So after spending 5 days and 4 nights aboard a boat in the Galapagos visiting National Parks, snorkelling and such I have developed some well supported and logical theories about the islands and the animal inhabitants.
1. These animals are all robots and work like clockwork 24/7. Our guide scheduled our activities to destinations specifically because the animals were doing their rounds at very specific times. It was ridiculous how non-chance sightings were and how well-timed their appearances were during each hike and dive.
2. The animals are all paid very well and during the “bad season” are holidaying on a beach in Australia.
3. The animals have grown up with people shoving cameras in their faces that they have become quite vein and take every opportunity to show their “good side” for the paparazzi. It was always very difficult for the last animals of each hike as we had seen already 5, 10 or many of them in the last half-hour that they were just old news by then. This supports some earlier theories that as soon as you land on the beach you are overwhelmed by a wave of many animals hoping to get in first with the photo sessions.
4. The Galapagos is in-fact the real version of Pokemon, where one travels from island to island trying to catch as many animals (on camera) as possible. At the end there’s a gigantic party with Professor Garrisson, Brock, Misty and the entire crew.
5. The animals of the Galapagos are infact all delicately taxidermied puppets now and are held-upright by sticks and fishing line.
So after 5 days aboard the Yolita II, and seeing the millionth sea lion and millionth and one sea iguana I have high-regards to the islands, but have so many peculiar findings about the place. The animals were either blind, or just really didn’t care that hundreds of people were coming up to them each day and shoving a camera in their face. Even stranger was that they could not move or budge for no-one and having to walk around them on the trails was common occurrence.
I never got my sea legs, so if I wasn’t eating the amazing food onboard, snorkelling with the fish and turtles or trekking another island you’d most definitely find me curled up in a ball in bed waiting for it to all be over. Yep, just like the moving car, bus, plane or train, boats make me queasy and muy cansado.
The Yolita itself had a 9-man crew including a chef who looked like a chef and treated us very well with 3-course lunches and dinners, an over-zealous waiter and an incredibly passionate naturalist guide named Washington, who, without him, the trip would have been quite different. I bunked with the lovely Rahel, mi amiga from Montanita which made things much much easier and Chris and his friend Chris joined the boat at the last minute. Yes my circa $1500 5-day trip was muy caro, but I was in the best of company that was a once-only opportunity. Yolita is actually one of the mire ‘high-end’ options for Galapagos travel, but being very last-minute I got a good deal which is probably half the pre-booked price.
I did have a very pre-mature dread of the trip when our naturalist guide for the first day was an absolute tripper and couldn’t even remember the animal’s names without referencing his book. He emphasised his sentences in such a way that he really just sounded like a complete jerk, but thankfully he was just there for a day. Washington was something else, and had been in the business for 20 years. He knew all the secrets of the islands and really wanted everyone to see everything and enjoy their time. I would have struggled to feel the same way about my trip without Washington around. On our last night as a crew on town in Santa Cruz, some girls that Chris knew told of their Galapagos trip. They were on a similar-range boat, but with their guide, the most excitement they told of was swimming with one sea lion and seeing a turtle in the water from the beach. Yes, somehow Washington was a real animal whisperer or had the keys to the islands or something. Washington was also a connoisseur of animal noises. He knew them all. Our second wake-up call consisted of a half-hour-long, individualised song-dedication to each member of the Yolita (Yellow Submarine for me) and random animal noises like the blue-footed boobie, albatross, sea lion, tropical elephant.. This guy….seriously…
So embarking on our first trek for the trip everyone was amazed and snapping away at all the new animals (crabs, marine iguanas, a bird), without the later realisation that these animals are freaking everywhere. I didn’t last 24 hours before becoming completely short-tempered when told to “look, look, OMG look at the animal on the side of the boat, on the island in the distance, flying in the sky, you have to see what I am seeing, even if you saw it 5 minutes ago, even if you’ve seen 20 already you NEED to see it”. FUCK. I have eyes and the Galapagos is freaking amazing, but I couldn’t really care less about the 50th sea lion you can see.
The quality and quantity of animals in the Galapagos can not be denied, but one realisation I did come to was that really… there’s not that many (compared to Australia). In saying this I realise many other countries may not be as fauna-rich and also lack in marine-life. The Galapagos is for the most-part based around its marine-life. Everything lives in the ocean, eats from the ocean or lives there because of the ocean. Sea turtles, crabs, fish, sharks, marine iguanas, birds, all that sorta stuff. What’s left on the land is more birds, land iguanas, the going tortoise (which I only saw in captivity). I appreciate Australia so much now when realising I can see as much at home as the Galapagos (ample lizards, dolphins, seals, snakes, birds, and more (koalas, roos and such) with out much effort. What was great was unlike Australia, nothing there wanted to eat you. The sharks and rays were as harmless as kittens (although that didn’t stop me from having Steve Irwin flash-backs every time there was mention or sighting of rays). One dive included Washington pulling out a shark from a rocky cove on the sea bed and following a sea lion around just to realise the sea lion was following a shark. Yep, everyone’s good friends here in the Galapagos.
With my poor research (and when I say poor, I mean I told Manuel I wanted to go to the Galapagos and besides that I did nothing but hand over my money), I didn’t know the rare people species existed in the Galapagos: In fact many people call the Galapagos home on several islands. Good to know.
Another thing I found weird was the snorkelling. Often Washington would know of a sure spot to see a different creature, or after spotting one would quickly call for everyone to snorkel over and see it. I felt as lame as being on a seugway tour of a city, but, I did see some wicked shit down there. What pissed me off the most was if there was a cool animal doing its thing (turtle, sea lion), a few would sprint-snorkel over to it thrashing legs and arms to get in first. Seriously. Personal space. I felt dorky snorkelling and continuously wonder why Chanel or Calvin Klein havent burst into designer snorkelling goggles yet.
On our last snorkel for the trip, after swimming so much without much as a few shiny fish I was getting pretty cold and decided to call it a day and warm up on shore. Practicing my amazing freestyle technique made incredibly easy with the scuba gear and flippers to the beach I happen upon a sea turtle, AMAZING. The turtle was massive and was just keen to do its thing and blob around eating algae. It was amazing seeing this guy in action and is definitely one of my top memories of the trip.
I could give a day-by-day, blow-by-blow, but all one really needs to know about the Galapagos is its best by boat, best with an amazing guide and theres plenty of amazing things to see. From an Australian’s perspective, everything here is the same but different. Different as in it wont run away from you and you’ll probably only have one chance to see it.
The Galapagos is slowly, but surely bound for complete and total destruction. (Stuff about volcanoes and plates and stuff which sees all the islands burning and sinking into a watery grave). If you want to see what all the fuss is about, go. You wont regret it and you’ll learn a load, see some shiz and have a ball.
