Hello Everyone
So we have now been in the Galapagos Islands for 11 days and we are on our way to our final Island of Santa Cruz where we hope to spend maybe 3-4 days before embarking on our big crossing across the South Pacific.
We arrived in Puerto Baquerizo Moreno in San Cristobal on Friday 17th February. We knew we were arriving in the right place as already the wildlife was in abundance. Motoring along the shore we saw shawls of beautiful birds diving in and out of the water chasing fish, every couple of minutes; sea lions playfully jumping in and out of the water one lay on its back just soaking up the sun. Huge turtles hiding their faces from us as they swam past, it was really incredible. Puerto Baquerizo Moreno is a cute little bay towards the South of San Cristobal, the town has a nice feel to it, more built up than we expected, and home to literally hundreds of sea lions! You walk down the street and your walking alongside a family of sea lions, or past a huge sea lion catching his siesta on the park benches overlooking the bay! It was quite surreal.
A sea lion chilling near the taxi dock
A view over the beach, sea lions everywhere
The red tape to clear customs is pretty extensive, Galapagos is a National Park of Equador and they are pretty strict on what boats bring in and out of the islands to ensure they protect their wildlife, so we had to give the officials all our fruit. They told us that we had arrived on a National bank holiday celebrating the Islands being taken over by Equador, there was to be celebrations all weekend! Not quite what we expected from the remote Islands of Galapagos a big festival in the centre of the town where probably the total population of the island gathered and danced the night away and well into the morning! But it was a lot of fun all the same! And finally Stu found himself a few beer buddies in Sea Falke!
Stu, Jeff and Ricky (Off Sea Falke)having a beer!
A local Taxi driver named ‘Vermin’ agreed to spend the day giving us a tour of the Island, with our limited Spanish and his limited English, we just about agreed our itinerary which included a trip to the giant tortoises! First stop ‘El Junco Lagoon’ a fresh water lake in the middle of a volcano at 700 metres elevation. The views were potentially stunning! But as we made our way up the volcano the Heavens opened! We were absolutely drenched to the point that all we could do was laugh! The views of the island, the beautiful lagoon and its birds totally lost on us, but very very funny! It reminded us of walking on Dartmoor only looking at your feet - but we were in shorts, t-shirts and sandals! Next stop tortoises, or so we thought! Our driver pulled up to a shabby looking hut with a few men sat outside, chickens running around and dirty laundry hanging from the washing lines. He handed us a banana each and said “Tortoise, Tortoise” They all said something in Spanish which we didn’t understand, so we set about wandering this overgrown garden looking for tortoises. A young man (who we thought was our tour guide!) came over eventually and walked us through a hugely overgrown forest of trees, to a half built house, we had no idea what was going on! He kept talking to us in Spanish but we couldn’t understand, so we nodded and just kept asking “Tortoise?” finally he lead us back to our vehicle, we were all very confused and disappointed that we hadn’t found any tortoises! What we later realised was our driver was driving us to the tortoises but stopped at his friend’s house enroute to get some bananas. They were all too polite to inform us that when we thought we were looking for tortoises we were in fact snooping around some family’s back garden, and we were even cheeky enough to give the guy a tip! Again all very funny!
Finally we were taken to see the giant tortoises! They were magnificent! Tortoise eggs are hugely at risk from all the animals that have been introduced to the island from boats over the years, most commonly rats. So in order to stop them going extinct, they collect the eggs and help incubate them, and nurse the young tortoises for the first few years of their life! They were really amazing! See photos.
We were taken to Porta Chino a protected beach, but again the heavens opened so we swam in the rain! And then finally our tour ended at the most incredible tree house! This tree was about 200 years old, in its branches was a little house equipped with toilet and bed got to by rikety path. Through a tiny little hole in the root you could climb down to a bedroom with a double bed! The tour was really great despite the rain.
The following day we booked to go on a snorkelling trip to a place called ‘kicker rock. This is a tall rock a few miles from Puerto Baquerizo Moreno with a gap running through the rock and you literally snorkel through the rock. The marine life we saw was incredible, we swam with sea lions, all types of beautiful fish, huge mantra rays, turtles, sharks, marine iguanas it was just amazing. We sat eating our lunch near this beautiful rock watching beautiful birds, pelicans, blue footed and masked boobies and finches flying around! All we needed was David Attenborough!
Our social life has picked up again since arriving in Galapagos! A lot of fellow yachties here some with the World Arc rally and others travelling independently. We had a rather impromptu party on Ocean Lady with Sea Falke and Brian and Sue from Darramy, Laura and Stu ended up in a Galapagos nightclub with Rick and Jeff from Sea Falke, and we buddied up with other boats all heading toward the Marquesas a similar time to us! We have even been accepted by the locals on returning to our boat after our last night out we were met with a very cute looking sea lion fast asleep on our deck until we woke him up!
After a few boat repairs, we were ready to leave San Cristobel to explore Isabella the largest of the Galapagos Islands, which involved a day sailing. Isabela was yet again stunning, and less built up than San Cristobal! Sea lions still swim alongside the boat, but this time we were lucky to have penguins joining them chasing fish! All very beautiful! Another island tour with Glen, Andrea and their two children off the boat Seazan and yet again the guys off Sea Falke. Isabela is stunning, you drive along and you see giant tortoises just walking down the road, then you pass an ugly looking iguana. We were taken to a beach where the iguanas breed! This was incredible, you looked out on this beach and what you initially think are black volcanic rocks on the sand are in fact iguanas, there were hundreds of them! We saw caves made up of volcanic lava, more giant tortoises, and flamingos looking very elegant in their lagoons! The wildlife here is just superb!
A penguin swimming near our boat chasing fish
We woke yesterday morning to a sea lion in our dingy! Whilst Alan negotiated him leaving his comfy bed he left us a little gift, which thankfully Alan offered to clear up!
Alan negotiating with a sea lion! “Who owns this boat aye?!”
We arrived in Santa Cruz yesterday afternoon and had a lovely meal ashore with friends off Seazan and Sea Falke. We will be heading to the Charles Darwin centre today, and getting our final provisions before our next big trip hopefully on Friday or Saturday. We already have a network of boats crossing the South Pacific the same time as us, and we will be leaving a similar time the World Arc which means plenty of company on the big seas!
Hope all is well at home!
Ocean Lady!
x
