Galapagos 2006
Day 1 – Monday – Airports and travel
Manchester – queues and Dixons Polly realises she has lost her Travellers cheques
Heathrow – I realise i have left my cashcard in Dixons – 3 weeks in Sth America with the cash I have in my pocket then.
Miami – cool airport – recently built no ads – very minimalist – Brian Eno would approve
Quito – no bags – some tears – sent home after 23hrs of traveling with no wash bags and no change of clothes
Day 2 – Tuesday – Quito (click here to see route from hotel to Quito Airport on Google Earth)
up at about 6 and up wondering what to do about our bags – we have breakfast and have short dander around Quito – not a lot to report – smoggy as hell – Quito is the second highest capital city in the world at 2,875m but its odd in another way its surrounded by volcanoes – very active volcanoes, in fact in June of this year there were rumblings just south of the city and experts predict that Quito is due a big one.
back to the airport to relax for a bit and try to make some phone calls about our bag a GAP rep called Luis assures us he will pick up the bags later – we continue to lie around the hotel room then go for a walk in what appears to be the tourist bit with cafes with armed guards on the door – theme cafes and a plethora of karaoke bars – we do find a market and buy a Incas Vs Spanish chess set.
At 18:15 we meet our rep to hand over 500 for the Galapagos trip – my nerves are shot again – what if we don’t get our bags? Luis says he will take us out to the airport at 19:00 when another plane comes out and we will be able to get the luggage off that – we just sort of pray – 2 days wearing the same clothes and nothing to wash with is really depressing. Get to the airport and are greeted by the sight of Polly’s psychedelic bag – it’s quite beautiful – mine are there too – much relief all round
Day 3 – Wednesday – Arrive Galapagos – Gallery Here
(click here to see route from Baltra Airport to first ferry in Google Earth)
Up nice and early to pack our essentials for Galapagos – even having our essentials feels good – the camera lens John Kilgour has leant me particularly – to have gone to Galapagos without that would have been really disappointing. We check our emails before we leave civilisation for a few days. We get the taxi to Quito airport where we take one of the most beautiful flights I have ever taken over to Guayaquil, its a clear day and the views of the mountains are stunning, snow capped Cotopaxi particularly outstanding. We stop in Guayaquil where more passengers board and off to the island of Baltra in Galapagos.
Baltra is the most basic airport i have ever seen – and baggage reclaim should really be televised and turned into a spectator sport. From there its a bus and a boat and a bus over to Santa Cruz – its about this time that I realise that Galapagos is not the rocky archipelago I had in my head – that it is a real place with real people and the problems that comes with people… like landfill.
Santa Cruz is a pretty town – obviously undergoing some serious re-development it is home to the Charles Darwin centre and the ubiquitous strip of bars and tatty merchandise…certainly not as bad as some places and nothing more than is necessary – i think i just thought that it would be home only to scientist in lab coats with serious faces except when the topic of intelligent design comes up whereupon they laugh uproariously.
We stop in at the Darwin Research centre and to be honest I am not really sure what to make of it – its appears to be nothing more than a zoo – the guide too seems a little embarrassed by it – on the islands they have the most spectacular animals roaming free but for some reason they import animals like certain tortoises and have them in captivity for people to see – the ridiculousness of this is compounded when we walk out of the centre
and down to the pier where we see marine iguanas happily in the wild. The guide shrugs his shoulders and tells us ‘the Darwin Centre is a business too’.
Admittedly it does give us a chance to see the islands most famous inhabitant – Lonesome George, true to form he was being shy.
We pick up a few beers and and a pair of sandals and its off to our boat – the Pelikan for our fist night at sea… travel pills are provided complimentary.
Day 4 – Thursday – Floreana – Gallery Here
First night on board was interesting but i must admit to not feeling too bad – still waking at 5:30 each morning though. Our first date is with the pink flamingos – the pink flamingos here are famous for their pinkness – which comes from the food they get here – tourists are kept a huge distance from the feeding grounds due to the fact that anything which spooks the flamingos and scares them from the area could in fact be permanent.
Walking on past this area is a stunning beach which is near alive on the sea floor with sting-rays – in past days t
his may have seen more tourists paddling in the shallows trying to get close to the rays, but in this post steve-irwin world i think people were treating them with a little more caution than normal.
