Galápagos

Day 159 - “Galapagos Injection”

Up before 6 the taxi we’d booked actually found our hostel and we were at the airport before the check-in desk had even opened. But then we ate breakfast too slowly and were left rushing anyway, a scenario made more difficult by the fact that our Mastercard that had worked perfectly for 5 months, but today refused to yield funds (and no we haven’t run out). To make matters worse we needed US$100 in cash each to pay our park entry fee or they wouldn’t let us out of the airport at Baltra! I tried to call the bank but got put on hold and had to abandon the process when the airline started threatening to leave without us (and a quick count of Anna’s funds showed just enough cash to see us through). We were further delayed going through security when the scanner discovered that Anna was trying to smuggle her Swiss Army Knife onto the plane, but we make it aboard and they shut the doors behind us.

At Baltra Airport we were met by Jimmy, our naturalist / guide, and waited patiently to see who else off the plane would be our shipmates for the next 8 days. The average age on the plane was about 85 years old, like Machu Picchu, the expensive price tag tends to heighten the average tourist age, so we were expecting to be by far the youngest passengers. To our mounting surprise each new pair arriving were in their late twenties or early thirties. When we finally totalled twelve we appeared to be only slightly lowering the average. Jimmy later commented that we were by far the youngest group he had hosted in as long as he could remember.

From the airport on Isla Baltra we were bussed down to the harbour to wait for the zodiac to come take us aboard the Nemo II, a 72 foot catamaran and our sailing-home for the next 8 days. While we were waiting on the dock our first taste of Galapagos wildlife lazily paddled around in the water, two female and one huge make sea lions, completely unfazed by our presence.

The Nemo II waiting for us at Baltra.

Inspecting the new digs. Verdict: Can I have one?

The competition moored in the harbour. Most Galapagos vessels are motor- cruisers like these. Our cat sits closer to the water it is more stable, hence less likely to make weak-stomached people like me feel ill. Plus we’re hoping we might get the sails out at some stage!

The emergency drill / briefing.

On board Jimmy explained the general run of things, meals are served on the back deck, cocktails in the saloon (not kidding!), and we also had to be ‘toilet trained’ as flushing the toilet is quite finicky on this boat! Our room is one of the small ones to the side of the saloon down in one of the hulls, pokey but comfortable. Then we set sail for what Jimmy referred to as our “Galapagos Injection”, an introductory visit to one of the Galapagos’ less special sites. Here’s a sample of what one sees at one of the mediocre spots!

Franklin Gull, a migrant bird that doesn’t nest at the Galapagos.

No fear, incredible.

Bendy!

Sally Lightfoot Crab.

Anna checking out the crabs.

After checking out the wildlife we went for a dip in the ocean, no wetties required here, and then the zodiac ferried us back to Nemo II. We spent a couple of hours free time getting to know our fellow passengers while we motored to the place we would moor for the night. Before dinner Jimmy introduced the rest of the crew over a round of Pina Coladas, seven people in total including Jimmy, Captain Henry, a co-captain, engineer, cook, barman and general hand.

As were getting dinner Rene, Anna’s German roomie, pointed out a sea-lion sitting around on the back of the boat. When Erin went to take a photo, it got a bit antsy and ‘roared’ at her, Erin jumped a mile!

The guys who’d flown from Quito had been up since 2:30am and we weren’t that spritely either, so once dinner was down the hatch and we were done checking out the sea lions playing on and around the back of the boat, most people retired for an early night.

Day 160 – Here fishy fishy fishy

Exhausted from day one it was easy to get up for 6.45 having been in bed before 9! We arrived in the calm channel between Bartolome and Isla San Salvador (aka Santiago Island) after dark last night. Waking up this morning we had a better appreciation for where we were although we were greeted with heavily overcast skies. After a huge breakfast of cereal, fruit, eggs and toast, it was only a short panga (zodiac) ride to Bartolome Island for a walk.

There is not much wildlife on Bartolome as it is a very rocky volcanic moonscape, but a good place for Jimmy to explain to us a bit about how the Galapagos were formed (all volcanoes essentially!) and some of the more geological facts and figures about the islands. Bartolome itself is a pile of lava formed of pyroclastic cones which were all release points for the main volcano cone on Santiago Island (the island in the background of the lookout).

