Ecuador - Galapagos Islands - April 2015

The second part of our Ecuador trip was an 8 day trip around the Galapagos Islands.  The prior post deals with the first part of the trip to Quito and down into the Amazon basin.  

On the Saturday morning our trip began with a 3:45 wake up call and an early morning drive to the airport for our flight to Baltra the main airport for the Santa Cruz Island. After an uneventful flight we arrived in Baltra to find our ship, the Evolution, was not quite ready for us.  While other tours were whisked away, we were kept waiting at the airport, then loaded onto a bus to take us to the dock and the awaiting dinghies.  What then followed was a tour of the coastline while they awaited a sign from the boat that they were ready for us.  All well and good, we saw boobies, pelicans, frigate birds, cormorants, sea lions, etc, but I think we all wanted to get to the boat and relax after the flight instead of bobbing around in a dinghy.

The Evolution

We finally got on board for lunch and we all felt much better once we were settled in.  There was the usual orientation meetings, safety drill, meet and greet kind of stuff and then we left Baltra island to motor overnight to our first destination - Isabela Island.

For Nancy and I the first night was a bit restless as our particular cabin was right next to the engine room.  It was very noisy and the next day we moved to a lower and quieter (and cheaper) deck where it was much more peaceful.  If only we had known that when we booked our more expensive cabin.  

Blue-footed Booby

After breakfast on our first full day, we loaded into the dinghies, or pangas as they call them, and took a ride along the cliffs of Punta Vicente Roca on the north-west side of Isabela.  We saw blue footed boobies, nazca boobies, the Galapagos penguin, Flightless Cormorants and Noddy Terns.  Nearly always there were Frigate Birds somewhere in the sky and walking across the water were Elliots Storm Petrels, the latter being the most common of bird that accompanied our boat.

Later that morning we all went snorkeling for what was to be our best day’s visibility for fish.  I was in awe of the shoals of yellow-tailed surgeon fish - swimming along always just out of hand’s reach but apparently otherwise unaware of my presence.   There were lots of other fish around too but I am not good at naming nor remembering fish.  Of course we shared the water with sea lions, turtles, penguins, and cormorants who were also quite untroubled by our presence.

Marine Iguanas

In the afternoon we moved over to the adjacent island, Fernandina where we landed and walked for a while.  Unfortunately it poured down with rain for the first half hour of our visit there making everyone very wet and cold but eventually the rain stopped and fair weather prevailed.  This was our first encounter with marine iguanas on land and there were thousands of them.  You could barely put one foot in front ot the other without having to avoid stepping on one.   There were also large numbers of the brightly colored Sally Lightfoot Crabs.  They seem to live in harmony with and in close proximity to the iguanas.  Unlike the apparently slothful iguanas they are quite nimble in their ability to avoid humans dancing smartly away on tiptoes (hence their name).

Sally Lightfoot Crabs

We added a few new bird species on Fernandina too - Ruddy Turnstones, Semipalmated Plovers, a Wandering Tatler, Galapagos Mockingbirds, a Lava Heron and a Galapagos Hawk to name a few.

The next day (Day 3) we sailed back to Isabela Island and made a landing in Urbina Bay.  Here we had our first sighting of the land iguanas and tortoises.  The land iguana is more spectacular than the marine iguana, being larger and more colorful, though nowhere near as plentiful.  They are pretty docile and appear to be slow moving though no doubt they can be more nimble when they want to be.  The tortoises of course are not at all nimble.  They are magnificent animals and we saw several of them lazily munching away on the vegetation.  

A Land Iguana

Tortuga

After lunch we had another opportunity to snorkel (in Tagus Cove on Isabela, I believe) though today the water was much more cloudy.  Alas one of the sea lions took a fancy to Arden and bit her on the arm.  It caused a bit of concern but they skillfully whisked her off back to the boat for treatment (there was a doctor on board).

Later in the afternoon we landed in Tagus Cove and hiked up to the top of the trail to observe a flooded caldera of a volcano (Darwin Lake perhaps?) and to see various old graffiti carvings from earlier visitors on the cliff side.  The oldest carving was made by Darwin himself but had been removed to a museum leaving the next oldest one dated 1835.

Graffiti on way to Darwin Lake

Day 4 brought us to Bartolome Island where we hiked to the top of the island to see a spectacular view of the entire island and the so called Pinnacle Rock.  Surprisingly Pinnacle Rock was created by US bombers during WW II and is not really a natural feature.   There was more snorkeling before lunch - again nice fish but I can’t remember any of them other than a whitetip reef shark that was lying on the bottom.  Not at all dangerous - or so they say.

