Darwin is said to have thought all plant and animal species would be the same on each island. He then noticed that various animals differ subtly, including the iguanas and finches. These animals adapted over time because of food and climate variations between islands. This marked the beginning of Darwin´s Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection.
My Journal
3 April- Today, I flew from the city of Guayaquil in South Western Ecuador to San Cristobal Island, the oldest in the Galapagos. The first wildlife I saw was a bay FULL of sea lions!
They were on top of each other, surrounding one another in interesting group poses, swimming and playing together in the water- even sleeping on park benches and on nearby boats!
They are extra cute, especially the babies but have a terribly loud and harsh bark, possibly to scare off predators. It would work to scare me off if I had a taste for sea lions! I found a cheap and clean hotel near the ocean called the San Fransisco for just US $8.50 per night.
4 April- I rented a bicycle for a full day for $10 and rode across the top of San Cristobal from the village of Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, the capital of the Galapagos. My ride finished at Agua Dulce Bay meaning Sweet Water Bay. Apparently San Cristobal is also the first island in the Galapagos Archipelago that Charles Darwin visited during his voyage on the Beagle.
It was a hot uphill ride and then a fun, reckless downhill one. First I stopped at a tortoise breeding area, which I could explore for free without any supervision. Excellent! The centre's staff seemed to be used to people showing up primarily with guides as part of an organised tour and so didn´t have a plan in place for solo travelers stopping by. It was great, as I could get really close to them on the ten or so acres of land that is designed to be hospitable to tortoises without any predators and provides plenty of shade, food and fresh drinking water. As I walked up to my first pair of giant tortoises, while still giving them plenty of personal space, I noticed they were at least the size of medium size pigs (sorry, a similarly round, tortoise shaped comparison escapes me at the moment!).
It was amazing to see them so close. Walking through the area, I saw another 3 giant ones eating and drinking water. They are so amazing to study at first, as there is nothing quite like them- with their giant shells moving in slow motion and their thick, rubbery tire tube, greenish-grey arms and legs. They also have large scaly necks with beady eyes and two vertical slits for a nose. Their noses along with their patchy white skin, makes them appear not all dissimilar to the late Michael Jackson (may he rest in peace).
Tortoises are thought to have arrived to the Galapagos on rafts made from broken off pieces of wood. They are amazingly able to metabolise their own fat into water when it is required. Since they are reptiles, they also don´t have the same strict body temperature regulations that mammals do, making them a highly low maintenance animal.
As a result, during the 1700´s some species almost went extinct, providing a nutritious and tasty treat for explorers and other voyagers. As such, they provided an otherwise nearly impossible source of fresh meat for journeymen who spent long periods of time out to sea without any refrigeration.
These voyagers killed over 100,000 tortoises and as a result several subspecies went extinct. Subspecies adapt to the climates of different islands while adapting differing features such as the shape of their shells and length of their legs.
I must admit, after the initial novelty of their unique and strange appearance wore off, they are not that interesting to watch, as they generally aren´t break dancing and spinning on their shells but simply walking, eating and drinking all in slow motion. Had they been mating, I admit, it would have been fascinating but I suppose they understandably prefer to sneak under a large, sheltered tree for privacy.
I stopped at the caged in baby tortoise section where living tortoises at varying stages of growth were on display. They ranged from baby grapefruits to toddler sized hard hats and adolescent bowling balls (or watermelons rather). After leaving the centre, I continued on my bike down to the beach. It was a really hot day so after the 1/2 km or so walk along a boardwalk from the parking lot to the beach, I was finally refreshed after swimming in a bay with a fairly strong current and large waves. I didn´t make it out very far but still it felt heavenly after my sweaty bike ride.
A lot of people on the beach I noticed were covered up, not so much for cultural reasons it seemed but rather due to the intensity of the sun. I on the other hand, felt acclimatised to the intensity of the sun albeit never because I have spent time close to the Equator as I was now but rather due to living in Australia for the past 4.5 years. Since there is virtually no Ozone layer there, I felt secure in slathering on sunblock here in the Galapagos and enjoying the sunshine in my bikini- in between refreshing dips in the ocean. Not that I am saying it´s a good idea or that I won´t be swearing at a mirror in a few years time, wishing to erase my premature wrinkles or dealing with even more serious consequences! In any case, after I de-robed, I noticed a few others on the beach doing the same.
