Galapagos Islands, Day 1

So we had finally had enough of everyone else’s stories about how amazing the Galapagos Islands are, we bit the bullet and got ourselves some tickets. The next 3 nights we would spend on the boat “Amigo” then spend two further nights in a hotel on one of the islands. Sounded good, and at the price it costs, we were hoping it would be.

We left Quito at 5am to get the early flight out to the islands. We had one stop over to collect passengers and 3 hours later we had arrived on Baltra. Instantly the heat hit you as you got off the plane and Ollie started sweating profusely, I knew I was going to like it, first time in around 3 weeks I’ve not needed my jacket. We met the guide at the airport (a wooden shack) and collected our luggage (it’s just put on the floor at the side of the plane and you pick it up) and off we headed towards the boat.

The transport bus dropped us at the jetty and we were instantly greeted by around 8 sleeping sea lions on the jetty who couldn’t even be bothered to wake up as we stepped over them, they smell like rotting fish and poo, but look cute. We and the bags were loaded onto the dingy and we were taken to our new home. It looked like Popeye’s boat and needed a good renovation but we had got economy class and it had lots of character. Be aware that there were many arguments when booking Galapagos, I wanted a yacht, without shade so I could sunbathe all day and live the life of the ones with megabucks. What Ollie booked was a boat that was worth the money but the only chance of getting in the sun was hanging yourself off the back of the boat, no sundeck, no sun loungers, no chance of Ollie getting burnt (he was happy and purposely chose this) but no chance of Dee getting a tan and being warm, it was all air-conditioned.

Anyway, we unpacked our things in the small but perfectly formed ensuite cabin and headed back up to the SHADED deck for a quick safety run through and lunch. As we headed out of the cabin Ollie was in the doorway looking into the cabin where I was and all I could see was a funny little head and big beak behind him, I told him to turn around and he almost jumped out of his skin as a huge pelican was sat 6 inches from his head looking like he was trying to decide if Ollie was enemy or food.

Lunch was nice but interesting, we had the local dish of raw fish that is cooked in lime juice and served cold, however I had the veggie option which was all the lime juice, onions and tomatoes from the cold dish with little flecks of white where they hadn’t quite managed to fish out all of the fish from the meat eaters meal!

That afternoon we sailed to Black turtle cove on Santa Cruz for our first official wildlife spotting excursion. The Galapagos Islands are volcanic in origin and rose from the sea bed so have never been attached to the mainland. This makes the plants and wildlife so different from that of the mainland. Some creatures swam to the islands, some flew, some floated on driftwood and seeds were washed up by the ocean. Of course in more recent year’s humans are the causes of other more ecologically threatening species.

We all got onto the dingy and headed into the red and white mangroves. The water was shallow here and as the boat slowed the guide just said “look”, straight under us swam a huge turtle, about the size of a coffee table. We saw others coming to the surface for air or lazily gliding under or around the boat completely ignoring our presence. Starfish could also be seen on the sea floor, the size of dinner plates, fat and bright orange with purplish spots on. We were also getting bitten to death my mosquito’s and horseflies – thank you humans. As we were busy trying to spot the turtles we looked down to see huge whitetip reef sharks lying on the seafloor or cruising under the dingy in the shallow water their fins almost breaking the surface. So for our first outing in the Galapagos – it wasn’t bad!

We headed back to the main boat and jumped in the sea for a quick swim before tea, one of the crew members was the official “shark spotter” and he had to stand at the back of the boat looking for bull sharks while we were in the water. Made me a bit nervous, all I could think about was hearing the words “shark, get out of the water”– I didn’t go very far for the boat, I don’t swim that fast!

We set sail for the next destination and watched the sun set over the ocean. A huge lone frigatebird followed us the whole way, gliding just a metre above our boat and undeterred by our presence.

A 3 course dinner was served at 7pm in the dinning room downstairs and once our stomachs were satisfied the rocking motion of the boat lulled us both straight into a deep restful sleep.