Jul 2008

The boat had been travelling overnight so we awoke in the busy harbour of Puerto Ayora. Our guide hurried to get our things off the boat as some people were leaving the islands that afternoon. The night before, our guide apologised for having a problem with alcohol. On our time on the boat, we had found him pretty good and knowledgeable, but before we arrived, he had failed to meet some other passengers at the airport, been drunk and unintelligible and told Thomas to f*ck off. He informed us this was his last day at work as he was taking some time off to go into rehab. We had been happy with his service however and gave him a tip (unlike Thomas) but our guide this morning seemed impatient and rude as he herded us to see the lava tubes and wild giant tortoises on the island. We got in a taxi and drove into the centre of the island. The stop at the lava tubes was brief and not very interesting. Our next stop was a private farm that has wild tortoises in its grounds. We hunted around for a while and saw one in a dirty pond. It was a female and it was about 70 years old. The tortoises eat fruit and are able to drink the stagnant water in this area. We said goodbye to our guide and some of the passengers who were getting the plane back and carried on the tour with another guide. He showed us the fruit trees and fed us guavas and passion fruits and showed us a pineapple tree/bush (it grows without roots and gets all its nutrients from the air) and coffee. There was a total of 4 tortoises in this area, ranging from 15 to 140 years old. The oldest male was HUGE. It weighed 200kg and could barely move. At the end of the tour we were shown a couple of old tortoise shells and, just as I was thinking 'I wonder if I could fit in that?', the guide asked me if I wanted to try it on. He didn't need to ask me twice as I was already half in it. The shell was unbelievably heavy and I needed help to be able to stand up. There is currently a lot of random American tourists that have a photo of me and Thomas posing in an embarrassing tortoise mating position.

Our taxi took us back to our hotel which was really nice and, more importantly, had air conditioning which went down to 17 degrees. We had 2 nights in this hotel before we had to leave. Puerto Ayora is small but there are plenty of nice restaurants and touristy shops, and not as expensive as we were lead to believe. The Darwin Centre is walking distance from the hotel so we left in the midday sun to see the tortoise rehabilitation programme at work. On the way, we watched a fisherman selling fish on the side of the road as the massive, cheeky pelicans were trying to sneak up and steal some scraps. There was also a sea lion trying the 'puppy dog eyes' technique to get some food. Unsuccessfully, of course.

The Darwin Centre is a working research centre for the wellbeing of indigenous Galapagos flora and fauna. There was a display of pictures of how the Galapagos islands were just 40 years ago compared to now, and the difference is amazing. Foreign plants have almost completely taken over and the once sparse bush land is now nearly jungle. The unique thing about these islands is that they rose from the sea from underwater volcanoes and have never been part of the mainland. All the indigenous life was somehow able to travel across water in one of these ways:

• a waterproof seed that floats from the mainland
  
• flight
  
• on a natural raft such as a fallen branch (in the case of lizards)
  
• float for a long period of time, like a tortoise that accidentally falls into the sea on the mainland and washes up days later on the shores of the Galapagos.
  

The wildlife then adapted to its new environment over tens of thousands of years and that's how Darwin was able to come up with the theory of evolution; by comparing the mainland species to the island's.

We walked through the tortoise breeding area where the eggs are hatched and the young caged tortoises are protected for 2 years from rats (a species which has travelled to the islands aboard ships from the mainland). The tortoises then get upgraded and live in a pen that is similar to the island's habitat for 5 years, before being released back onto the island that the species originated from. Each island has a slightly different species of giant tortoise, each with a different shell shape. There is one tortoise that is the last surviving member of its species and he is called 'Lonely George'. He lives in a pen with loads of females which are of a similar species from a nearby island, but he has never been able to reproduce. He is 120 years old and looks pretty sad and lonely (so would you).

We saw some large land iguanas but the heat was stifling, so we headed back to the relief of the air con. Dee was still walking and swaying like she was on the boat, she had a bad case of land sickness.

That night, we met up with a couple of guys from our boat and ate at a nice restaurant called The Rock. Thomas paid with his credit card and a couple of days later had a call from his bank saying that his card had been cloned. This isn't the first time we had heard of this happening in South America, but we were surprised that it happened in a popular tourist restaurant.

Again we heard the boat bell early to tell us it was time to disembark. The boat had set sail just prior to dawn so as we stepped out into bright sunshine we were anchored at a new island 'Sombrero Chino' (Chinese Hat). We boarded the panga and headed across the smooth turquoise water toward the white sand beach. The blackness of the marine iguanas was a stark contrast to the pure white of the old coral sand. A short walk took us across to the open side of the island where more marine iguanas and crabs basked on the lava rocks amongst the huge waves that crashed against the rocks. As we headed back to the beach we watched a seal pup desperately trying to find a human playmate. It amused itself trying to pick up someone’s backpack and then jumped into the water as the panga arrived waiting to surprise the first person off the boat. Ollie was so desperate to get in the water he was almost physically shaking with excitement but the guide told us we had to head back. We laughed watching an unsuspecting stereotypically-dressed German tourist wade into the water and getting the shock of his life when the seal jumped up right in front of him. The guy did a quick glance around to see if anyone saw, his expression, 'I wasn't scared, much' and almost falling as he couldn't get out of the water quick enough.

