Galapagos Islands: Dreams Evolving Into Realities

Whew...it´s been a while, eh friends? I apologize for the lack of updates recently. I´ve been a bit busy having the time of my life island hopping through the Galapagos. That´s right -- it happened. And it was magnificent. I had to jump through quite a few hoops to make it happen, but boy was it worth it. I have so much that I could write about right now, but it would probably take me a whole week to do so. Thus, in the interest of time, I´m going to have to keep it brief. First, some of the issues I had to work through to get to where I am today. Let´s see. 1) In order to get here a day earlier, I waited all morning at the Quito airport for a last minute flight change to the Galapagos; 2) I had my passport detained...twice -- first at the Baltra airport because I didn´t have $100 cash to pay the park entrance fee (I expected them to have an ATM), and second as a deposit for my cruise (since I couldn´t pay in full at the time); 3) I lost my first cruise reservation due to bank issues (and, as I understand it, it was a phenomenally good price); and 4) I ultimately ended up booking my cruise literally minutes before I had to jump on a boat to leave. But alas, after significant effort and a number of worrisome uncertainties, I finally made it. And in the end, I couldn´t have asked for a more fantastic experience.

Ok. So here´s a basic rundown of the itinerary I followed during the course of my 8-day cruise through paradise, as well as some of the highlights for each of the respective locations.

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Sunday, 7/24: San Cristobal Island
AM: Santa Cruz --> San Cristobal (ferry)
PM: Interpretation center, sea lion beach, embark on journey of lifetime

Monday, 7/25: Española Island
AM: Punta Suarez
PM: Gardner Bay (snorkeling)
Highlights -- only island with albatross; geyser/blow hole

Tuesday, 7/26: Santa Maria Island
AM: "Post office", lava tubes, snorkeling from beach
PM: Corona del diablo (snorkeling)

Wednesday, 7/27: Santa Cruz Island
AM: Darwin Research Center, Los Gemelos (highland craters)
PM: Tortuga Bay (gorgeous white sand beach + lagoon)
Highlights -- giant tortoises at research center

--Switched passengers--

Thursday, 7/28
AM: Rabida Island
Highlights -- red ash beach, flamingos, snorkeling with sharks

PM: Santiago Island (Puerto Egas/James Bay), snorkeling
Highlights -- black ash beach, galapagos fur seals

Friday, 7/29
AM: Bartolome Island, snorkeling
Highlights -- hiked to top, absolutely incredible view/landscape; penguins; giant manta ray

PM: North Seymour Island
Highlights -- frigate birds and blue footed boobies breeding grounds

Saturday, 7/30
AM: South Plaza Island
Highlights -- one of the most colorful islands (gorgeous red, yellow, orange)

PM: Santa Fe Island, snorkeling
Highlights -- only island with C. palidus land iguana; dolphins on boat ride over

Sunday, 7/31: San Cristobal
AM: Sailed around Kicker Rock (aka Leon Dormido); disembarked in Puerto Baquerizo Moreno

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And, well -- that´s that! What an incredible experience. So the cruise I ended up taking was on a 10-passenger catamaran called the Galapagos Vision. It was a tourist class ship (whereas I had originally hoped for a larger, first class or luxury class boat). However, I am so unbelievably happy that I ended up where I did. Being a smaller, less expensive boat, I ended up with a younger crowd of mostly single travelers, which made for a much better experience. I travelled with two different groups (since some people do 4 day cruises and other do 8 days, the arrivals/departures are staggered such that people switch out every 4 days). The first group could not have been better, and the second group was really good as well. In both cases, we only had 8 passengers rather than the possible 10, which made it even better. After having spent time on the smaller boat with less people, and after seeing other, larger groups on the islands, I realized that the smaller, more intimate cruise was certainly the way to go. We had two different guides; the first one switched out with the first group. Though I didn´t recognize it at the time, he was not a very good guide (though his constant marijuana smoking was pretty annoying). After we got our second guide, however, I realize how much of a different a good guide can make. He was perfect. Knowledgable, professional, friendly. As for the rest of the crew, the cook was also fantastic. All of our meals were really good, some of them absolutely delicious. He even made some delectable treats for the two birthdays that occured during the trip, in addiiton to preparing a wonderful feast for our final dinner together.