Here are some of the highlights from the walk:

The guard dog barks at us at the dock.

If you look hard enough you can see the circular rim of a volcano just under the surface of the water.

Moonscape and a slight sign of life, the Lava Cactus.

Lava Lizard, endemic to Bartolome. There are seven different subspecies of lava lizard found on seven different islands. Each has a slightly different marking to identify which island it is from.

The view over to Santiago Island from the highest part of Bartolome.

Jimmy giving us the lie of the land.

Galapagos Locust and another small sign of life.

Sleepy pelican (Brown Pelican)

Our home, the Nemo II and Pinnacle Rock in the background.

Back aboard we had a quick morning tea stop before heading back out for our first snorkelling trip. Here is some of what we saw:

Huge Panamic Cushion Star

Balloonfish

Crested Footscray sea lion

King Angelfish

Blue-chin Parrotfish

Mexican Hogfish

Pyramid Sea Star

Guineafowl Puffer

Another King Angelfish

And a little of the action:

After a scrumptious lunch we cruised a little while to Chinese Hat and went for another snorkel!

Diamond Stingray and Capitan Henry in the background.

Give me a kiss! (Yellowtail Damselfish)

Giant Hawkfish.

Reef Cornetfish.

Garden Eel? Or maybe just some sort of plant life!

Back on the cat we all disbursed for a quick rinse and then resumed on the back deck for our late landing on Chinese Hat. For about an hour or so we took a stroll around the black rocks, photographing sea-lion pups and learning about crabs. All of the girls and some of the guys became a little distraught when we came across a very lonely skinny sea-lion pup that began to yelp and follow us down the path. Jimmy explained that if a sea-lion pup’s mum gets injured, etc that the sea-lion pup is abandoned and not adopted by other families and so is left to starve to death. Poor little guy!

Galapagos Penguin

I want to fly mum!

The Chinese Hat, a pyroclastic vent.

Galapagos Sea Lions. There are no seals at the Galapagos, only Fur Seals which are a type of Sea Lion anyway. The easy way to tell a sea lion from a seal is that a sea lion has external ears and walks on all four flippers.

Lava Heron.

Nemo II waits for us (with a Lava Heron down on the left)

Black rocks, white sand, clear water… ahhh tranquilo.

Back on the cat the dinner bell rang promptly at 7pm and although we managed one or two beers after dinner, it was another early night after a full day. We began to “navigate” for six hours after dinner and Matt was so tired he didn’t even have time to feel sick.

Day 161 – Tortoise Karma Sutra

When we awoke in the morning we were moored in the harbour at Puerto Villamil on Isla Isabela. Antonio piloted the zodiac towards the pier, but got a bit ambitious trying to cross a shallow patch at we got stuck. A couple of minutes later we were unbeached and taking the long way round to meet the minibus waiting for us at the pier. A short drive through the tiny town and we were at the Giant Tortoise Breeding Centre.

This centre started by collecting eggs from the wild before they could be destroyed by introduced predators, hatching them in captivity and then releasing the tortoises when they were big enough to fend for themselves (at about 5 years of age). Now with some maimed but sexually mature adults in residence many of their eggs are hatched on site. In all they have around a thousand tortoises either waiting to be released into the wild or permanent residents.

Feeding time for the graduates, these tortoises are nearly 5 years old and will very soon be released back into the wild on Isla Isabela.

Some of the old timers, they don’t know how old they are, but Giant Tortoises live for up to 150 years.

All lined up for a feed.

What are you looking at? 20 days old!

Can I have one? (By the way, those are foetuses in the background)

One of the old-timers.

Right idea, wrong way round.

We saw this Black-necked Stilt and some other birds as we walked back to town through some mangroves.

“Iguana Crossing. Slow Down.” Too true…

The beach at Puerto Villamil.

At the end of the pier in town dozens of juvenile Marine Iguanas were sunning themselves. Marine Iguanas are endemic, like so many animals found in the Galapagos they are found nowhere else on Earth.