Snacks back at the boat then we jumped back on the panga to go snorkeling. This time we jumped off the panga into deep water with the possibility of seeing rays or sharks. I heard the guide shout shark and calmly swam across to see the animal, as we were told to do as splashes scare them off. I was right next to the guide following his pointing hand about to see my first shark when I was hit from the side, got lots of bubbles in my vision then smacked in the face by a hard plastic flipper. Ollie’s approach was as gentile as a bull in a china shop, he swam as gracefully as Godzilla doing ballet, splashing and kicking everyone who had calmly gathered to see the shark, scared it, proceeded to chase it and upset everyone in the process. No apology, just 'they are fast', he suggested that if I’d have chased it too I might have seen it. I kept to myself the thought that if something as stupidly crazy as him in the water was chasing me, I’d be fast too.

Back at the boat we set sail to James Bay on Santiago. It was going to take around 3hrs so lunchtime then siesta. The sea didn't look rough but our boat being small and tall felt everything. It was funny seeing the green faces of some passengers turning down food as one minute you saw sky through the windows, the next deep blue ocean. The soup was eaten quickly to stop it spilling and as you placed the water glass down with your left hand, one second later you could pick it up with your right hand as it glided along the table with the waves. Trying to walk was even better, almost like the comical steps the old fashioned Star Trek actors would take when their spaceship was crashing. Ollie went to lie down (he felt poorly) and I played Titanic, on my own ;( at the front of the boat basking in the sun and sea spray waiting for the never-appearing dolphins.

At the black sand beach of James Bay we headed back into the sea for some snorkeling. Each time you get in the water you’re surprised by the vast amount of fish, every colour under the sun, it almost becomes expected but never disappoints. At one point a huge shawl of fish swam towards me followed by the biggest sea lion I’ve seen yet. It was an adult female hunting, she swam right up and under my stomach so close I was waiting for the hit as she pushed me aside. We then swam into a very shallow bay just off a beach, and there, probably only 2m in from the beach was a sea turtle eating. You could hear it pulling up the algae and intermittently snorting as it came up for air. We were all sat just watching it, not once did it seem to acknowledge us, just carried on munching. As we headed back towards the other end of the beach we noticed some penguins so swam towards them, as we got close a seal lion pup appeared obviously wanting to play. Ollie, only a child mentally himself, grinned and started diving down in the water. Now, if you hear Ollie’s version the sea lion was copying him, I was the eye witness. A sea lion is graceful and agile in the water, Ollie is not. It is true Ollie would move forward, the sea lion would, Ollie would forward roll, and the sea lion would. But the whole time it appeared the pup was smiling, taking the micky out of Ollie 'you call that a dive?...'. We were called back to shore and as we got out of the ocean the little pup appeared next to us, also walking up onto the beach, looking at us with puppy dog eyes, begging us to return to the water. I want a pet sea lion pup.

We headed across the island to see the natural pools and the nocturnal fur seals that frequent them. The sun was hot and marine iguanas were out in force enjoying the heat. Ollie was not enjoying the sun, he had taken it upon himself to play Jesus by wearing socks and sandals and a huge Hawaiian beach towel as a skirt. I swear some people were taking photos of the strange human to add to their Galapagos species collection.

Back to the boat for the last night we enjoyed a glass of wine as the sun set, ate our last evening meal on the Amigo and slept soundly as the boat overnight sailed to Santa Cruz.

The horn on the boat sounded at 6am to get us up for the panga ride to Bartolome Island, as the sun rose over the volcano on the small, bone-shaped island. I discovered that our damp room had caused my camera to stop working again, which annoyed me a lot, but I took it to the island anyway as it was still semi-usable. The dingy stopped at a small outcrop where we could see a couple of Galapagos penguins. They were tiny, half the size of the other penguins we had seen in Patagonia. We landed on the beach on one side of the island and walked through some typical Galapagos bush land to the bay on the opposite side. As we arrived we watched some fisherman trying to pull a huge haul of fish into their undersized boat, as sea lions and herons were taking their share from inside the massive nets. We watched them struggle for a while but it wasn't until later we learned that what they were doing was illegal. Tourist areas were out of bounds for fishermen. Our tour guide didn't seem too worried about it; it must happen quite regularly, but, in theory, 50,000 square miles (129,499 square kilometers) of the surrounding sea is protected as a marine reserve, one of the largest in the world.