The afternoon was spent doing what was my first ever snorkel swim – its very difficult to describe,
anyone who has dived around coral or in tropical water will know what its like but snorkling in around the most fantastic shoals of brightly coloured fish, turtles, sea-lions, and even white tipped sharks is something that will last pretty long in my memory… as will getting lost and swimming out of the bay and headed in the general direction of Hawaii before realising and turning back
Day 5 – Friday – Espanola – Gallery Here
Possibly one of the worst nights sleep i have ever had as the boat felt like a cot being rocked by a drunk madman with Parkinson’s – pretty much everyone on board concurred and some even neglected to make the boat trip to Espanola due to illness.
Espanola was home to one of the largest Albatross colonies as well as a fantastic array of other wildlife Рwe started by seeing the marine iguanas near the pier where we made our dry landing Рthe colouring on some appeared to suggest that the iguanas were readying themselves for mating Рthis is a little early and could in fact be an indication of a mild el Ni̱o Рsomething which would not be wholly unexpected.
Galapagos has always been effect by el nino’s the first recorded *really* bad one being 400 years ago, then in 1982 then the famous one that brought the term to everyone’s lips in 97/98 – a bad el Niño plays havoc with the marine life – the change in water temperatures means that food cannot grow where it should and the entire food chain is disrupted which affects just about every creature on the islands – seals and turtles starve – sea life can be cut by as much as 1 third.
Back on board for a siesta and round to Gardner Bay where we snorkel in poor conditions but see plenty of turtles – on the beech the sound of ‘aw’s fills the air as crowds gather round a seal which 
appears to be abandoned by its mother – I am reminded of the bit in the book i am currently reading Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut when the narrator rants against the tourists who pick up seal cubs to pose for photographs , when the seal returns to its mother – its mother rejects it as its smell has changed – the seal is then starves to death – all for a photograph. There is no reason at all to suggest that this is what happened in this case – the more likely explanation is that its mother has gone to get it some food – but this coupled with the site of a sea-lion lying sleeping wrapped up in someone’s rucksack makes me wonder a little about the ecological footprint of tourism.
Back on board where we have a night crossing over to Santa Fe – this means a night of relative calm as we stop to sleep – my best nights sleep yet – retiring at 20:00 and up at 4:30 – beautiful
Day 6 – Saturday – Santa Fe – Gallery Here
Start the day feeling the best since the start of the holiday thanks a great 8hr sleep and straight into the water for a snorkel with playful sea-lions intent on chewing your flippers as you swam – the swim was interrupted by a flurry of activity from the boat and the pangas (dinghies equipped with an outboard) were rallied and picked the snorklers out of the water – whales had been sighted just out of the bay in the open water – we scrambled out but we had missed them – the Pelikan followed us out and picked up the panga passengers to continue the whale chase (’we’re gonna need a bigger boat’ indeed) about 20 minutes into the journey and we caught sight of our ‘prey’ a fin-whale coming to the surface. 
Next up was lunch and siesta before we sailed into Santa Plaza a tiny island (not formed volcanic but by coming to the surface) which was home to another huge amount of wildlife from the now ubiquitous land and marine iguanas to one of the largest Sea-Lion colonies on the Galapagos – a short walk around the island took us to the far side where we saw the bachelor colony – where sea-lions wounded in battle over territory had come to literally lick their wounds – rather than come
to this side by the relatively simple landing side they instead avoided this ‘claimed’ territory and climbed the cliff face to sprawl in the sun and try to rejuvenate from their last battle – not all made it and many carried vicious scars and battle wounds. This side of the island was also home to a sea-bird that we had not yet come across – the red billed tropic bird – distinctive by its ’streamer’ like tail – not easy to photograph at all due to the high winds.
The day ended with a beautiful sunset and an Attenborough documentary about the ‘dragons of Galapagos’ which frankly was not as good as seeing the real thing.
Day 7 – Santa Plaza – Gallery Here
This was to be our last day and consisted only of one stop – to an island where we stood a good chance of Frigate Birds mating all year round – this is something worth seeing as the Male Frigate Bird attracts a female by puffing out its chest which makes for a fantastic sight. This whole trip has been defined by the sight of Frigate Birds, opportunistic animals which get about 40% of their food from stealing from other birds an the rest from the cast-offs from boats, circling and following our boat throughout the journey.
The sight of their huge black outlines against the deep blue skies has made quite an impact – their silent following of our boat being one constant in an archipelago which can change dramatically from island to island – But to see them now as they try to attract a mate, makes them seem somehow comical compared to their stealth flights that we have become used to.
Unfortunately we do not have long to spend on this island and before long its back to Baltra where we undergo the chaos that is the airport once more… at least this time we have the use of a bar…. Next stop Qunito and on to Lima.