Once again, I´m back in Quito. I still feel like I´m on the boat as I sit here typing. I can still feel myself sway from the sea...
Just a few days ago Trishy and I met up with our Intrepid group to embark on our Galapagos adventure. We were all dropped off at the airport by our Quito guide, Sofia. Apparently only residents of the Galapagos are employed as naturalist guides so Sofia was here to collect our money, documents and send us off to the Islands. It was all a bit rushed and crazy but we safely arrived at the Baltra Airport on Santa Cruz Island without much hassle. However things changed once we collected our bags from the luggage area. It seemed every other tour group had a guide professionally displaying the name of their company by wearing a company t-shirt or carrying a sign for their respective groups. We looked for ages for an Intrepid guide and found no one. A strange man in a very bright yellow shirt asked me if I was looking for a last minute tour and I kindly told him I already booked one. Oddly though a few minutes later he was claiming to be our Intrepid leader and rounded up the members of our group. He asked us to sit by the vendor stalls and wait as he looked for two other passengers. He had no documents or ID to prove he was with Intrepid but since no one else had arrived we just went along with it. Then this odd man started telling us we should rent snorkel equipment from him right then and there because he didn´t have any onboard. Hmm...strange. Slowly we all started to realize that this couldn´t be our guide because it was far too shady and disorganized. Luckily we were proven correct minutes later when a more professional man arrived with Intrepid documents. Horray! Saved from the sketchy man! The dodgy man just wandered away without much of a second glance at us.
It took quite a while to journey from the airport to our boat (bus, then ferry, and small minivan) but we finally were aboard the Free Enterprise an hour or so later, putting our bags in our cabins. As soon as we sat down onboard our ¨guide¨ then said he had to go and our other guide would be aboard shortly. At least we were on the right ship! We decided not to worry about the mix up at the airport and just see where the day took us. Within minutes of sitting up on deck we watched blue-footed boobies dive into the sea looking for lunch. They are the most amazing divers! Boobies dive into the water as if they were kamikaze pilots--they are fearless divers. It´s quite the sight.
Our naturalist guide Edwin finally arrived and informed us of our itinerary for the 3 days we had in the Galapagos. The itinerary was exciting. We were going to depart that evening for our first island to see flamingos, reptiles and other birds. I couldn´t wait!! It was a relaxing afternoon spent at the harbor lounging on the deck and adapting to the heat. (It´s been a while since I´ve seen the sun for extended periods of time and this close to the equator it was HOT.)
After a good meal we piled back on to the dingy to go to the highlands of Santa Cruz. We explored a cave and crawled through muddy narrow passages (well, I didn´t have to...one of the many benefits of being short!). Then we walked through a trail to look for the giant tortoises. Giant indeed!! The males weigh about 250 kilos (usually) and can get up to about 4 feet long. We walked by 2 slumbering male tortoises (we were told the females were down by the water) and one that was chowing down on his afternoon snack of what looked like mushed up grass. These giants don´t do very much during the day other than nap. If they are on the move they only travel about 1 km a day. Hey, they are tortoises...they aren´t in any hurry. Edwin informed us that the males we saw were at least 100 years old. The average life expectancy of the Galapagos giant tortoise is 200 years. That´s a nice long life of slow moving days, naps in the shade and a vegetarian diet (they don´t have any teeth). Sounds good to me.
It was a fantastic way to begin our time in the Galapagos. I was most excited to see the tortoises so spotting them straight away was thrilling. I went to bed happy and eager to see what would come next.
Unfortunately when I awoke the next morning and ran out on to the deck with Trishy to snap photos of the Rabida (our next destination) we found ourselves in exactly the same spot. Hey...weren´t we supposed to sail all night long?? Well, yes we were but apparently we didn´t go anywhere. Hmm...we had to wait until after breakfast to hear from Edwin that there was something wrong with the engine so we only got about 4 miles out before turning around again. We had to change our plan since the boat needed to stay at Port Ayora to fix the engine for the morning. Maybe we would leave that afternoon, maybe we wouldn´t. We had to wait and see... Rather than going to see flamingos on Rabida our new plan was to go to Playa de Los Perros (Dog Beach)on Santa Cruz to look for marine iguanas. We weren´t very far along the trail before we spotted a male iguana making his way from the beach to the rocks. Here´s where I have to say something truly incredible about the wildlife in the Galapagos: these animals fear no one. Since they are so removed from the mainland they don´t have any natural predators (only introduced ones that humans brought over to the islands). This meant that almost every animal we came across would stroll behind us, in front of us or cut us off. I´ve never had to wait for a sea lion to wake and move away from a trail before so I could continue on my way. I loved it every time it happened. We continued our walk along the beach and then found ourselves amongst at least 25 marine iguanas. I just found a seat on a rock next to a few and started snapping close up photos. They barely blinked at me.
The rest of the day included snorkeling around the very cold murky bay. I saw nothing and lost both of my earrings. That was a bummer. I just hope the fish don't mistaken my plugs as food and choke on them. I would feel very bad about that. Next on the agenda was a visit to the Charles Darwin Research Center. Here they house giant tortoises that were once kept as domestic pets (all residents had to turn them over once the Galapagos were established as a natural park in the late '50s) and a breeding ground for the different species of tortoises. Once again the tortoises mostly slept though we did catch a few slowly moving across the rocks.
The following day at Bartolome Island was more or less the same: an early morning walk where we spotted more wildlife (sea lions, sally light foot crab, lizards, birds, etc.) and then went snorkeling. The water was a lot clearer so we could see star fish, sharks and a sea lion even swam right past me! We also came upon the Galapagos penguins going for a swim and found others just hanging out on the rocks. We swam up to them and they just sat around squawking at each other.
Today we finished off the trip with a visit to Seymour Island, one of the biggest sea bird breeding colonies in the Galapagos. We saw numerous boobies, frigate birds and the swallow-tailed gulls. We witnessed a booby mating ritual, male frigate bird mating calls (expanding that big red sack on its neck to attract the ladies) and watched boobies feed their chicks. A few land iguanas waited eagerly next to a few booby nests hoping to snatch an egg. I am telling you.. a journey to the Galapagos Islands is like finding yourself suddenly on a Discovery channel documentary. I could easily have spent another week walking around the Islands, snorkeling near the shores to spot penguins, sharing a seat with marine iguanas and jumping out of the way of the Sally Light foot crabs (which I think I took about 50 photos of...I couldn't get over how colorful they were!).
So needless to say I am very sad to have left the Galapagos. We had a nice send off for our last night on the boat complete with cocktails and salsa dancing with the Free Enterprise crew. If I am ever in this corner of the world again I will make every effort to get back over to the Galapagos to see my tortoise friends again.
Now we begin the long journey to Lima, Peru. I think we have about 2 more nights in Ecuador as we stop along the way before we cross into Peru. Cross your fingers for us that we are able to get on a flight directly to Cuzco to avoid a 20 hour bus ride to Lima.