Itay, the Israeli guy who I was traveling with for a little while at this point, was similar to most others on the beach and preferred to cover up, although he wouldn´t sit in the small patch of shade available under a large tree due to the many biting flies who also seemed to prefer the shade. Instead, he curled up on a rock in the Thinker pose swathed under his fish print sarong. He wrapped it all the way around him save his head, which sported a fisherman style navy blue hat emblazoned with ´Nicaragua´. Somehow, even despite this extensive coverage and the sunblock, he still ended up getting burnt, while I finished the day with a nice golden tan! I told him, as the Aussies like to say, that he must toughen up but this didn´t go over well. Ahh, the joys of traveling and spending virtually 24-7 with another person when you aren´t even a couple. I think it would be a good premarital test to travel with your beloved for at least a month before the big day. It would likely turn into a pre- wedding honeymoon test drive for some and a you-drive-me-to-the-moon goodbye for others!
Luckily, some friendly locals gave us a ride back most of the way to our hostel in the back of their pick-up truck. We drove past a local soccer game made up of two women teams. It was nice to see, as so far I´ve noticed in Central America and now in South America, lots of volleyball and soccer games all of them played by men. I sometimes am tempted to jump in and do a quick little 1-2 hop from side to side- getting into position and saying ´vamos chicos´ or let´s go boys just to see what would happen. Would they stop playing or let me join them? I may never know since so far, I haven´t had the courage to find out!
5 April- We boarded the Sun Fish ferry to Santa Cruz Island. It´s a small boat that takes passengers back and forth between these two main islands for $25 each way (or $30 if you are a non-bargainer). The highlight was seeing a school of bottle neck dolphins jumping right next to our boat!
They also gave us complimentary apricot juice (yummy!) and hamburger flavoured soda crackers (not-so-yummy!).
On the ride over, we passed Santa Fe island, which looked pretty barren and un-interesting aside from a large sail boat that was capsized at one end. I found out later, it was a recent occurrence after some unusually big swells! Later, I also learned that Santa Fe has the most beautiful caves in all of the Galapagos and quite a bit of interesting marine life including the Galapagos Hawk, Galapagos Snake, rice rats, a variety of finch along with the Galapagos Mockingbird. Note that any time I mention an animal with ´Galapagos´ preceding it, they are endemic to the Galapagos rather than an introduced species. However, snakes and rice rats... I guess I´m OK with missing certain aspects of this island!
Santa Cruz island where the boat arrived is more bustling and touristy than San Cristobal but there are also more locals and I like the energy of having such diversity in terms of people, restaurants and activities.
This afternoon, I walked to the Charles Darwin Research Centre where I saw lots more unsupervised tortoises, which I could have tried riding, especially if I were a small, delinquent child with inattentive parents.. hmm, I wonder if this has been done?! The sign simply says to stay off the feeding platforms, on the path and generally out of their way since they are often on the footpath.
This evening, I also looked for boat tours leaving in the next few days and was a little overwhelmed by all the ´great deals´ available only for the next 10 minutes. I escaped the frantic agents for a stroll out on the pier where I watched sea lions and pelicans simultaneously fishing next to one another. The sea lions with shallow surface dives and the pelicans with 10 meter dive bombs straight down while never missing an opportunity to chomp fish after fish.
6 April- Today, we took a water taxi for five minutes or so across a little channel and hiked through a Mangrove swamp to Las Grietas, which literally means ´The Cracks´. These are geographic formations unique to volcanic areas. It occurs when a deep canal forms between steep lava rock cliffs on either side. In this case, there was a layer of fresh water entering from a stream over the salt water from the ocean. It was a refreshing place for a swim or snorkel and there were a few interesting fish and rock formations.