We walked along the beach to the volcanic rock at the end of the bay and saw our first marine iguanas bathing in the sun. They are black in colour to blend in with the dark volcanic rock around the beaches. The crabs on the other hand, stood out a mile with their bright red bodies and beautiful turquoise undersides. They are called Sally Lightfoot crabs because of the way they can hop quickly from one rock to another. I tested the theory by chasing them around and they are pretty light-footed. The people who had been on the boat for a few days before us didn't seem very interested in the crabs or marine iguanas. We find out why later on in the trip - stay tuned. They were interested in seeing the turtle tracks which ran up the beach to the nesting area where they lay their eggs. We also saw plenty of lava lizards (guess how they got their name - they live on lava) and some spiders which lie on the centre of their web in an X shape.

We returned to the boat for breakfast and headed back out to climb the small volcano on the island. We learned about the lava formations on the island and climbed up the walkway to the viewpoint for the most photographed view on the Galapagos. We saw a tiny snake lying under the steps, but the Australians laughed "that's not a snake! It's more like a worm". They were used to seeing really big snakes in their own country. From the top of the volcano it is possible to see the whole island. We could see some sea lions catching fish in the waters below.

Back to the boat again and we got our snorkeling gear for our first snorkel in the sea. As soon as we put our head under the water we saw so many fish it was impossible to count. It was like turning on the TV onto the Discovery Channel. Among the fish we recognised were shoals of angel fish picking noisily at the algae; an unpuffed, spotty puffer fish; a big mouthed, aggressive-looking moray eel; huge multicoloured parrot fish and lots of smaller colourful fish. We swam right next to some penguins which were standing on the rocks above the water. We hung around for a bit to see if they would jump in, but they didn't. Just around the corner we saw a marine iguana picking the algae off some submerged rocks and then it swam back to the surface to heat its cold blood by the sun to get the energy to dive again. A sea lion swam past us briefly and disappeared. This was all in the space of 30 minutes. Dee was getting cold so, like the iguana, she had to return to the surface to warm her blood in the sun. We walked round to the other side of the beach when I saw the head of a penguin bobbing above the water and then diving down. I jumped into the sea and sped off to see the penguin swim underwater. It took a while to locate the penguin but when I did, it had no fear of me and seemed to ignore me as it was diving down trying to catch some sardines. The penguin looks so agile under the water, yet so clumsy outside of the water. It flaps its wings to swim and actually looks like it's flying underwater. I tried to give the little fella a hand by swimming down and herding the fish towards him. We dived with each other trying to catch fish for about 10 minutes, until the penguin realised that I was much too slow and inagile to really do any help, and then it swam off.

I was pretty chuffed by this experience continued to swim towards the peninsular at the end of the bay following George, an aussie from our boat on his honeymoon. We got to a rocky outcrop where the water was particularly cold and a young sea lion swam right up to us. It hovered around us with mild interest so I dived down and did a somersault under water to hold its attention. It swam around me and dived down to do a somersault as well. I dived again and did a twirly move and the sea lion did the same and waited for me to do the next move. I shouted to George that the sea lion was copying me and I watched as he dived and played with the sea lion some more. It was amazing how friendly, intelligent and playful the pup was, and at times, the sea lion came up close and looked with its large, black eyes straight into our masks. Eventually me and George were too out of breath to dive any more and the sea lion swam off. George was cold so he headed back and I continued after the sea lion. I thought I saw the sea lion's shape in the water and swam towards it but it I got a shock when I saw it was actually a large shark, 1.5 metres long. It had white tips on its fins, which meant it was a harmless white tipped shark, so I watched it disappear into the distance before I swam back to shore.

After this experience I had fallen in love with the Galapagos. The animals here haven't been hunted that long by man (the islands were only discovered in the 16th century) and so they don't have that inbuilt instinctive fear of humans. All the land animals are also herbivores, so they have no need to defend themselves. That's why when other species are introduced to the ecosystem, like cats or rats, the land iguana population decreased from 200,000 on one island to about 2000. The same happened to the giant tortoises. The rules on the islands regarding preservation of the wildlife are very strict and we are shown constantly by our guide the effects that human intervention has had on the islands.

In the afternoon we went snorkeling at Sullivan's Bay. We saw many of the same fish as before, but the water was colder so Dee couldn't stay in long. I saw a sting ray then headed back to shore where we started a walk on the lava fields. The lava in this formation is called Pahoehoe which is a Hawaiian name. The lava spread far into the distance and looked like the surface of a black alien planet. The volcano had erupted about 100 years ago and the lava had covered a forest and a lot of the beach. It is still possible to see coloured patches in the lava which are the remains of minerals in the wood and fungus that grew on the bark. The flippers from snorkeling were giving me blisters so was wearing socks with my sandals, which Dee found hilarious. I thought it looked quite good and stopped my feet getting cut by the sharp lava.

We returned to the boat for snacks and a little siesta (all this fun is hard work) and then had dinner, which was excellent considering the kitchen was the size of a portaloo. We watched a boring DVD on the Galapagos which was narrated by a woman who could only speak in monotone, mispronounced English and everyone retired to bed one by one, or fell asleep in front of the TV.

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.