February 10th 2012 - We got up, packed and left for our boat trip on the New Flamingo. After reading some reviews online about the boat we had already paid for we were a little apprehensive. The reviews had stated that the boat was old, dirty, and too hot to sleep. In order to meet the boat we had to make our way back to Baltra airport which was on another island, so we had to take a taxi to the bus station a local bus to a ferry and an airport shuttle from the ferry to the airport. On the move from the hostel to the airport we met two other couples travelling to the New Flamingo. We were so happy to see that they were friendly, excited and energetic. Our guide met us and escorted us back on the same airport shuttle to a different harbour where we jumped onto the Panga (a small boat that tenders passengers between the boat and land at the different destinations). Our first impressions of the boat were that was older but very clean, had nice staff and tiny rooms! We were happy to see that we at least had a private bathroom. Below is a picture of the room. To get an idea of the size we measured it. I (Courtney) could stand with my arms stretched out (so just over 5 ft) and Andrew could stand from my hand to the wall. Then the width was about a narrow single bunk bed plus the width of us standing sideways. Now imagine how “fun” it was moving around with our big bags, just a tad claustrophobic so we spent as little of time in the room as possible which was very easy as we were always busy. After all 10 of us arrived and boarded we were introduced to out naturalist guide Alfonzo, who was very knowledgeable, hilarious (but never knew it) and loves the Galapagos! Every morning Al would come to breakfast and go over our itinerary for the day and give us some little hints as to what we might see. Our daily schedule was waking up at 6:30am, breakfast at 7:00am, wet landing 7:45am which was usually followed by a small hike then a morning snorkeling trip at 9:15am, snack at 10:45am, lunch at 12:00pm, siesta until 2:30pm while we were driving to a new location. Then another snorkelling trip, afternoon wet landing, afternoon snack and dinner at 6:00pm. It was great getting up every day excited to know we were going exploring and snorkelling! The food was great. We were all shocked at how the chef could cook such great meals in such a small place. Here is a list of some of the food. Always fresh fruit at breakfast and lunch, eggs, pancakes, cheese, cold cut meat, soup at lunch, fish, chicken, beef one day, rice, yummy coleslaw, bread pudding and the last night he made us a delicious cake! Our first full day (February 11, 2012) we had a wet landing to a large lava field on the east coast of Santiago Island, created by a volcano eruption only 140 years ago. The flow of lava was about 20 square kilometers in size and ended up connecting 2 islands and merging them into one. Some of the lava field was actually floating on the ocean but you would never know since the ground was very stable. The trail we followed was marked out by the national park authority and Alfonso urged us to stay within 20 meters of it since the ground was known to be stable. He had plenty of stories of gringos breaking through and falling into the underwater caves when they strayed away from the path. Our hike on the lava flow took us around one of the already existing islands, where the contrast of the dark copper coloured soil to the jet black lava really put things into perspective. It was cool to see how in just a matter of moments, the physical landscape of the earth could be changed and since this flow is so recent it just goes to show us that our planet is constantly evolving, whether we like it or not. Another interesting tidbit about the islands that we learned on this day was its struggle with invasive species. Due to invasive animals that were introduced to the island by early explorers, pirates and whalers, certain native species were eradicated so the national park is trying to remove all invasive species off the island. They have successfully removed goats, dogs, and cows from this particular island. In the past people hunted the goats by sitting in little craters made from the lava. We saw a Galapagos Penguin sitting on the island and were told by Al that they are very awkward on land but very fast in the water, which we saw later when snorkeling. We also saw lots of red crabs, and some very friendly birds. We then went snorkelling for around 1 hour along the shoreline. In the evening we set off on a hike up the large crater on Bartolome Island. Bartolome is considered one of the younger islands in the Galapagos and it has a copper coloured soil much like the area on Santiago Island where we were earlier in the day. From high up on the volcanic crater we had a great view of the lava field and we could really see how vast it was. The following day, February 12th, happened to be the 180th anniversary of when the Galapagos islands became part of Ecuador AND Charles Darwin's birthday! We expected a big day and weren't disappointed! On our morning beach excursion we watched sea turtles surf some pretty big waves and during our morning snorkeling session we watched some Galapagos sharks and tropical fish enjoy their morning outings. Before lunch we visited a spot called Buccaneer's Cove...for obvious reasons. Back in the day when pirates sailed tall ships they would use Buccaneer's cove as a refuge to hide after they ransacked a few vessels. The remainder of our day we spent visiting a sea lion colony and then snorkeling. The snorkeling was awesome yet again. This time we watched a sea lion fishing for octopus. He was only about 3 feet away from us swimming around So this blog post is long enough already so we'll wrap it up now.