Apparently, the water is also quite deep as there was a group of American teenagers taking turns jumping from one side of the ledge. The height was anywhere from 5-15 meters and judging from the smack of numerous belly flops, followed by the screams of their encouraging peers, they were not expert divers! This was making me a little nervous swimming let alone snorkeling directly underneath them so I kept it to a short swim across the channel and back as I dodged the bullets of screaming wedgies all around me!
This afternoon I also walked to Tortuga Bay, which is a 3-4 km walk from the main village of Puerto Ayora. The walk itself was nice with a boardwalk separating visitors from the beautiful, green surrounding rain forest. A number of different kinds of finches were playing in the trees and I had another soundtrack thanks to a great big local guy, also a speed walker, who was behind me and singing joyfully along with his walkman. At first I was scared but when he passed me, something about his totally oblivion whilst rocking out to the tunes, set my mind at ease.
The beach itself is a long, stunning stretch of fine powdery white sand. There were almost no other people and just a few surfers enjoying the easy beach break. A number of big, black marine iguanas were stretched out and sunning themselves on the beach. A baby sea lion was also paddling around playfully a little ways down the beach from the surfers. The second stretch of beach housed a protected cove, safer for swimming due to there being less current. There were more people here and I joined them for a little sun bathing after a dip and a chance to read my book in the late afternoon sun. Ahh, heaven.
On the walk back to town, I met a local surfer who told me about how he likes what sounded an awful lot like a part of a woman´s anatomy, which instantly tweaked my creepy guy radar as I planned my escape route. I told him I didn´t understand and quickened my pace but instead of taking the hint, he matched it and went on to explain there are a lot of them in Canada where I am from as well as making the motions of suckling a breast. I was really beginning to think this guy was a perve since I didn´t understand the Spanish word for this great love of his that sounded an awful lot like, umm.. vagina. His English attempt at the word wasn´t much better as he repeated 'willy, willy, willy' over and over again. Was this to be my first very bad experience traveling in Central and South America so far? It seemed so unlikely in this island paradise where all the locals seemed genuinely happy, nonthreatening and worry free- until now. And why shouldn´t they be at ease in this temperate island paradise resembling the average frazzled and ´successful´ office worker's dreams?
Somehow despite my tried patience, through all his gesturing including the suckling meant to represent a mammal and his repetition of words, I figured out that he was trying to say whale, which is ´ballena´ in Spanish. The B is pronounced similarly to a V and the double L in Spanish is pronounced as a Y, so it really did sound like vagina! Right, so there are lots of whales here as well as near Vancouver and he is a fan. Thankfully, this guy is an appreciator of marine mammals and not a murdering rapist- whew!
Further along the trail, I met a few Americans who had been out surfing, who also had sailboats in the harbour. We had dinner later in the evening and it was really interesting to hear about one couple named Gregg and Kerry´s adventures sailing from the USA to the Galapagos and another guy named Lee´s experiences sailing around the world by himself! Apparently, it is quite difficult to stop at more than one port in the Galapagos if you have your own boat as it costs a small fortune to get a permit to visit the other islands as well as requiring a local guide with you on board the entire time!
This is how we got into the interesting discussion about the very tempting and risky endevour of becoming a pirate in order to take the chance of visiting them on one´s own anyway. After a couple glasses of red wine, this led to discussion about how people at the table (no names mentioned) may have been doing this anyway or at least considering it! I was feeling the presence of an invitation on the table but didn't pursue it as the last thing I wanted was a many thousand dollar fine or to end up in South American prison (as lovely as Ecuador seemed otherwise)!
7 April- Today I took a day cruise to Floreanas Island, which is a couple hours by motor boat South of Santa Cruz. Again, we had the surreal experience of having numerous dolphins accompany us, this time jumping on all sides of the boat. Looking over the edge of the boat at one point I also saw giant sea turtles swimming below us!
Other highlights were swimming with sea lions. I thought they would be like dolphins who I experienced swimming with in New Zealand once. They have this amazing ability to swim right next to you or in circles around you but when you reach out to them, they swim away sideways just out of your reach. So expecting the same, I reached out to poke a sea lion, which it turns out didn´t have the same radar! As my pointer finger sunk into his spongy side, he jumped several inches in the water and then swung its head around to glare at me before paddling out of my reach. These animals are so clumsy and cute! Today I broke my first Galapagos law, which is that you are not allowed to touch the animals unless they approach you and make the first move!