After lunch we crossed to Isla Santiago, the larger island close by Bartoleme.  Here we made a landing in Sullivan Bay and saw lots and lots of ropey lava (pahoehoe).  Not a lot of wild life but an awful lot of black pahoehoe.  The schedule for the day said it would be a geologist’s paradise - it was interesting, but I wouldn’t say it was paradise.

Ropey Lava with a Sally Lightfoot Crab

Overnight we sailed from Santiago to Baltra Island where we refueled before continuing on to Santa Cruz Island.  We made a landing on Bachas Beach where we found the rusting remains of a WW II era American vessel (there was a base here during the war).  Of course there were the usual marine iguanas and crabs.  On the beach, which was a wonderful light sand, there were signs of turtle nests (there tracks up the beach and the depressions where they lay their eggs).  Behind the beach there was a saltwater lagoon with a few pink flamingos feeding (also a whimbrel but nobody else was interested in that).

Flamingos

We swam and snorkeled from the beach.  It was a bit rough and all I managed to do was lose my snorkel.

Marine Iguana

After lunch we did a short hike on Santa Cruz up something called Dragon Hill where we found more land iguanas.  These were more reddish in color while the prior ones had been yellowish.  Something to do with the pigment in the vegetation they eat.  There were plenty of little birds flitting around, the most interesting of which was the Cactus Finch which has adapted to perching delicately on the spines of a cactus tree.

Cactus Finch

On Day 6 we were still off Santa Cruz Island.  We disembarked into Puerto Ayora, the largest town on the Galapagos (18,000 people).  After a bus tour around the town (not a very impressive place) we headed into the hills to visit a Tortoise Reserve.  Here we saw what we had seen in a more natural environment elsewhere, but it was nice to be in the highlands and it was good to see the species being looked after.  There were some lava tubes within the Reserve so we got to walk through a 100 m of lava tube - Mt Lassen in California has better offerings.  I got the sense that we had seen most of the things we were going to see and that were just spinning things out by visiting different islands.

In the afternoon we again came back to Puerto Ayora and visited the Charles Darwin Research Station.  This was quite sad.  The facility looked terribly run down and really was nothing more than a zoo for tortoises.  Lonesome George lived here until he passed away a couple of years ago.  I believe they are in need of money to keep things viable.

Overnight we sailed south to Espanola Island, the most southerly island of the archipelago.  We landed at Punta Suarez and walked along a loop trail.  We had been told that albatrosses might be present (they mate and nest on the island) and indeed we did find them there.  The Waved Albatross is a spectacular bird and to see them courting and even mating was a real treat.  This probably was the high point of the trip for me.

Waved Albatrosses

We walked through a colony of boobies - mainly Nazca Boobies with only a rare Blue Footed variety.  We never did see the Red Footed Booby - that is really rare.  The young Nazca Boobies were little balls of fluff in their white downy feathers.

Nazca Boobies

After lunch we paid a visit to Gardner Bay on Espanola and walked along the beach admiring the sea lions.  Then we all went for a swim in the sea - beautifully warm and clear.  It was the last island landing of the tour and we just felt that we were getting to know everyone.  We were all having a good time.

The Evolution Tour

That night was the farewell dinner and preparation for our departure the next day.  We had grown to like our fellow passengers and it was going to be sad to see them go.  That night we had to deal with the problem of what to tip the crew and guides.  Everyone thought that the suggested guidelines were a bit exorbitant so we debated what the right thing to do was.   I just wish that everyone would be paid a decent wage so we don’t have to deal with this.  I don’t mind paying more up front, I just don’t like being hit up for money at the end of the trip and having to decide what everyone is worth.

We sailed north overnight to San Cristobal Island.  This was to be our departure point.  We bid farewell to our ship and crew and took to the pangas for the last time.  Onshore we took one last trip to the Visitor Center for the Galapagos National Park.  This had an interesting history of the islands and man’s interaction with it but it was the most hot and humid building I have ever been in.  Oh for just a breath of air - haven’t they heard of fans.

We departed from San Cristobal airport for the mainland at Guayaquil.  The end of our Galapagos adventure where we said goodbye to all our friends and each went our separate ways (including Arden’s boyfriend Sam who headed on to Quito and the USA). We had more time in Ecuador to explore the mainland.

Photographs from the trip are here, and the next blog post continues with our travelogue through Ecuador.