stretch out their time on the islands for a couple more weeks! Lucky devils.

A pelican joined us for drinks..

Interesting lunch

Gio and iguana outside our hotel

Galapagos Special

After the build up to this trip we couldn’t quite believe we were actually going to the Galapagos. Even sitting at the airport we were convinced something would go wrong, and it was only after being collected by the boat’s reps and waiting for the panga/dinghy to the yacht that it really sank in. The smell of these guys helped:

We boarded the Mary-Anne and were very happy with our last minute cruise choice! An amazing long sail boat, beautiful.

Here is our Galapagos diary, we want to remember it all – and there is a lot!!

Isla North Seymour – day one

Our first landing was tricky trying to clamber out of the panga and not land on a sleeping sealion! The sealions were in no hurry to move out of the way and an excellent indication of things to come! Our naturalist reminded us that we were on the equator and the moment we stepped on to the first island the strength of the sun was phenomenal. Birds the size of dogs almost skimmed our heads as they flew over us, and we were introduced to our first blue footed boobies!

The frigate birds and their giant red inflatable bills

It really was amazing, everything you imagine of the Galapagos and more.

Isla Santa Cruz – day two

Day two we headed to Puerto Auyora which is Galapagos’ busiest town. The town was lovely, very cute shops and one main street that ran along the coast. We all headed to the Charles Darwin centre where we were introduced to lonesome George the last tortoise of his species. Although there’s Tony, a distant relation but apparently he’s a secret!

Lunch time:

Next stop was the El Chato farm, and visiting the giant tortoise in the wild. As it was raining we borrowed wellies and stomped off in the muddy puddles giant tortoise spotting. Due to their size it wasn’t too tough!

Almost as messy as Gio at dinner:

When we got back to the farm we entertained ourselves with a couple of tortoise shells – giving a real idea of how big these creatures are:

Giant Tortoise facts we can remember from day two – they live to 150 years or more, each year they take three months to trundle to the coast, in the Galapagos they are totally protected by law. If nervous or threatened they let all the air out of their lungs to make space to withdraw in to their shell, it sounds a little like Darth Vadar. Tortoises used to be eaten by the first visitors to the islands and so now the population needs to be replenished it is currently back to 30 000.

On the journey back to Puerto Ayora we stopped by one of the many lava tubes that run under the Island of Santa Cruz. Calling them tubes is a modest description; the one visited was basically a 20 metre high tunnel that apparently ran for miles.

We headed back to the boat to get changed and then headed on land for a lovely candle lit dinner by the sea.

Isla Espanola – day three

Day three was Gardner bay, a lovely beach, with lots and lots of sealions lolling about on the shore and some very curious mocking birds. We could have spent all day watching both as they were hilarious.

a curious mocking bird:

a curious sea lion:

a curious Lesa:

a curious duo:

Gorgeous sea lion:

Next was probably one of our favourite walks - Punta suarez : Totally amazing scenery walking along cliff tops spotting albatross chicks that were huge, masked boobies, sea lions, marine iguanas...

Albatross chick:

So many lovely sea lions - we couldn't stop taking photos!!

Colourful marine iguana:

Masked/Nazca Boobie:

Amazing scenery:

Cute babies:

fun rolling in the sand:

Albatross facts: they mate for life, once they take off at six months old they don’t touch land again for six years!

Nazca masked boobies facts: they always lay two eggs, and then leave the 2 chicks to fight it out – the strongest one is the only one to survive!

Isla floreana – day four

We had a 5am start to go off and see the turtles heading back to the water having laid their eggs. When we arrived at the beach, the sunrise and the sight of these amazing creatures making their slow journey back to the water was breathtaking.

The turtles take their time to travel back down to the ocean as they are exhausted and know that once they get there there are a lot of males (that we could see) waiting to pounce! Often the males are so keen that they will just keep climbing on top of each other with the poor female at the bottom of the stack – virtually drowning.

The babies, once hatched take a month just to crawl to surface of the sand!

On the walk back to the other side of the island we stopped and saw gorgeous flamingos very close up.

The day kept getting better as we headed back to the boat on the panga we spotted a massive school of dolphins. So our guide asked if we could change in two seconds and we didn’t need asking twice and were straight in the water snorkelling with them, amazing.

After breakfast we were back in the water Snorkelling devil’s crown, where we saw little reef sharks and lots of fish, then just I was about to get out of the water I had a face to face encounter with a lovely big sea lion very curious as to what we were up to!

We visited post office point where you can leave mail in a barrel and collect any mail that is addressed to your next destination:

The day came to an amazing close with the sails up and us all whale watching on deck. We had a very brief exciting spotting as two Byrde’s whales surfaced next to the boat and blew out air.

Isla Isabela – day five

Isabela is one of the youngest islands in the Galapagos and still growing and changing, we visited Punta Moreno and walked along a huge lava field. It was amazing seeing how ‘life’ starts on the islands from the black lava and the first plants that can live there.

Next was Tagus cove where the cold Cromwell current comes up full of nutrients and subsequently the home of penguins! The only place where you can find penguins on the equator – and is due to the cold current of water there. The girls all needed wetsuits for snorkelling here!

Elizabeth Bay: mangrove boat ride – one rock had a sea lion and iguana asleep together, boobies, flightless cormorants, penguins and crabs!! Once in the mangroves we spotted turtles, rays and sea lions somehow sleeping up in the trees!

tree lions:

Isla Isabela – day six AM

A very hot walk, where we saw giant land iguanas and giant tortoises.

Land iguana:

Next was a very welcome snorkel, Gio and I watched two turtles swimming together and then one came straight up to Gio and looked him in the eye – decided he wasn’t interesting very quickly!!

Isla Fernandina – day six PM

Of course, more of our favourite sea lions and lots and lots and lots of marine iguanas.

Marine iguana facts: only iguanas that have evolved to swim and feed in the sea. But as a result they need to blow the salt out of their noses once on land – spitting basically! Then they need to warm up quickly so at night they all lay on each other for heat.

Fernandina was gorgeous and rugged and we loved the colours of the lava rocks and the water and the amazing creatures living there.

another gorgeous baby:

Flightless Cormorants:

Marine iguana and Sally Lightfoot crab:

another stunning Sally Lightfoot:

Beautiful golden Pacific Green turtle:

Whilst sailing that evening we crossed the equator and had champagne with the captain in the bridge. It’s a tough life!

Isla Santiago – day 7 AM

The trip raced to an end. Our last day was visiting fur seals, climbing more lava rocks, watching sea lions, iguanas....

Oyster Catcher:

...snorkelling and seeing sharks asleep in a cave, a massive sting ray, turtles, lots of fish that let you swim with them as if part of shoal. It was all over too quickly. Especially for Gio who had a very close encounter with a curious little sea lion eyeballing him as he dived down snorkelling.

Isla Bartolome – day 7 PM

We snorkelled a second time on our last full day and probably one of the best times. We saw big sharks again sleeping in a cave, penguins, and lots of amazing fish.

We changed quickly and walked across moonlike scenery to a great view and group photos.

the usual hurdles:

The fab 16:

amazing view:

Santa Cruz black turtle cove – day 8 AM

Even though we were due off of the boat that morning we managed to squeeze in a mangrove boat ride, to see black turtles, rays, pelicans and boobies of course.

We loved the huge pelicans:

When we finally left the boat and the 14 people we had shared our Galapagos experience with it was with great sadness. Luckily we had decided not to race off from there and so headed back to Puerto Auyora to squeeze everything we could from our time on the islands.