Suprise visit to Galapagos

As any of you that are my loyal readers know, Bonnie and I had planned to head to Egypt to see our son Daryl and take in the historic sites. With the recent unrest in Egypt as the people took to the streets to demand reform and a democratic government, we decided that it wasn't the best time to go, many of the sites would be closed and we wouldn't have the experience we  wanted, however rest assured we will be heading there soon.

On  Feb 7th we sent out inquiries to see if we cold book a trip to the Galapagos and thanks to Mary Curry at Adventure Life (thanks to our friends Jenn and Luc for the recommendation) and some late-night airfare searches we pulled it all together and had everything booked and confirmed by Feb 15th  departure on Feb 18th heading to Quito, Ecuador and then on the Coral I in the Galapagos for 8 days/7 nights. This was even more last minute for us than normal and without Sheryl's and Jenn & Luc's encouragement from their trips over the last 2 years it wouldn't have happened.

Preface to this diary

I tried to capture as much of the flavor and feeling with selected pictures and words  as we moved through our journey in the Galapagos. A link to all of our favorite pictures follows the last post and since I also took a few videos (underwater mostly) I will include a video at the end once I have them edited, although I did include a few in the posts on this blog. I hope you enjoy reading and seeing our trip and get even a small sense of what it was like for us. No doubt it was amazing and I hope many of you get to experience this unique area, just like we did. We were so lucky to have done this and with a fun group of travelers.

Day 1 Quito

After a full day of traveling to Quito, we slept in and had a great breakfast of huevos scrambled at our base; the Hotel Alisa; what a nice quaint place with a wonderful staff. Taxi to old town and in honor of Nicki we visited a few churches. Then to a pre-columbian spirit museum we both loved. More walking around old town and the area. A rest and an ice cream back at Plaza Grande. Quick taxi to the Itchimbia park where we could see the entire city and the valley- Awesome. A quick rainstorm , and I mean STORM , so we ducked inside for a while. On to the shopping area for a late lunch; shrimp cevichi for me and sea bass for Bonnie, yummy. Strolled until we found a nice shop and then bamm; my AmEx took a hit on some handicrafts- turtles, sea lions and blue footed boobies and we hadn't even arrived at the islands yet.  Back to the hotel, our last FB and email for a week, a hot bath and shower and early to bed as we have a 5 am call for the airport to head to the Galapagos. 

Day 2- The Galapagos; the magic begins

Early start from Quito with a smooth flight to Baltra. A bus, then a short ferry ride across to Santa Cruz Island. Another bus, this time for 45 mins through another downpour until we reached our ship for the week; Coral 1.  A nice welcome lunch followed by orientation and a safety drill- Whoops, we missed the drill. Not sure how that happened but they didn't miss us so I guess we are OK, just hope we don't have any real emergencies.

Next we were off to the Darwin Research Center to learn all about the Galapagos giant tortoises and see some of them close up as well as our first look at an iguana. Learning about the breeding program and seeing them  was cool. It's hard to imagine how big they really are - just amazing and there are unique species for each island. Evolution in real life.

Guess what happened on the walk back- yup; more rain. It took a while to dry off for dinner but no worries. Met a couple from Oxford (Jill and Richard) and then had dinner with the pair of ladies from SoCal we had met at our hotel. Looks like early to bed as we have a 7am call for our upcoming day at Island Espanola including our first snorkel after lunch.  

Day 3- Don't step on the Iguana

Our first night aboard was a bit of a struggle. A noisy engine and a rock and roll cruise en-route to Espanola made it tough. Thanks to Jenn we brought AND used earplugs; as for the rocking, it just took a few hours to get use to it. No seasickness and  by midnight or so we were asleep. 