Marine Iguanas are so talented! They mainly feed on algae/moss that grows on rocks up to 15ft underwater which means they have to swim out, dive down and quickly feed on the algae before their air time runs out. They also provide an easy food source for some of the Galapagos birdies who eat their skin as it sheds.

We were back on the boat for only a matter of minutes, just enough time to change, before we were back in the zodiac and heading out snorkelling again.

This time the water was quite rough which made the swimming more difficult and getting decent photos especially hard. We did have fun swimming through the little archways and the Captain, who’d taken on the role of guide for this excursion, kept everyone amused with his ability to dive deep and stay underwater for seemingly impossible periods of time.

At one stage the Captain found seven White-tipped Reef Sharks resting in a cave and we took it in turns to dive down and peer in on them.

The Captain inspecting and archway.

Anna having fun diving through an archway.

A school of Barracuda.

Another Balloonfish.

That afternoon we headed back into Puerto Villamil for a bit of land R&R without the swaying back and forth, which for most of us entailed spending a couple of hours in the bar sampling the local suds.

Late in the day we headed back to Las Tintoreras, this time to walk around the trails, checking out Marine Iguanas, Galapagos Sea Lions, some little yellow birds and the funky volcanic rock formations.

Marine Iguanas “hugging” to preserve body heat as the sun goes down.

Sun setting over the volcanic rock formations.

Pescadito (the chef) excelled himself again, especially regarding dessert, a delicious lemon cake! After dinner we set sail for Isla Floreana. Anna and I both suffered from sea sickness this time, poor Anna worse than I, so after a few sea sickness pills it was off to bed to sleep it out.

Day 162 – Flamingo Dancing, Sea Lion Acrobatics and Green Turtle Yoga.

While everyone else took the opportunity for a bit of a sleep in, I took the opportunity to do a bit of blogging and have a coffee in peace on the top deck. I made a little friend too (a grey bird with long legs) but Matt accidently deleted the photos I took (Matt says – on top of the photos I deleted of yesterday, not doing well sorry)!

Our first excursion today was a walk around Punta Cormorant on Floreana Island. On the way we saw our first Blue Footed Booby close up. Once on shore, Jimmy talked about the Ghost Crabs we could see scurrying around and some of the different sorts of sea urchins founds in the Galapagos and showed us some olivine crystals, which cause the green tinge to the beach.

Blue Footed Booby.

The greenish beach at Punta Cormorant.

Some different sorts of sea urchins, also greeny in colour.

Sandpiper (can’t recall what type!)

We walked in land a little way to a lake where 30 or so Galapagos Flamingos were wandering around and feeding in the lagoon. Flamingos here migrated from the Caribbean years ago, but have now evolved to form their own subspecies. After a lesson about the unusual feeding techniques of the flamingo we were just about to leave when the males of the group began to do their mating dance. Jimmy explained that the dance is choreographed so all the males move in the same way and the females ignore the males dancing to start with, although they will all end up with a mate by the end of the season!

A sleeping juvenile balances on one leg. You can tell the juveniles as their feathers are still a little white.

A Fiddler Crab hanging out by the side of the lagoon. The one big claw is to attract the lady crabs.

One of Darwin’s finches on the walking trail.

We wandered back to the beach, where I took a video of a very large Sally Lightfoot Crab feeding and spitting on the rocks. and then we went up another path over to a beautiful turquoise beach in a little cove.

A couple of Magnificent Frigates were gliding overhead.

Back on the cat we had a quick snack and then off to Champion Island to do some snorkelling. Having had trouble diving down deep enough for long enough to see some of the features the Captain (who is part fish) was pointing out, I asked to borrow a weight belt which made a huge difference to my “natural buoyancy”. With my buoyancy sorted, I had an easier time keeping up with the Captain as he dived and pointed out sharks under rocks and schools of tuna fish you can’t see from the surface. The water was very clear today and we saw hundreds more fish in big schools this time and got to play with sea-lions who had been jumping in and out of the water on the nearby rocks. I got a fright from the first one who I came face to face with, as it literally dived in on top of me, but that was instantly forgotten when it was clear he wanted to play!

