Epic Galapagos Report

After an uneventful journey from Costa Rica to Ecuador and a night in a nice hostel in Quito, we caught a flight to the Galapagos islands. I have wanted to go here for as long as I can remember and we were both looking forward to it a lot. We were met at the airport by our guide Frankie, along with two Danish girls, two Swedish girls and a Belgian couple who were to be our companions on our boat the Rumba. With space for only 10 this is one of the smaller more budget boats, but we were very glad we´d chosen it. The budget aspect meant everyone on our boat was our age, whereas the majority of people on the plane seemed to be much older than us and we didn´t want to have to drink sherry and learn to play bridge.



We had a very good lunch on board (the food was amazingly good throughout, considering that the galley was tiny) and then the dinghy took us to Playa Las Bachas, a white sand beach north of the island of Baltras. We walked along the beach and saw sea turtles swimming in the shallows (I was very excited), marine iguanas and sally lightfoot crabs all over the rocks, and even a flamingo standing in a small lagoon behind the beach. The animals are completely unafraid of humans and we could walk very close without disturbing them. Then we snorkeled off the beach but didn´t see much.



Then Frankie turned up telling us there was a bit of a problem - the boat propeller was broken and the boat was stranded in a channel 40 minutes away where it had gone to get water. We were marooned! Luckily another boat from the same company was there, so they gave us a lift to our boat and then towed us to Puerto Ayora, the main town of the Galapagos on Santa Cruz island. They put us in a hotel for the night and arranged for us to go on a daytrip the next day while the boat was being mended. So the next morning we went to Plazas, a small island to the east of Santa Cruz. The staff on the boat threw food out as they sailed along and before long we had a flock of Frigate birds, plus one pelican, flying along with the boat. It was amazing to see them so close. When we reached the island it was rocky and bleak, and the vegetation was bright red with lone cactuses here and there. Strange but beautiful. We saw a lot of sealions (they really smell awful), gulls with red rings around their eyes (they are the only species of gull to hunt at night) and lava lizards of all sizes. The funniest thing was land iguanas, which eat the cactus by standing on their hind legs and taking bites out of the cactus flesh.



We then went snorkelling in a nearby channel from the dinghy. The water was freezing cold so I didn´t stay in long, but Chris saw a shark in an underwater cave.



When we got back we realised we´d lost Chris´s wallet somewhere during the day. We checked the hotel, a shop where I´d bought water, and the bus, but it was nowhere to be found, so we would have to wait another day to find out if it was on the daytrip boat. In the meantime, our boat had a lovely new propeller and was ready to go, so we sailed through the night to our next destination Espanola island. We woke up at 6am to a pale grey sky and incredibly calm silvery water, and saw dolphins swimming along with the boat. This island was all about birds - we saw Darwins finches (yay), Blue Footed Boobies and Nascar Boobies, and albatrosses of all ages from very ugly chicks through to adults. We then stopped to watch the blowhole, where the waves force water through a small channel creating a spectacular effect. While we sat there, a Blue Footed Booby made his nest right next to us not even caring we were there.



Then we went swimming at the beach and saw huge rays, cushionstars and lots of fish. A baby sealion had just been born (we didn´t see the actual birth) and Frigate birds were fighting over the afterbirth, quite disgusting.



After Espanola we went on to Floreana. There is a barrel on this island for people to put their mail in, and if you find any mail there from your next destination you should take it and deliver it. Sadly there was nothing for any of us. We also had a quick look at some lava caves before going to the most beautiful beach I´ve ever seen. The sand was bright white with turquoise sea and dramatic cliffs surrounding it, plus sea turtles swimming in the shallows. In any other place, this would have been overrun by tourists and bars, but we weren´t even allowed to swim there. It was lovely because it was deserted and unspoilt. I think the other most memorable thing about this day was seeing turtles mating in the water beside our dinghy.



Our next destination was Santa Cruz again, tourist town where you can buy t-shirts saying "I love boobies" and other tasteful gifts. But our destination was a finca where the giant tortoises come to feed. They didn´t like humans much, and if you went too close they retracted their head into their shell with a noise like the doors closing on the starship enterprise. Then we walked through some huge lava tunnels before dropping half our group off at the airport and gaining some new Italian friends for the remainder of the trip. We also popped into the police station to ask whether Chris´s wallet had been handed in, and due to our poor spanish ended up getting taken to an office in the middle of nowhere, filling in some form we didn´t want to, and missing our lunch.

The rest of the trip followed much the same pattern, a walk around a new island every morning, snorkelling and perhaps more walking in the afternoon before sailing onwards. It´s all a bit of a blur, to be honest, as I was too lazy to continue taking notes after this point, but it´s enough to say it was all wonderful, and you should have a look at my photos when I finally manage to upload them all.