Throughout the day our boat idled next to some blue footed boobies on the rocks. They are such cute birds with a mono brow jutting over their eyes and of course the bright blue feet. Darwin apparently named them ´boobies´ because of their apparent ineptitude when it came to defending themselves. Apparently, they had few predators to worry about though so weren´t necessarily dumn but just a little too trusting.
We also cruised past a few small penguins sunning themselves on the rocks. These penguins have adapted to the hot environment in the Galapagos by keeping their feet shaded with their tilted forward bodies to avoid taking in the extra heat!
There are also a lot of brown pelicans throughout the Galapagos. A story our guide told us is that one of these pelicans watched a group of people escape from a swamped boat. The bird was trembling and the people thought it may have been afraid of them but was perhaps injured and unable to fly away. When all the people were safely to shore the bird became calm, stopped shivering and calmly flew away. How sweet:).
8 April- I caved and signed up for one of the last minute, 3 day tour that was available to leave today. We toured a farm on land with more tortoises, where I got to try on a shell to see what it probably feels like being a 100 year old, big scaly lizard. Not my thing!
Interestingly though, giant tortoises arrived on the Galapagos on what are thought to be rafts made from pieces of wood that broke off from the land. They can survive for up to 1 whole year without food or water. As well, they can actually convert their own body fat into soluble water for consumption in this time and don´t need to worry about body temperature regulation like mammals do since they are reptiles! This is in part why they almost went extinct. That is, the seamen would keep them on board their ships as a fresh source of tasty meat, which they didn´t need to feed or otherwise care for while they were still alive.
After visiting the tortoises, we got to pick passionfruit and guava out of trees and eat them, which was delicious. We stopped at some lava tunnels formed when the volcano erupted and finished the day by boarding our boat the Yolita 2 and having a nice shrimp dinner. We sailed through the night to our next destination, which was Rabida Island. I slept surprisingly well considering I was definitely on the boat that rocked.
9 April- We went snorkeling with a white tipped shark, fortunately not that big! I also spotted some trumpet fish and other ones I couldn´t identify. We went for a little walk on the island courtesy of our ships panga (the Galapagos word for dingy.. each time I hear it I can´t help but picture riding on the back of a cute little panda as he swims us to shore). Walking on the island we saw fur seals and prickly pear cacti, which look like trees with prickly cactus arms.
Today we also saw Frigate birds which are black and roughly the size of a crow.
They are interesting, as the male has a red flap of skin on his neck, which he inflates once a year to attract a lady. He is able to puff it out into a balloon similar in size to an airbag of a car. Then in case he needs to stand out even more, he ruffles his neck and head feathers while flapping his wings. Holy red flag! The female, unable to resist this sexy beast, then comes down and coyly flutters her eyelids at him, looking away often before gradually moving on over. After a little hoochy coochy, she then rests her tired little feathered head on his chest. How adorable! After the courtship period however, he never inflates again, remaining a cold and oblivious male until after the babies come. To his credit they both sit on the egg until it hatches (at different times) and then raise the chick together, both feeding it for the first 6 months until a year or so later when he wanders out again for some fresh inflating. Sigh*
Another interesting side note on Frigates is they are known as the robbers of the sea. When hunting, they are not the most adept at dive bombing their pray but happen to be amazing acrobats. Instead of finding their own fish then, the Frigates spot other birds such as a pelican flying with a fish in its beak and start pulling on its tail feathers until it drops the fish. At this point, the Frigate is able to maneuver itself to catch the fish as it falls in mid air and have it for him/her self!
10 April- Today we swam with penguins and I poked one, breaking Galapagos law number 2- maybe it doesn´t count though since it was the same law I broke the first time, just with a different animal. I don´t even think he noticed, as he didn´t acknowledge my poke at all but just kept swimming around in a little frenzy with lots of circles. It´s skin was quite tough so, maybe it couldn´t feel it.
