GALAPAGOS ISLANDS 26. September - 03. October 2010

After I originally didn't want to go to the Galapagos, I fortunately changed my mind and booked a cruise.

The Galapagos islands belong to those places that are impossible to describe. Words like great and amazing just aren't good enough. And although the pictures might look great, they will not be able to show how amazing these islands are. Especially the animals. It is an unbelievable experience to see newborn sea lions, snorkel with sea turtles, eagle rays and penguins, see blue footed boobies and albatrosses, swim with sea lions and see marine iguanas. So, I will try my best to describe the beauty of the Galapagos.

The trip didn't start easily. The flight to the Galapagos was at 7am and I had to get up at 4am to get to the airport in time. Unfortunately I did not hear the alarm on my watch and only woke up when Carlos (the father of the house) knocked on my door to tell me that the taxi is waiting for me outside. Luckily I had packed everything the night before and was able to get downstairs in five minutes.

Lessons learned 2: The alarm on my watch is not sufficient.

I got to the airport in time and from the runway – and later from the plane - I had a great view of Cotopaxi.

After we arrived on the Galapagos and took a bus to the pier we got on board of the ENCANTADA. The boat is a nice old red sailing yacht. and had room for 12 passengers and the 6 person crew. Since I was traveling alone, I had to share a room with another passenger. Luckily I shared the cabin with a nice German guy, who also saved me with pills against motion sickness (Danke Dirk!).

The days on board were quite similar. Breakfast around 7am. One trip to one of the islands. Lunch back on board. Relaxing until 2 pm, snorkeling and/or another trip on land. After dinner I usually sat outside talking to Edin, one of the crew members. Life can be so good....

The food on boat was much better than expected. The meals always had a lot of fruits and veggies and were very fresh and delicious. I'm still amazed how they manage to prepare those meals in the tiny little kitchen. The cook definitely was doing a great job. Unfortunately our guide was quite useless and didn't know much.

The rest of the crew was very nice. Since I was the only woman traveling alone at the beginning, I got special attention from the crew members. ;-) It was interesting to talk to the crew members about there life on and off the boat. Working for three months and then having one month off for sure is no easy life.

The first day we stopped at Black Turtle Bay on Santa Cruz Island. With the dinghy we drove through the mangrove forest. The landscape was quite interesting – trees with long roots everywhere in the water. The first bird we saw was a blue footed booby. Very funny looking bird with blue beak and blue feet. We also saw a lot of brown pelicans and other birds. But the highlight of this tour were some big sea turtles swimming close to the little boat. Amazing.

The next morning our first stop was on Rabida Island. The island has a beautiful red beach and sea lions enjoyed the morning sun all over the beach. There were many sea lions and they didn't mind people around them.

In the afternoon, we stopped at Isla Bartholomew for a short hike up to the top of the island were we had a good view.. We also went snorkeling from the beach. There weren't that many fish to see but a little sea lion was swimming with us. That was fun and an amazing experience. He was very curious and and  stayed very close to us. 

After a very rough night almost everyone was tired in the next morning and I wasn't the only one who got seasick at night. Fortunately my cabin mate gave me some pills against motion sickness and after a while I felt better and could sleep.

We spent the day on Genovesa Island. There were a lot of birds to see - Pelicans, Red footed boobies, Galapagos Owls,...
 

Over night we were driving for about 10 hours to South Plaza Island over quite rough water but I felt much better then the night before and slept well. Before breakfast we visited the island. The landscape was very interesting with huge cactus trees and red bushes. Later in the morning we visited the Charles Darwin Research Station on Santa Cruz where we could see huge land turtles. The tortoise were interesting to see but the Research Station was don't that nice with concrete boxes and fenced in animals. We also got to see Lonesome George, an 100-year old tortoise. 

Later on we walked to Tortuga Bay, a nice white sand beach, were we relaxed for a while. We spent some time in Puerto Ayora, the biggest city on the Galapagos with around 20,000 people and some hotels and restaurants. Part of the passengers left the boat and new passengers arrived. Although the boat is quite small and basic, after almost all day off the boat I was really looking forward to returning to the Encantada in the afternoon. After dinner the whole crew left the boat while we were still in the harbour and spent a few hours with families or friends in the city.

The next morning we went to the Post Office Bay. There is a mailbox, where people leave postcards and other people take them with them if they live close to the addressee. The cards will than be hand delivered. Since We also went into a dark lava tunnel. Nothing too spectacular, just a cave. Back at the beach we went snorkeling. There were two sea turtles in the water and it was awesome to swim very close to them. There were also two little penguins in the water and I was swimming next to them. They looked quite funny, swimming under water with their little wings. In the afternoon we went snorkeling at Devil's crown, an volcanic crater. Because of the strong current it wasn't that easy to swim. But there were so many fishes, it was unbelievable. It was so great, that I snorkeled the loop around the crater twice.

At our last stop in the afternoon we visited Pt. Cormorant which had an interesting landscape and a beautiful white beach. Of course there were some sea lions as well. Watching the sunset from the beach before returning to the boat was quite nice.

The next day we stopped at Espanola Island and the wild life was unbelievable. First our trail was blocked be a sea lion and her baby, only a few hours old and very tiny. A few meters later tons of iguanas were on the trail. I couldn't stop taking pictures of the many sea lion babies. Sooo cute. The landscape was interesting too. With black lava rocks and good waves smashing against the island. Black and greenish marine iguanas were everywhere. So where blue footed boobies. We could also see the last Albatross babies that were on the island before going south. Pretty big, but fluffy and cute. For me this island was the best island in the Galapagos because of all the wild life. After lunch we made a trip to the beach with more sea lions and beautiful white sand. We also went snorkeling and I swam with a sea turtle and saw a big ray in the water.

The last day we went to Santa Fe Island. The island had many cactus trees and of course a lot of sea lions. We also went snorkeling were we saw a group of eight huge eagle rays. 

Sunday morning after a short walk on North Seymore Island (more sea lions, boobies and frigate birds) before breakfast, it was time to leave the Encantada and say good bye to the crew. Together with Paul and Fiona from the UK, I went to Puerto Ayora. In the afternoon we went to the highlands in the center of the island to see some tortoise in the wild. The tortoise were huge and moved very slow. There was not much to do in Puerto Ayora on a Sunday afternoon, I walked around the town and relaxed on my last day on the Galapagos.

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