Anna makes a closer inspection – getting over her fear of fish!

Playing!

The Captain tells us there’s a big shark under there.

The Captain could see that Matt, Anna and I had a little more confidence in the water than some others in the group and took us to his secret cave, which involved diving under the edge of the cliff and up into an air pocket in the rock. He explained that the seals sometimes come up in there to escape the current and sure enough a few babies followed us in! We were having so much fun hanging out in the Captain’s secret cave that the others were all back on the zodiac and looking for us at the end. Matt had a particularly great time twirling and spinning with a few, but unfortunately Anna couldn’t get the video mode working on the camera to capture it. Very special none the less!

The view out from inside the cave.

Matt following a sea lion back into the cave.

After lunch and a nap for Matt while the rest of us watched a documentary about the islands, it started to rain. This didn’t dampen our afternoon’s excursion however – chasing Marine Turtles!

The gang ready to jump in off the back of the cat.

Most of the others only lasted 20 minutes or so in the cold water, but Matt, Anna, Nick and I had a great time turtle searching and swimming behind as they tranquilly glided along and we got some decent video too:

So tranquil. I wish swimming with turtles was an option after a busy day at work!

Dry again, and still completely elated from our luck with the turtles it was off to Post Office Bay for a short excursion to the post office box. The post office here allegedly started in 1792 where American and British whalers would post their mail, stamp free, and it was expected that anyone going that direction would take the mail and hand deliver it to the recipient. The process is still applicable today and hundreds of tourists have written postcards and deposited them here hoping someone else will see their postcard and ensure its delivery. We had a bit of fun reading through the postcards for one we might be able to deliver, although many of the postcards were in fact marked “Do not deliver” and addressed to the children or friends of the writer who would hopefully someday visit the post box and see the card.

The remains of the post office.

Isn’t it illegal to read other people’s mail?

Back on the cat we had a bit of free time before dinner and after dinner we began to navigate again, this time the gang mostly deep in conversation and less green faces!

Nemo II in another amazing setting.

Day 163 – Harems and Boobies!

The cat motored well into the night to deliver us by morning to Isla Española (or Hood Island), the southernmost of the Galapagos Islands. Our first excursion of the day was onto the beach to walk amongst the female Galapagos Sea Lions and their pups. Since they’ve not been hunted for such a long time they no longer have any fear of people and don’t even bat an eyelid as tourists walk past and pose with them for photos.

They mostly seem to sleep on the beach all day, not a bad lifestyle!

Some of the suckling pups were nearly bigger than their mums, this one was still fairly young though.

A ‘harem’ lazing on the beach with the Nemo II in the background.

More sleeping.

Another creature that would sleep on the beach all day given the chance!

The pups were quite inquisitive.

The closest I’m ever likely to come to having a harem!

From the beach we scooted back to the cat and then straight back out again with the Captain for some more snorkelling. The spot he took us to this time was off the end of an offshore island and quite deep. It was more of a dive spot than a snorkelling spot really, but that didn’t stop the Captain, had Darwin seen the Captain on his visit to the Galapagos he may has surmised that men were descended from sea lions!

Sea star of some description!

A school of fish (OK, so we forgot to label some things before we got off the boat and left the ID books behind!).

A Hammerhead Shark (quite deep so he was a bit tricky to get a shot of).

There were some huge schools of fishes, the Captain managed to make some great patterns by swimming through them, I was less successful because I can’t hold my breath for 5 minutes!

On the way back to the Nemo II we detoured past a small cave in the side of the sea cliffs where Swallow-tailed Gulls were nesting, apparently they are the world’s only nocturnal gulls.

After lunch (and days of us all nagging) the crew cracked open the sails and we moved from Gardner Bay around to Punta Suarez under sail. Several of us took advantage of the new shade on deck to nap for a couple of hours!

This afternoon’s walk around Punta Suarez was our longest so far, and would have been a bird lovers wet dream. Of particular note we got close encounters with Blue-footed Boobies, Nazca Boobies, Waved Albatrosses, Swallow-tailed Gulls, Galápagos Doves and Hood Mockingbirds (5 out of 6 of these species are endemic (only found in the Galapagos).