11 April- Today we sailed to North Seymour Island and saw gigantic lobsters while snorkeling but unfortunately won´t get to eat any since the locals get special licenses that only allow for hunting certain sea creatures at certain times of the year. While shrimp are plentiful now, lobsters are not allowed to be caught or eaten. I am unsure then why I saw them on the menu at certain restaurants on Santa Cruz, even though granted they were very expensive! On North Seymour, there are a lot of birds including the Frigates with many of the males puffing their red chests to attract a mate. We also saw the Blue Footed Boobies as well as lots of fur seals. The babies are so adorable with their big, vulnerable eyes, long whiskers and skinny little bodies. It made me want to put one in my backpack and take it on the boat to feed it!
We saw what the guide said was Leonardo DeCaprio´s boat. It was quite stark and grey, looking like a small navy battleship, with a helicopter on the top deck! After breakfast today, we left the boat and traveled back to Puerto Ayora via Baltras Island where the airport is located.
This is where our 3 day boat cruise ended. Fine by me as while it was informative and we saw a fair bit, it was also expensive and waaaay to organised for my taste. As soon as you get to somewhere you like, you have to leave, which was pretty much the theme of the last 3 days.
This is also where I said goodbye to Itay as I missed my independence. That is until I caught a 2pm ferry to Isabela Island and he was sitting right next to me on the boat! After the boat ride though, it was the last I saw of him. I found a cool beach side place called Beto hostel and bar.
I immediately liked Isabela as I walked into town from the ferry terminal. The main street is made of packed sand and runs parallel to the ocean, with an amazing white sand beach. There are not many tourists here and the town, while not being crowded is made up mostly of locals. There are no high rise resorts but simple cabana or bungalow style hotels along the beach or the nearby lagoon, which apparently often has bright pink flamingos milling around by the shore.
Also, it is a really friendly place with a main outdoor bar called Casa Rosada serving happy hour drinks from 5-7 of Daquiris made from local fruit. The bar is right on the beach, with live music, a sand volleyball court and great atmosphere. Within a few hours on Isabela, I already had local and other backpacker friends. I had dinner in the back yard of a local´s home where she was serving wild boar, which was delicious!
12 April- Today was a totally relaxing one where I sat in local cafes, walked around the town, which is a couple kilometers square and saw my first flamingo on the lagoon. In the evening, I lied in a hammock at Beto Bar writing in my journal and watching the waves roll in. After sunset, I walked past Casa Rosada, which is next door and met a group of people I made plans to hike up a section of Volcano Sierra Negro with the next day.
13 April- Myself and 3 others hiked up the volcano with a guide and approx 15 others. All of them except the 4 of us went part of the way along a ridge line on horseback but we hiked the whole thing as it was less expensive. The scenery into the active volcanoes was pretty amazing. One of them had a large centre crater that appeared similar to a large and solid flat black lake of lava rock. We were unable to see any smoke or liquid lava unfortunately but it was still pretty spectacular. Apparently there was an eruption back around 2000 that many of the locals got to see since the centre was so big, there was no risk of the lava escaping out of the middle of the volcano. So they perched themselves on the top edge and watched the show, with lava shooting up in geysers from all sides through the volcano!
Next, we walked behind the volcano for a view of the Northern part of Isabela and Fernandina Island off the West coast.
14 April- Bright and early this morning, I met Dominic, Matt, Andy, Danielle and Steele, some other backpackers and spent the day snorkeling and fishing off a local boat we had rented for the whole day with a driver for just $23 each. We didn´t catch any fish although we saw several local guys in another boat catch a Wahi (also known as Mahi Mahi), which was around 1 meter long!
The snorkeling was good although I fear I am getting somewhat spoiled by all the amazing reefs I have seen along the way. Still the visibility was pretty good (1-2 meters) and we saw manta rays, angel fish, penguins and sea turtles among other unidentified flying fish.
15 April- I rented a full suspension mountain bike today and rode along the beach during low tide. There were 100´s of little crabs darting in and out of tunnels they had made in the sand. As well, I saw black marine iguanas sunning themselves along the beach. Some were the biggest I have seen so far at around 2/3 of a meter long! Interestingly, the Galapagos is the only place in the world where lizards swim in the water to find food. While they are vegetarians, they dive deep underwater and eat the algae off rocks.