Awoke at 7 (even Bonnie), breakfast and then on to the island to be greeted by  colonies of sea lions and iguanas. Learned plenty about them from Emillio, our guide, but just watching them move around and totally ignore us was mesmerizing As we set out on our hike the watchword was "don't step on the iguana". The smaller land ones were sometimes hard to see and the larger marine ones just seemed to appear on a rock from nowhere. Beautiful colors; especially the males. It was a reasonable hike to see a boobie colony, blue and nazca but no red in this area. Eventually we ended up by a blowhole where we saw more iguana's on the tall rocks and in the water, then back to the beach. Along the way we saw a Galapagos hawk. The hike was definitely a little stressful, between the humidity and walking on rocks we were ready for the ice tea when we arrived back at the boat.

After a nice lunch with a fellow pilot and his girlfriend (Michael & Donna) we relaxed and then headed for some beach and snorkel at Gardener Bay. When we arrived we found a beach full of sea lions! They were spread along the entire beach, 100's of them just soaking up rays and snoozing the afternoon away. Snorkeling was good, but we had to head pretty far out to some rocks, to have clearer water where we saw some yellow razor tail fish (and others). Ended the afternoon with some time joining the sea lions for a snooze and then a BBQ dinner on the top deck was nice with a  great view and a nice breeze while the sun settled behind Espanola island. 

A little star gazing on the deck rounded out our first full day. Tomorrow promises to be another great day with 3 snorkel opportunities, a visit to the post office and more animals, including sea turtles, we hope. Hopefully a little less rock'n'roll will make for a better sleep tonight.

Day 4 - Snorkel Heaven

Definitely less rock'n'roll and we had a pretty good night's sleep. For sure this was the day of snorkeling. Morning hike across the island to see turtles and sharks but unfortunately there were none today,although we did see a flamingo in flight on the walk across and the view from the other side of Floriana was fantastic. Another snorkel, and a few nice pics of a parrot fish and a ray.  Then back to the boat for lunch. One bad event was my new underwater camera failed right after the snorkel- just my luck! After lunch we headed for another snorkel site that turned out to be amazing! The sea lions were in the water with us as well as a ton of fish, it was fantastic; too bad no underwater camera- oh well. 

Back to the boat for a quick rest, then back to the other side of the island for a trip to the post office. We looked for Sheryl's card but it wasn't to be found, although we did find one to be delivered in Santa Clara and one in Del Mar, so we took both. It should be fun delivering them. We left one to be sent to Sheryl, hopefully someone will pick it up and deliver it to her for us. More snorkeling, this time there were tons of rays and Sea Turtles - Yea! But again not a working underwater camera although I jury rigged one with a plastic seal bag and Sheryl's old camera, ok but not what I wanted. 

When we returned to the boat-Surprise- ice cream for a treat. Bonnie had a little too much liquor topping but she slept it off before dinner. Tomorrow many of our cruise-mates will be getting off and some new ones will be joining us. It's goodbye to Miranda and Scott from London, Val and Kareem from Beruit, Michael and Donna from PA and DC, the Dr.and his gf from Long Island and some people we didn't  meet from Germany, Finland, and Holland. With the Aussies ( including another Stuart), the ladies from Ventura, and Richard and Jill from UK staying aboard you can see it was a real international group. Wonder what interesting animals and people tomorrow will bring.

Day 5- 3 Islands and the newbies arrive

After a  good night's sleep we had a slightly earlier wake up call at 6:30 to accommodate those leaving the ship. I guess it will be good practice for when we leave in 4 days as we have a 6am wakeup that day. Bonnie seems to have come down with a cold, and since we share our water bottles on the trail I guess I am next. A special treat after breakfast were the Galapagos sharks swimming around the boat - have to rethink snorkeling today- ha ha. 
 

Had a nice easy walk around Seymore Norte, with the highlight seeing the frigate birds with the male's red balloon all puffed out trying to attract a mate.  There were also some sea lions, cute baby ones for sure, and some marine iguanas. I think we are getting used to just being around all these animals. 