3 Comments
We departed Banos on an early bus to Guayaquil where we would spend the night before boarding a flight to the Galapagos Islands. The 2 hour flight whipped by and we found ourselves standing in Baltra Island Airport waiting to be formally let onto the island. We decided to spend 2 weeks in the Galapagos for a few reasons. First we wanted ample time to arrange a tour while on the islands so that we could find a good deal and second we wanted to do a bunch of exploring on our own outside of the cruise ship scene. We checked into our hostel in Peurto Ayora and then promptly made our way out the Charles Darwin Research Station where endangered giant tortoises and iguanas are bred. We learned that the Galapagos Islands are fairly new in terms of the earth`s age. The islands range from 4 million to 700,000 years old and its native species are endemic, meaning that many of the species found on these islands are found nowhere else on earth. When whalers arrived in the late 1700`s they began to kill off the giant tortoises to extract their fat and thus put the species at severe risk of extinction. With the influx of development happening on the islands to support the whaling industry many non-native species were brought in to support human activity. Cows, dogs and pigs are prime examples of the species that began to spread and cause damage to the native flora and fauna. Wikipedia`s article on the Galapagos Islands explains everything in detail much better than I could ever dream to, so check it out here. We were amazed to see all the conservational efforts in place in the Galapagos. At the Charles Darwin centre they are trying to restore some of the giant tortoise populations by implementing strict breeding regimes and egg harvesting. We saw new born turtles ranging from teeny tiny babies to the full grown large adults. The centre keeps the turtles until they are approximately 4 years old, old enough to breed and hopefully survive on their own. We also found it very interesting that the scientists can regulate the sexes by incubating the eggs at different temperatures, over 29.5 C the eggs turn to females and under 28.0 C the eggs hatch as males. It’s sad but 3 of the species are now extinct. Lonesome George is quite special as he is the last of his kind and is a very popular reminder to everyone visiting or living on the islands just how fragile the ecosystems are. After the centre visit we headed to the beach closet to town. We weren’t too impressed with the beach or waterfront as it was close to the harbour. However, there were giant marine iguanas crabs covering the rocks. It was amazing being able to get within 2 feet of them without them scurrying away. We also saw bright red crabs and some very unique birds. On our second day on the island we headed to Tortuga bay, one the the highly recommended places to visit on Santa Cruz Island. From our hotel we walked down a side road to the entrance of Tortuga bay, a set of stairs with a large gate connecting the road to the other side of a canon. Visitors must register when going through as it is one of the 70 visitor sites the government regulates for conservation. After passing through the gate it is a 2.5 km walk to the beach. Tortuga bay is one of the nicest beaches I've (Courtney) have ever been to. The sand was pristine, white, and as soft as baby powder (2nd best beach for Andrew, Kinsmen being the first). The first beach had huge breaking waves and was not recommended for swimming but was full with surfers. We were told to continue down the beach another 2 km and turn to the right to a quieter inlet where the water is flat and clear. There were signs along the sides that told us that the mangroves are used by the turtles and other wildlife and to not enter but to walk along the beach. We ignored all the sinage and we are sending all the blog subscribers giant tortoise eggs as an early valentines gift. All along the beach there were huge marine iguanas, there were so many and oddly not shy as you can see below! Our third day was was action packed! We got up around 5:30am and got ready for a full day snorkeling tour. We met our group and headed to the boat. It was a 2 hour boat ride to our first spot, which was in the middle of two huge rocks off the Cristobal Island. The guide was a really nice young local who spoke Spanish and English. We would laugh because he would yell out "ok Snorkelers come and get ready... please lets be pronto". After he got us together he quickly explained the rules. 1. To stay in a group 2. To not touch anything. 3. Keep calm and not kick too much because... we'll be swimming with sharks!! At this point I felt a wee bit queasy. I (Courtney) almost hurled due to the swaying of the boat, the smell of fish mixed with fuel and the thought of swimming in shark infested waters. We all jumped into the water with our gear on and got into a small group. Once we put on our masks and looked down we were amazed to see tons of different fish species then out of nowhere the sharks began swimming up from deep below. At one point someone counted over 25 small white tipped Galapagos sharks. It was somewhat scary as a few of the sharks started swimming closer to the surface. We quickly realized they were just as curious as we were. Then we heard our guide yelling "Tortuga Hola Snorkelers Turtles" and looked to see huge sea turtles just a couple of meters away. They were so graceful in the water moving with the currents usually in pairs. While we swam between the huge rocks we saw countless small sharks, manta rays, a eagle ray (which is like a manta ray but HUGE!), sea turtles, fish all while being stung by jelly fish. At our second pass between the rocks we were swimming and I looked down to see a large dark shadow and could see it was a huge hammerhead shark! I was so excited I poped my head out of the water and yelled for Andrew to make sure he saw it as well. We were both amazed to be swimming a few meters away from such large and powerful sea creatures. We then got to snorkel at two other spots throughout the day. At those spots we got to swim right beside sea lions who were playing with their young. One slid off a rock and followed us along the shoreline while looking right at us. It was so exciting!! We rolled into Puerto Moreno on Isla San Cristobal for lunch where we were greeted by hundreds of sea lions lounging all over the beach, pier and boardwalk. The were all lazing around in the sun and would get quite upset if you disturbed their slumber. Just ask Courtney, who tried to challenge a sealion who claimed a small gazebo as his castle. He stood his ground and chased her away. We had the standard almuerza (Ecuadorian Lunch) at nice little restaurant just a block from the pier. It was pretty standard from what we have been eating lately except that they brought popcorn to put into the soup. Andrew ate all his popcorn before his soup was brought to the table. After lunch we watched the sea lions play in the surf for a bit then jumped back on the boat for our last snorkel of the day. For this one we headed out to a small remote island called Santa Fe. It started to rain just before we arrived and the ocean was nice and warm when we hopped in. We saw a lot of big tropical fish, and some with really vibrant colours. A few playful sea lions also swam along with our group keeping us company as we watched schools of fish move with the current. We arrived back in Puerto Ayora at about 6PM after about a 12 hour day! And what a day it was!! Tomorrow we're heading out on the New Flamingo for a 5 day cruise around Isla Santiago and to celebrate we thought we would list all of the popular seafaring terms we could think of. Feel free to add the ones we missed!
-Arrr matey! -Man overboard! -Walk the plank! -Shiver me timbers! -Ahoy! -Aye Aye Captain! -Land lubber -Prepare to be boarded! -Booty |
Get updates by email!
Archives
January 2014
Categories
All
|