In general, our days were typically as follows: we would wake up early (6:30 or 7:00), have breakfast, and then set off on our activities for the day. This usually meant visiting an island and walking around for a bit to observe the wildlife. Each day we would usually visit two nearby islands, or two different parts of a single island. We generally returned to the boat around noonish for lunch and to sail to our next destination. We went snorkeling almost every day, and most days we did it twice, once at each island/location. After the days activities, we returned to the boat for dinner and to start our journey (usually overnight) to the following day´s destination. Some islands had unique features (animals, landscapes, etc.) some of which I pointed out above. Others were simply unique variations of the same theme. While some animals can only be found in a single location in the entire archipelago, others are common to virtually all of the islands (such as sea lions, iguanas, and many types of sea birds). We were actually extremely lucky in most all of our endeavors; in general, tourists are at the whim of mother nature in terms of what they will and will not encounter. Fortunately, we ended up seeing nearly everything the Galapagos has to offer. Everytime we would find a new animal, especially when it was one that I was particularly excited to see, I would cross it off my mental checklist. I´m very happy to say that -- like the amateur bingo player I am -- by the end of our journey nearly all my items had been checked, all my numbers called (darn elusive hammerhead sharks!)

Though the trip was the experience of a lifetime, it was not without its own frustrations. For example, one of our boat´s two engines broke the very first day of my cruise, meaning we were constantly behind schedule. Fortunately this didn´t end up affecting our itinerary too much -- it just meant longer nights of sailing to get to our morning destinations. Due to my unparalleled sleeping prowess, this proved to be hardly noticeable for me personally, though some of the others complained (understandably) that it was hard to sleep without ever getting a break from sailing. There were a few other small annoyances with the ship and cruise, but they are hardly worth mentioned. Here´s the take home message from the cruise: it was everything I had hoped for, and more. It was the culmination of an already fantastic travel experience. It was a dream come true, in more ways than one.

Well, I already find myself rambling more than I had intended. I think I´ll save most of the specifics for later, when I can tell the stories in person, face to face. But I would like to document some of the many, incredible species of animals that I witnessed throughout the journey. Though I can´t remember/name them all, here is a good start.

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Surf:
Parrotfish
Trumpet fish
Blow fish
Baracuda
Rays (sting, marbled, eagle, manta)
Lobsters
Sea stars (blue, red, black)
Marine iguanas
Sea turtles*
White-tipped sharks
Dolphins

Turf:
Land iguanas (C. palidus & C. subcristatus)
Galapagos snakes
Sally light-foot crabs
Rice rats
Sea lions
Galapagos fur seals (actually another type of sea lion)
Giant tortoises*
Lava lizards

Birds:
Swallow tailed gull
Galapagos dove
Finches
Yellow warbler 
Blue-footed boobies*
Nazca boobies
Frigate birds (great & magnificent)
Albatross
Nocturnal heron
Great heron
Galapagos hawk
Flamingo
Galapagos penguins*
Short-eared owl

*Personal favorite
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In terms of landscape, Bartolome island was hands down my favorite. The views from the top were breathtaking. I can´t even begin to describe it. Don´t worry -- I took pictures galore, so hopefully at least one of them will do it justice. As for colors, South Plaza island definitely took the cake. For snorkeling fans, I think I would have to recommend either Rabida island (where I saw the most sharks), or Bartolome (where we got to swim with the adorable penguins). And lastly, in terms of wildlife, I think I would have to go with Punta Suarez on Española as my favorite.


Well, I think that is enough about the cruise (well, actually not even close -- but I´ve got to stop somewhere. I am currently still in Puerto Baquerizo Moreno on San Cristobal island. I´m staying in a hostel here overnight. I left the boat early this morning and had the whole afternoon to enjoy, so I decided to go on a day trip (back on land for less than a day and I was already ready to get back on a boat). I signed up to go with another group to some nearby locations: Isla Lobos and Kicker Rock. We did snorkeling at both. Isla Lobos wasn´t anything special, just things I had already seen many times. The real reason I went on the trip was to head back to Kicker Rock (which, like I mentioned in the itinerary, we sailed around this morning before we disembarked. I had heard many times that Kicker Rock was a great place for snorkeling and diving, especially if you wanted to see shark (which, as a matter of fact, I did!). The company I booked with even told me that people had been seeing lots of hammerheads over the last few days. But unfortunately, it seemed that I used up all of my good luck during the cruise -- no hammerheads for me. Loads of sea turtles, which is always a favorite of mine, but no sharks. Too bad. But I got to see literally everything else that I wanted this week, so I´m not complaining.

Ok. Summing up. My flight leaves from San Cristobal early tomorrow afternoon. I will arrive in Quito, and then catch another flight late that night down to Cuzco, Peru. Unfortunately this one has a long (10 hour) layover, but its during the night, so I´m planning to just find a cheap place to sleep. No biggie. After arriving in Cuzco, I´m going to book my hike for Macchu Pichu. I´m giving myself two days to acclimate to the altitude, and then I´ll hopefully be on my way. And after that, it´s back to Quito, and then home. Not sure when I´ll update again next -- probably once I get my hike booked -- but I obviously won´t be online during the hike itself. In any case, you can expect at least a couple more posts before the conclusion of my story. I mean, comon -- you can´t have an epic without some sort of resolution. And with that, I´m off.

Thrilled with what I´ve seen, ecstatic for what is to come, and also very excited to (finally) return home.