 

Said farewell to our new friends then off for a relaxing snorkel. Water was perfect temp and we enjoyed the day,  although it was bit murky to see much. The highlight was watching the brown pelicans dive for fish. Back on the boat for lunch and a restful afternoon (e.g. naps) before our next hike at Dragon hill on Santa Cruz. As we motored over to dragon hill it began to pour and continued to do so for the first part of our hike resulting in a red mud slosh instead of a hike. We learned about the goat problems in the Galapagos and how the are using the Judas and sex poison method to eradicate them. Saw a pair of flamingos pretty close up. Back to the boat and prepared for dinner and the welcome cocktail (again). Definitely another international group with Aussies, Swiss, Swedes, Dutch, Canadians and Americans.  We had a real after dinner treat as a trio of Galapagos sharks were circling the boat as well as sea lions and flying fish. The sea lion made a meal out of the fish and the sharks kept circling. Snorkeling tomorrow will be for the brave ones only. We will be off to 2 new islands and 2 more snorkel sessions; hopefully the great weather will return. 

Day 6- Rabida and more animals

With the boat moored for the night we had a restful sleep, although I definitely have the cold now as I ran a slight fever during the night, but a couple of Tylenol and it was time to hit our next  island. 

We started with a panga (zodiak) ride along the cliffs where we saw blue-footed boobies, fur sea-lions, iguanas, razor fish and brown pelicans. They all posed together so nicely for us, just one big Galapagos family.

 As we landed for our hike we were met by 3 baby sea-lions. As we walked over to see them the male came out of the water to chase us away- he was serious so we backed away quickly. A short hike followed where Daniel explained how animals and plants came to the island as well as some geological history of the area. We saw some amazing views and interesting cacti on the hike. By the end we were all ready to hit the water. The snorkeling was fantastic with good visibility and a huge variety of fish, including white tipped sharks circling below! A friendly sea-lion even joined us. Rabida is certainly one of our favorite islands. 

Back on board just as another downpour began. Best lunch yet; chicken lasagna. Seems like the food kicked up a notch since our stop in Baltra. Lunch was with a couple from Sweden, very nice and they were even hockey fans!

 Started our tour of Port Egos on Santiago with a short lecture on how it was attempted to be colonized and the damage it did to the ecosystem. Hiked to see a huge colony of marine iguanas and learned  they were unique to Galapagos and descendants of green iguanas from the mainland.  Then out to the fur sea lion grotto,but they were out for dinner. Returned for more snorkeling, more sharks and a huge school of razor fish, but no sea turtles-maybe tomorrow. Started the engines to head on the long trip to Fernandina tonight including 2 crossings the equator. 

Day 7- Billions and Billions of Iguanas

After a good night's sleep and breakfast we headed to the newest of the Galapagos islands; Fernandina. Iguanas, iguanas and more iguanas. Although there were a few of the smaller lava ones, most were the marine ones, seemed like billions and billions of them, many of them quite large. They are the largest in the archipelago due to the plentiful food supply from the nearby currents. We also saw some " honu" feeding by the shore along with flightless cormorant birds and the Galapagos hawk. But everywhere we turned there were marine iguanas and we were even able to see their nesting site. If I did not know better I would have thought they were aliens preparing for an earth invasion. Time to relax on board before and after what turned out to be an excellent Ecuadorian lunch of shrimp cevici with popcorn fried bananas and tree tomatoes, yumm. We have a busy afternoon ahead; snorkel, panga ride and a hike. Maybe we will be lucky enough to see the Galapagos penguin. The camera story continues- worked last night not this morning and by lunch with a strong shot of hot hair dryer air it seems it is struggling to recover, so we will cross our fingers for the next snorkel. 

It turned out to be another great snorkel, even with a misty rain the entire time. Lots of marine life including a few marine iguanas feeding in the water (check out the video), sea turtles, colorful fish and a Galapagos penguin watching us from a ledge. The highlight had to be the golden rays; first there were 2 in formation, which was pretty cool, but that was just the teaser as right behind them was a whole school, at least 20 all together- WOW!

Back on board for a quick change in preparation for a panga ride(still raining) and a short hike,yes,in the rain.  More Galapagos penguins, blue footed boobies, cormorant  and a sea turtle. Are we just getting immune to all this wildlife; I hope not but think it might be so. Need to really enjoy these last days of unique animals and not take them for granted. 

