The wildlife haven of the Galapagos Islands made famous by Charles Darwin was my destination for a fantastic and relaxing 8 days. My boat was the Eden, a 25m motor cruiser with a crew of 6, a guide and 15 other passengers from various countries - UK, US, Australia, Spain, France and Hong Kong. There were only a few of us travelling alone (most were in couples) so I found myself sharing with Eben from California, an actor who has amongst other roles has played a Cling On in Star Trek (he had a photo to prove it). The boat and the group:
During the 8 day trip (7 nights and 6 full days on the boat) we visited 8 of the Islands: Baltra (not much here except for the airport), North Seymour, Santa Fe, Espanola, Floreana, Santa Cruz (with the largest town of Puerto Ayora), Santiago and Genovesa. These were all to the east of the largest Island Isabela which we didn´t stop on.
Each day consisted of a walk or two on the island we were visiting and a snorkel or two around it, often from an idyllic beach.
Fortunately there was plenty of siesta time either on the boat or one of the beaches as we were up at 6.30 every day and clambering into the small rubber motor dinghys by 7.45 for our first excursion after breakfast. The daily activities were explained to us by our guide George each evening before dinner. These always involved one of his colourful sketches and plenty of surprisingly accurate examples of noises, actions or mating dances of the wildlife. His bird impersonations were particularly impressive!
George was keen to show off his boating skills at any opportunity....
We had all meals each day on board and the food was always good and varied. Post lunch invariably came an hour of sleep and dinner was generally followed by a game of cards with a beer or two, although we rarely made it past 9.30 following the stressful days! The longer distances between islands was generally covered at night and this often shortened our card game as the choppy seas took their toll on us. No one seemed to suffer too badly though.
Most days the boat was accompanied by one variety of bird or other hoping to get the odd morsel of food from the chef, or using the boat lights to help with fishing at night. More often than not it was the Frigate bird that joined us:
These birds are the menace of the skies over the Galapagos - stealing eggs from other birds and creating havoc in the air. The males have an impressive red throat that they inflate to attract females. Accidental punctures on bushes or deliberate punctures from the beaks of other males are all too common.
The best known birds on the islands are probably the boobies. There are 3 kinds regularly encountered - the Blue Footed, the Red Footed and the Nazca. We saw most of the Blue Footed variety, and because we had arrived towards the end of mating season there were plenty of young to be seen:
Less brightly coloured were the Nazca Boobies, so named because of the Nazca plate that the Islands lie on.
Numerous other bird species were regularly seen, and all of them within metres of the paths that we were walking along. Galapagos hawks, finches, doves, albatrosses, sea gulls, flamingoes and oyster catchers all appeared at one time or other. And of course the very cute Galapagos penguins that occasionally joined us for some snorkelling, but preferred to waddle about on the rocks.
Then there were the animals, and plenty of them there were.....
Marine Iguanas swimming in the sea or sunning themselves on the beach:
Sea lions lazing around or inquisitively chasing after tourists (both in the water and on the beach):
Green sea turtles effortlessly gliding through the water:
White Tip Reef sharks in big groups just feet from the beach (the dark patches in front of the tourists) that were deemed safe enough to be close to:
Sting rays on another beach that we could let wash over oer feet in the shallow water, apparently no risk unless you happen to stand on one by accident (slowly shuffling about was the only way to get into and out of the water):
The brightly coloured Sally Light Foot crabs scuttling over the rocks whenever we strayed too close for their comfort:
And last, but by no means least, the giant tortoises. These we visited at the Darwin Research centre on Santa Cruz Island half way through the trip. They were impressive (and impressively lazy) animals with the large males weighing upto 250kg and barely moving for hours on end. The most active we saw was the famous Lonesome George chasing after one of his females.
This apparently was a very rare occurence. Lonesome George had two females introduced in an attempt to continue his species (each of the islands has a different breed of tortoise) but he rarely shows any interest in them, except on this occasion. His years of laziness and over eating meant that he was too slow for the smaller female and after a long chase he was more then a metre behind - no chance! A few of the others that we saw:
The island scenery was different each day, some of them rising no more than 10 metres above sea level whilst others were more mountainous. The highlands on Santa Cruz rise up to 600m and Isabela has volcanoes upto 1700m, creating completey different habitats. The best views we had were from the viewpoint on Bartolome, also the place from where the enemy were seen in the film ´Master and Commander´.
It was a fantastic 8 days and a great way to relax after my trekking. Highly recommended! Hopefully there will be a few underwater shots in the next day or so when I get my film developed, but no guarantee that they´ll be of anything but sea water.....
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