A Hood Mockingbird watching us from on top of a bush (these birds peck at the dead skin on iguanas, efficiently cleaning them!).

Female Española Lava Lizard watching her turf (another endemic species).

Those are indeed blue feet – a Blue-footed Booby.

This time a Nazca Booby.

A Galápagos Dove, with his shiny blue eye.

A pair of Waved Albatrosses, these huge birds (wingspan up to 2.4m) form lifelong breeding pairs, but travel individually from their feeding grounds back to Isla Española to mate. When they are reunited on Española the perform a fancy mating dance including lots of bill clicking, nuzzling and bobbing around.

Albatrosses are such large birds that in order to take off they must ‘run’ off the top of a cliff or throw themselves off the top of a wave in order to take flight.

Erin was standing in the way of this Albatross as he tried to make his way to the ‘launching pad’, the cliff they launch off to get airborne.

One of Darwin’s Finches rests in the scrub as sunset approaches.

A sea lion has a bit of a stretch on the horizon.

Another spectacular day draws to a close.

Day 164 – The lands of the fat, giant and old!

Our first stop today was to visit the land iguanas at Isla Santa Fe. Not quite as hard working as their sea faring cousins, Galapagos Land Iguanas feed on pear cactus and can grow up to 1 metre and weigh 13kg! Usually each iguana will pick a cactus tree as his territory and head butt any other iguanas that come near, but due to recent wetter weather, the cactuses are thriving and there is much less competition for food.

What a chubba! A rather large Land Iguana.

One of the hundreds of cactus trees growing on Santa Fe.

Apart from the iguanas and hundreds of cactus trees, we also saw more of Darwin’s Finches and of course sea lions!

The rest of the morning was spent snorkelling with sea lions again and more huge schools of fish! This time we were able to get some videos:

We motored for a little while to the big port (Puerto Ayora) on Isla Santa Cruz. Along the way we saw schools of flying fish and a couple of huge Manta Rays throwing themselves out of the water and shaking off parasites. We were actually watching for whales, but had no luck.

After lunch Anna and I and Eimear and Michael took the option to go into town for a look around, while the others had a nap or sat on the internet (as we had parked close enough to shore to get intermittent WI-FI!) In town Anna and I had a nice stroll around and an obligatory ice cream given the midday heat and then met up with the rest of the gang at 3pm as scheduled to visit the nearby Charles Darwin Research Station.

Apart from the info centre, the Station is most well known for its captive breeding program for giant tortoises and the walk-in enclosure where you can get up close and personal to discover how giant the giants are! There is also one resident of particular note, “Lonesome George”, who is the last surviving member of the Isla Pinta subspecies and has been living in the centre since 1972. Rangers have been trying to mate George for almost 40 years and despite a pregnancy of one of his girlfriends (a closely related subspecies) in 2008, no baby Georges have come about. He is pretty old though and researches are considering the extremely costly exercise of cloning before its too late, but its not yet on the cards.

One of the Giant males, confiscated from a local when the National Park was opened and the keeping of native animals as pets outlawed.

Lonesome George! We were lucky to catch a glimpse as he likes to hide a lot.

Babies! (No we are not racing them!)

After a look in the info centre we strolled back to town in time for our lift back to Nemo II for dinner. Whilst waiting for the panga, we watched baby sharks and sea lions swimming under the pier and Brown Pelicans fishing from the hand rails.

After dinner, the three of us along with Eimear and Michael and Cordelia and Nick ventured back into town for a few caipirinhas at the local gringo bar. Given we had been in bed by 10 most nights, we organised a lift back to the boat at 9.30, but ended up continuing on back on deck with a bottle of cheap rum Nick had snuck on board. Anna and I may or may not have been the ones to finish the bottle, and may or may not have only had 4 hours sleep before the breakfast bell… but what happens on the boat stays on the boat!

Day 165 – Trees and flowers, trees and flowers… dolphins swimming, dolphins swimming!!!