The hike was optional and many chose not to go ( including Bonnie); they missed nothing. Two hundred meters up in the rain to see Darwin Lake- no life due to it's high salinity from the surrounding soil; 3x ocean salinity. Back to the ship for an ice cream treat  and a nap before dinner. Only downer is the underwater camera is still non- functional and my plan B with Sheryl's old camera and a waterproof bag is a kludge at best and I don't really have much of a way to see if the videos are even working. After dinner we had a short celebration for crossing the equator and I welcomed all the Aussies to our hemisphere. Tommorow looks like another great day with a hike up Bartholome to see the pinnacle rock view, probably the most famous view in the Galapagos islands, followed by another snorkel and then a panga ride at black turtle cove. It's 10pm and I am beat from both fighting this cold and one of our busier days on board. Off to sleep and looking forward to our last full day in this unique place. 

Day 8 Vistas and Turtles

A clear and calm morning as we awoke in front of Bartolome island, one of the younger islands with few inhabitants. A hike to the top to see the vistas and the famous pinnacle rock was exhilarating ( 400 steps to the top). We were able to see many of the islands on such a clear day, can't remember if it was 7 or 9 but it was a lot. The terrain was very barren with only a little vegetation, almost like the moon with lots of lava features. 

We couldn't wait to snorkel as we had worked up a little sweat on the hike. The water was clear and cool and refreshing but alas no sharks, turtles, or penguins. The fish we saw were colorful and plentiful so it was certainly an enjoyable final plunge for our trip. A quick lunch and motor to Santa Cruz(again) for our panga ride through black turtle cove. 

We now know how lucky we were most of the week to have had overcast and even rainy afternoons. This afternoon was a high clear blue sky with the equatorial sun beating down on us for 90 minutes in our panga. We saw amazing sea turtles, some small and some huge; it was very cool. It took us a while to find them through the maze of mangrove trees that make up black turtle cove. They have roots hanging down like the banyan trees we have seen in Hawaii in order to get nutrients as the tide changes. The sea turtles were very graceful and it was nice to watch them in spite of the strong sun. 

Back on board for  some cold drinks before our BBQ seafood dinner on the top deck, which was excellent. We held our final briefing and retired to pack as we have a 6AM wakeup call and are expected off the boat with our luggage by 7:15 not our style but you do what you gotta do. It is hard to believe that it was only 1week ago when we arrived here; I feel like I  have been here a month and can barely remember what we saw the first few days- good thing for my journal and hopefully the pictures will remind me, although I am afraid all the iguanas are going to look alike to me. 

Day 9- Leaving Galapagos

Early up and off the boat as we head to the turtle reserve to see these magnificent animals in a more natural habitat. They were way cool, and although most were in the lowland area laying eggs we were able to see them in a more natural space than the Darwin Center the first day. They were shy for sure. So impressive to learn all about them and realize this is the only area in the world they live. A few of our group tried on the shell- they understood why they move slowly (that's Aussie Stuart below)

Off to the airport for our return to Quito and a little souvenir shopping, Ecuadorian soup and ceviche for dinner and early to bed for a 4:30 AM wake-up to catch an early flight home. If will be nice to return to California, but it was an amazing experience being in this unique place. 

Day 10- It's over

Amazingly, 21 days ago we thought we were heading to Egypt and now we are on our way back from the Galapagos Islands, a place we are glad we went and would not have wanted to miss. It will take a while to absorb it all so I'll improve this final post when I am done editing the rest of them. There is no way to describe in words the experience of being there. Thanks again to Sheryl for being our inspiration on this trip and bon voyage to any of you that choose to take this journey, you won't regret it.

Our Favorite Pictures Album

Here is a link to the slideshow of our favorite pictures, they will show full screen and you can use the arrows to advance at your own pace, or you can just watch them below by clicking on the play arrow. (sorry no videos yet):