At the end of the beach I crossed over onto a road toward the ´Wall of Tears´, which is a large wall approximately 10 meters high that's made of boulders. It was built by prisoners who used to inhabit Isabela. I walked around to the back of the wall and a wild, baby tortoise was resting in the shade. He differed from the tortoises in captivity I have seen, who don´t notice you as any different than a nearby stump. This little one on the other hand, tucked his head in and displayed his survival instinct by hissing at me with squinted eyes, when I tried to go near him successfully telling me to back off.
On my way back a pedal fell off my bike, which worried me as it was very hot and I had run out of water. Luckily, I stuck it back on and was able to keep going though carefully.
This afternoon, I met Andy and we caught a bus the 45 minute trip to the highlands to explore a 100 meter deep canyon. There was a rope ladder descending down the last 25 meters or so into the depths of the darkness. We decided against this section as there were lots of loose rocks falling and we had no way to contact help if something went wrong. So we walked back to the main road and hitchhiked in the back of a pickup back to town since there are only a couple busses per day in this area.
Tonight, I went to Casa Rosada for fresh fish tacos BBQ´ed on a grill. Andy, Jeannette, Jeff (the owner of Casa Rosada), Danielle, Steele and some other newcomers and locals were also there. Jeannette and Jeff convinced me to stay on Isabela tomorrow instead of returning to Santa Cruz island for my last night in the Galapagos. It is pure peacefulness here and not at all hard to imagine spending one more day in this paradise.
16 April- Several of us swam from Isabela to Tintareas Island and saw small sharks, rays, lots of fish and several penguins along the way. It wasn´t far and since it was low tide we really could have walked most of the way if we had wanted to! The tour boats all around us still tried to get us to stick close to shore either because we were in their way or because you aren´t supposed to access Tintareas without a guide. Either way, we kept going because the snorkeling was good and we wanted to try to somehow get onto the island.
We waited until most of the boats were gone and then snorkeled our way to the pier where we found a tour guide with just two other people approaching the island. We asked if we could tag along if we gave him $5 and he said OK. Once on the island, we could see it wasn´t that impressive although the black lava rock all around was kind of interesting. The island has a little inlet where sharks are known to hang out but it was the wrong season so we didn´t see any. It was good that we found this guide as the park ranger had followed us onto the island ready to bust us for trespassing. Luckily, the guide confirmed we were with him so we got off the hook. In exchange, we tried to translate some of his Spanish to English for the Swedish couple he was guiding. We weren´t allowed to swim back according to the ranger so got a ride in the boat with our guide and tipped him another $10 for helping us out.
As we left the marina, we noticed a bunch of little penguins swimming and playing in the water near the shore. Several fisherman were pointing them out to us and gesturing towards the water. So we all jumped in with our masks and snorkels and followed them around for a little while. They are interesting to watch in the water as they glide around like little black and white bullets.
17th April- I spent my day on Isabela relaxing and enjoying hammock time near the beach. I also walked past one of the few fancy hotels on the island and in exchange for buying a coffee, they let me swim in their ocean side, crystal clear swimming pool. It was actually across the road from the ocean and raised onto a platform to maximise the view. Such a hot day and so refreshing!
Next, I walked to the tortoise breeding centre to get one last look at the big boys.
Aside from the canyon, I spent the rest of my last day on the island relaxing as well as saying good bye to the various hammocks I had discovered along the beach.
This evening I had dinner with several of the locals I had met on Isabela (expats living here) as well as Greg, Kerry and Lee the pirates, who had made it in their boats to Isabela after all. It was a nice farewell to Isabela.
18th April- I rode the ferry back to Santa Cruz and met Debby and Don from the USA on the boat along with their two young daughters who are living in Cuenca, Ecuador. We had a nice breakfast and shared a mini-van taxi to the airport. Good bye beautiful Galapagos. You will be forever embedded in my peaceful, happy place during future escapes from reality as a frazzled office worker or better yet simply during tranquilo moments of peaceful daydreaming!
