South America 2015

 

Jorge woke up sick as a dog, which unfortunately for him lasted several days and required the three day course of antibiotics from our emergency medical kit before he could shake it off.

We suspect that the 'vegetable' soup we had for lunch had a fish broth and seafood in it, which Jorge is allergic to. 

 

So we had a very easy paced day, just to check-out of the apartment and get to the ferry port for our 2pm departure. 

 

Again, our boat was no where to be found when we arrived at the port, putting Jorge in more pain as we were quite keen to just make the ocean trip and check-in to accommodation as soon as possible. Waited two hours on the port, Jorge curled up on a park bench . Eventually boarded our boat at 4pm and set off on the high seas. Huge seas. The swell in the archipelago is h-u-g-e. Many currents meeting there. 

 

Sleep is the only cure for sea sickness and to stop the swaying of the room, walls and floor. Bathrooms, small showers and toilet cubicles give the best effect when you're back on land and still got your sea legs on.

 

We had three more days on Isabela, to meet as many sea lions, penguins and sea turtles as we possibly could.

 

Spent the first afternoon snorkelling at Concha De Perla. Which was the best US$5 spent on hiring a snorkel and fins ever. We swam and played with dozens of sea lions. They're so cheeky and curious. Lots of respect from the locals and tourists so they aren't scared of people at all, they swim along next to you, just centimetres from you, playing and blowing bubbles. At 5.30pm it's feeding time for the penguins. So they start swimming in closer to the shore to eat little fish. The water is amazingly clear so it's very entertaining to watch the little pocket-rocket penguins zipping around, popping their heads up above water and being so quick at chasing the fish.

 

The water was cold and we hadn't hired wetsuits for it but we stayed in with the sea lions and watching the penguins until we had to return the snorkel gear at 6pm. There is a lake about 100m from the sea and in between town and our house, it has a boardwalk for spotting pink flamingoes. There was at least one flamingo every time we walked past, such pretty animals. The sun was setting behind the lake and 3 or 4 of the birds walked in the water in front of us. Not a bad end to the day.

 

Went on a day tour of Tuneles 'the tunnels' which are the tunnels in the rock caused by the lava flow from the volcanic eruptions. Our boat captain did some very impressive skipping to get our boat over a reef, the trick being to be able to floor the engine and pass through the huge swell and get the boat over the reef at the right moment, without problem. Just to prove how big and dangerous the swell is, our naturalist guide Carlos told us a story of last month, where the captain got nervous, the boat went high up on the swell and crashed down so hard that a passenger who was standing on the back deck of the boat had the bones in his feet broken, when it landed. Needless to say we stayed seated and had our life jackets on the entire trip. Once behind the reef the water was beautifully calm and we had a lovely cruise through the volcano ruins, rocks and tunnels. 

 

Only 80 people per day are allowed to walk on the rock to minimise the environmental impact so we were very lucky to get on a tour, it's very popular and we found out later that this weekend had been sold-out for the next three days.

Had a small walking tour over the rocks, bridges, tunnels. Every pool that we peered into had huge graceful sea turtles swimming through them. Saw lots of blue-footed boobies (Galapagos birds). 

 

Then we had the biggest snorkelling session ever. Jumped off the boat into the cold water and spent two hours swimming with sea turtles, watched half a dozen white-tip sharks resting (they sleep during the day on the ocean floor and feed when it's pitch black at night), saw the most beautiful sparkling orange seahorse, Galapagos eels (they live in the ocean sand) and hundreds of schools of yellow and every other colour, fish. We found the 'sea turtle highway'. Sea turtles swimming around us everywhere. To have 5 giant sea turtles within arms reach in about 5 feet of water was pretty damn special.

 

Carlos was great, told us lots about the landscape and the marine life. And we enjoyed a homemade lunch on board the boat, before heading back for 40 minutes across the high seas to the jetty.

 

Made the most of our last day in the Galapagos. Got into a half-day tour for the 'tintareros', the white-tip sharks. Was a small water-taxi boat ride to the edge of the island where we had a walking tour on the harsh landscape (looks like the surface of the moon). The locals call the rocks 'ah ahs' because that's the sound you make when you walk on them.  Then went snorkelling. The sea lions were out to play, and lots of penguins swimming with us. Swam through the tunnels, over some very large sharks. One in particular looking very agitated (as they are meant to be asleep during the day) which Juanita wasn't so keen to pass over, did it and lives to tell the tale. A sea lion playing with (shredding it to pieces) and eating an octopus amused Jorge for ages.

 

Snorkelled until we were cold and wrinkly from too long in the water. Then headed back to land. Had lunch at the quaint little restaurants on the park in town, then walked (with the backpacks) to the port as it was Sunday and the taxi drivers rest. 

 

We had a return ticket, prepaid, for a boat by the name of Splendor. Got to the port for the 3pm departure, to be told that we had no reservation on it. Needless to say our travel agent who sold it to us is getting a bad review on TripAdvisor for it, the same muppets who lost the boat on the Floreana day trip. Stress levels started to rise (where will we sleep tonight, we have a morning flight tomorrow ?!) as we became very concerned that there was no boat for us to go back on and that the couple of other boats were full. Jorge stood and waited and spanglished and we did end getting our names on D'Louis and climbed onboard. Which was a blessing in disguise as it was a much bigger boat than the Splendor. Trip was three hours back to Santa Cruz, still rough seas but no one was sea sick. Juanitas sea legs were impressive.

 

Back on the central island of Santa Cruz, we checked into a hotel and enjoyed a relaxing last night, already reminiscing how beautiful everything was and how much fun we had on Galapagos. Its such a unique place. Charles Darwin based his theory of evolution it because it had no indigenous species, being formed from volcanoes in the middle of the ocean. Nearly every plant or animal that is found there is a unique sub species which has turned up at some point and had to change and adapt to survive to harsh conditions, even between each of the islands and their differences. We cant recommend the islands enough for all and every walk of life.

 

'It may be an outrageous first world problem but I'm desperately going to miss swimming with sea lions and turtles everyday' - Jorje