Galapagos Islands

Just got back from our Galapagos Islands cruise. We were dinghied out to the yacht on the first day in the morning from Puerto Ayora, the only tourist town in the Galapagos, a yacht sufficiently big to have 16 guests living aboard along 10 in crew, more or less. I room was tiny, but neither we were expecting any wild luxuries so we found no reason to complain. Spent the first day in Puerto Ayora where we were sent back on land to the Charles Darwin Research Station, a non governmental volunteer organization working on preserving the animals on the islands. They have a specifically large array of giant tortoises on display, which was simply amazing. By far being one of my favourite animals out here, theyre truly huge. Weighing a good 250kg, they dont do much besides chew and grunt whenever life throws it a challenge. If I was ever to come back to life as an animal, this would be the one. Sit on my butt all day, sometimes in the pond, eat, chew, grunt, eat some more and look grumpy for the photo.
Back on board we had lunch and dinner, which despite being quite good, was a huge disappointment. We just came from the inka trail where the food, with no kitchen, was amazing every day and night. There really was nothing wrong with the service or food on board of the yacht, but after seeing your porters work their asses off for you like they did, it was hard to settle to just being taken care of on a yacht, as spoiled as we realise that makes us. Not meant as a criticism to the boat and its crew, but more as another compliment to the inka trail. Now we are back to sleeping on busses and cheap hostals, where our illusion of being so well taken care of everywhere we go will come crashing down.

Day two took us snorkling in the morning at Rabida island. The amazing range of islands out here is one of the most surprising elements. Within a kilometers distance, one island will have pure white beaches whereas the other will have black volcanic rock/sand, and the next being completely barren and red, each offering a different kind of animal life. Rabida offered, as the only thing most places have in common, sea lions peacefully hunting and playing with you while you snorkel around. Of other things to see was the many differently coloured fish on the ocean floor, sea stars and sting rays. This being our first time in the water, we were fascinated by the variety of life. Im really just counting on AC to uload some of her many many pictures soon, including some underwater ones. The ones posted on here are just some that I found on google.

We continued on to Santiago island after that where we also spent the afternoon snorkeling and checking out the underwater life. The usual routine consisted of first snorkeling and the following it up by a small one hour hike on the island.

We visited Bartolome and Seymour islands the following day (yesterday). We again did a lot of snorkeling, and managed to see sea turtles, sea lions, marine iguanas, penguins, dolphins (though far out in the distance unfortunately) and sharks. Sharks would often come around the boat to circle around us, and despite supposedly being completely peaceful, jumping into the water and swimming around after seeing a 2 meter shark was a little frightening. Nevertheless, the only time we saw one of those huge sharks while snorkeling, it quietly circled around us, allowed us to get close and then quietly swam away. The funnest animal to swim around with was without a doubt the sea lions. The younger ones were often quite playful and swam around you, came all the way up to your hand and showed off their underwater abilities. For me, seeing the sea turtles was a huge experience. Theyre exceptionally beautiful animals and very rare in the rest of the world, although we easily saw 4-5 of them swimming around. Only saw a few penguins in the water, and because theyre so small and fast, its almost impossibly to take pictures of them or admire them properly. We usually managed to be in the water for about an hour at a time before it got too cold (the water was around 20 degrees, reaching its highest of 25-28 around february).

Our hikes on the islands also provided us with plenty of animal life. Land iguanas in their beautiful warm colours, marine iguanas swimming under the water and resting above it, the smaller but hugely coloured lava lizards. Blue footed boobie birds were also amusing, doing their mating dance by jumping from one foot to the other, their feet so blue they could just have stepped out of some bubblegum. Frigatebirds with their huge red neck pouches were also amazing, we saw some of those this morning. All in all, the week out here has definetly left its mark on me. The beauty of the islands speak for itself, and no other place in the world do you see such variety in scenery, and such different animal life living peacefully in co-existence. You keep having to remind yourself that you are not in the zoo. Unfortunately, our guide was very preoccupied with the deterioration of the islands and how introdued animal life and over fishing is ruining the islands, true as it is. It is a rapidly growing tourist destination, leaving its marks.

Alex