We started motoring before it got light to arrive at South Plaza Island first thing. This island was formed via uplift rather than direct volcanic activity, giving it a sloping shape rather than a cone shape. This makes it popular on one side with sea lions where the rocks slope gently into the ocean, and popular with sea birds on the other side where the land ends abruptly in a high cliff. The most notable sightings on South Plaza were Tropicbirds, Gulls and Land Iguanas.

A Land Iguana feeding on fruit in a tree, behaviour that is unique to South Plaza amongst Galapagos Iguanas.

A pair of Swallow-tail Gulls with their chick.

Yellow Warbler with an insect in its mouth.

A Land Iguana with bright yellow markings.

A Red-Billed Tropicbird, they move pretty fast and never seem to land making them a bit tricky to get a snap of. It would be nearly impossible without a camera with a shutter, so thanks team who helped get us the new camera, many of these shots would have been impossible without your help.

Erin encroaching on this iguana’s cactus, she’s lucky she didn’t get head-butted!

From South Plaza we motored for a couple hours to arrive at North Seymour around lunchtime. Lunch was delayed however when a pod of Bottlenose Dolphins were spotted playing in the bay, and then swimming under Nemo II! Excitedly we launched into the Zodiac and went out to get a closer look.

After lunch we were still watching the dolphins from the Nemo II. A frigatebird was hovering close over the pod and a couple of times one of the dolphins launched itself into the air toward the frigatebird. I rushed to get my camera but just as I got back on deck another boat went too close and scared away the bird. I sat on the deck with the camera poised for about half an hour waiting for another frigatebird to come too close, but alas the moment was missed!

When the time for this afternoon’s snorkelling came the dolphins were still in the area, so we jumped in the water with them. They pretty much ignored us, which sounds good until you consider that they are far better swimmers than we are, so we had a quick swim through the pod before they disappeared off into the murky water.

Once we’d chased the dolphins around for a while we got back in the Zodiac and headed off to snorkel along the cliff edge for a while. The visibility wasn’t too good and we only saw a couple of things that we had missed on previous snorkelling excursions.

Another Guineafowl Puffer (this time in the ‘yellow phase’)

Late in the day we headed onto North Seymour Island, where male Magnificent Frigatebirds inflate their massive red chin membranes to attract a mate. There were also Blue-footed Boobies everywhere.

Imagine flying like that.

Waiting for lady frigatebirds!

Erin doing some booby watching.

A male booby nagging his mate!

A very Blue-footed Booby.

Heading back in for dinner.

Erin slowing the preparation of our dinner! Left to right: Pescadito (‘little fish’ – the chef), Daniel (barman) and Antonio (co-captain).

Before dinner we once again gathered in the saloon for cocktails, this time of the farewell variety.

Tonight’s dessert read ‘Feliz Viaje Amigos’ (Bon Voyage Friends (South Americans keep asking me how to say ‘Feliz Viaje’ in English, I have to keep explaining that we say it in French!).

The whole group enjoying our last dinner onboard.

Day 166 – Paradise Lost (to us anyway)

For the last time on Nemo II we were up to watch sunrise and get a quick visit in before breakfast and before leaving our floating home.

Check the view from the toilet window!

We had motored a little way to visit Black Turtle Cove, a mangrove area that had little inlets where you could sit and watch the marine life float by from the panga, drifting by the tide flowing in and out of the inlet. We saw lots of things we had already seen like sea lions, white-tipped sharks and rays, but it was a pleasant morning none the less and a nice way to say goodbye to the wonderful wildlife of the Galapagos.

After our last big breakfast, we motored back over to Baltra Island and then all took a bus to the airport. Luckily for Anna, Matt and I, we were not actually leaving the Galapagos just yet. We had changed our flight to spend our last night with Anna in the Galapagos rather than back in stinky Guayaquil.

After saying goodbye to our new friends and a bit of a wait, we managed to organise transport back to Puerto Ayora where we would be allowed to stay and to find some decent accommodation. Eimear and Michael had had the same idea as us and also extended their stay.

So the afternoon was spent continuing to fill our stomachs with good food and drink and just chill out on the hostel roof.

________________________________________

One of our shipmates, Kathryn, is a very talented sketch artist. Her Galapagos artwork is beautiful, so if you're interested we'd highly recommend you have a look here.