Cruising the Galapagos and Going Broke

We didn't have a Galapagos cruise booked ahead of time because our handy Lonely Planet guidebook said it was easy to get there and snag a last-minute deal.  Unfortunately trying to secure one was like trying to buy a campervan in New Zealand.  The minute we found a good trip, someone else would snag the last 2 spots just minutes ahead of us.  After a frustrating day of searching, we finally secured 2 spots on a 60-foot, 16-passenger ship called Daphne.  Our cruise would take us on a 8 day/7 night journey to several of the islands, with nature and snorkeling trips throughout the days.

Day 1 began in the late morning, with our group meeting at the local airport.  We had 4 other Americans, 2 Israelis, 1 guy from Malta, 2 Irish, 1 Brazilian, 1 Swiss, 1 guy from Guyana, and an English/Irish couple.  We met up with our tour guide/Level 3 Naturalist named Luis (possibly one of the smartest guys I've ever met), and boarded Daphne.  She wasn't nearly as nice as Reef Encounter in Australia, but it was still a nice boat plus we didn't have to wash dishes and clean the toilets.  We had an itty bitty room with bunk beds, and a private bathroom with hot water.  That was especially exciting since we had just spent 5 days in a hotel with only cold water.  We made one land visit and saw a beautiful white sand beach where the sea turtles nest.  We didn't get to see any babies hatching, but saw many nests and parts of eggshells spread about.

It was a great trip, and despite the astronomic costs, the Galapagos is an amazing place to visit and completely worth it

Day 2 was off to a bad start.  During the night Brian got sick once again, it seems he never fully recovered from Peru.  Over the next several days he spent a lot of quality time in the bathroom.  Because of that he was scared to eat (plus the food on board wasn't very good), and he started to look malnourished (see picture of his droopy pants).  Despite his illness, he was a good sport and still managed to attend all our shore and snorkel excursions.

Before I get too far into this article, please know that I'm not going to share all the knowledge that we acquired on the trip regarding the animals and their feeding habits, copulation, rearing of pups/chicks/etc, and that sort of thing.  It's all quite interesting, but the article would get way too long.

Anyway, on Day 2 we saw many animals - Swallow tail gulls, sea lions and pups, and land iguanas.  On Isla Santa Fe we stood on the beach surrounded by sea lions and witnessed a territory dispute between 2 large bulls.  Cool, but a bit scary considering their massive size and the fact that they were about 20 feet away from us.  We also got to snorkel and see sea turtles getting cleaned by small fish, but since the water was a freezing cold 65 degrees, it was a quick swim.

Day 3.  Brian is still sick.  We visited Isla Espanola where we saw red iguanas, many sea lions, an albatross mating colony, heaps of blue footed boobies, and nasca boobies.

Day 4.  Brian is still sick.   Spent time at Isla Santa Maria.  We saw a green sand beach made from volcanic green crystals, penguins, flamingos, more sea lions, and a turtle nesting area.  In the evening we were at port in the town of Puerto Ayora, so we were able to call home and check in with Dr. Hallgren regarding Brian's health.  He got the ok to start more antibiotics, hopefully things will clear up before he depletes the boat's entire supply of toilet paper.

Day 5.  Brian is on the mend.  We spent the morning at the Charles Darwin Research Center visiting the gigantic tortoises and the breeding center.  Afternoon was spent in the highlands where they roam free, and we visited some big sinkholes and a lava tube.

Day 6.  Brian looking almost perky.  My favorite day of the cruise.  Our morning nature walk was on Tower island, home to red footed boobies, great frigate birds (not to be confused with magnificent frigates), and nasca boobies.  The male frigate birds have a red pouch under their neck, similar to a deflated balloon.  When they mate, they blow them up and even fly around with them inflated.  After that we snorkeled, and saw big groups of hammerhead sharks!  We had already seen them diving, yet it was still exciting to swim right over them and experience it with the rest of the group, of which many had never seen a shark before in the wild.  After defrosting ourselves from the freezing shark-infested waters, we went for another nature walk, this time on Landslide Bay.  Saw more great frigates, more boobies, more sea lions.  But the best part was at the trail end on a cliff overlooking the ocean.  We looked down and saw big schools of Galapagos sharks (15+) feeding in the shallow water,  some as big as about 8 feet long.

Day 7.  Brian might be well enough for a beer tonight.  Walked around Isla Santiago, and saw fur seals which are actually not seals but sea lions.  Yes, I know that's confusing.  It took us a long time to understand it as well.  We snorkeled in the morning with sea turtles, but sat out the afternoon session of snorkeling with  jackass penguins because the water was just too darn cold.  It was actually a smart decision on our part, because we could actually see them better from the boat than the others could from underwater.  After that we all hiked to the top of Isla Barthalow, which looks the moon, and took a bunch of pictures.

Day 8.  Wouldn't you know Brian is all better for our last day on board?  We took one last early morning walk and saw more birds, more sea lions, more iguanas.

It was a great trip, and despite the astronomic costs, the Galapagos is an amazing place to visit and completely worth it.  We learned an incredible amount about the wildlife there, I learned where Malta and Guyana are, and Brian learned that Ciprofloxacin is truly his best friend.  We will never travel without it.

Anne

From Brian´s point of view:

As with all group tours, this one started the same in which Anne turns the outing into a Survivor show and makes a list of people that she would vote off of the island, or in this case, the boat.  Fortunately we were set with a decent group of travelers and only two people made her small castoff list..please don´t ask for names.

Among the diverse group traveling with us, were several photographers that seemed ready to turn their hobby into a profession with the quality of images they produced.  Keep in mind, they are not to be confused with the club, "Society of Nerd Photographers", that graced our presence during one of our island hops....see attached photo, are they taking photos of the Ecuadorian coast?

Anyway, Ecuador is a country that is going through some dramatic change, all of which will have consequences on the archipelago that we visited.  For instance, their new government is a socialist based platform (in theory this sounds good to the people, but I think we have learned from history that this will end in failure) that prefers to tax everything, and I mean everything, beyond belief.  With departure taxes closing in on 40 dollars per person, a Galapagos Park entrance tax of 100 dollars per person, and other tax-gouging techniques, our Galapagos visit will probably be a one time occurrence.  I just hope they use the money towards conservation of their precious wildlife sanctuary, something that they have now always done.

Back in the mid 90´s, the Ecuadorian government opened up fishing (outside of the protected archipelago) to sea cucumbers, which has essentially annihilated the species around the area.  We didn´t see one during our many snorkels or during our dive outing, probably the result of uncontrolled and reckless fisheries exporting their product to Asian markets (this is a bad thing..I would compare it to selling your soul to Satan).  Once the Asians learned of the bountiful resources located near and around the Galapagos, long line fishing vessels started to inhabit the area for the coveted shark fins that the Asians so much desire to put in their soup.  (My guess is that they feel the shark fin is a male enhancement helper...your thoughts?)  Fishing lines as long as 20 miles in length, with baited hooks every two to three feet, stroll the waters in an effort to catch and de-fin the predatory fish, leaving the remainder of the animal to drown in the open ocean.  Apparently they didn´t read the history books on the American Bison.  Moreover, on our first day we saw a Costa Rican boat docked near shore as it was caught within the protective boundaries of the archipelago and were told that it was a regular occurrence and probably happens much more frequently with the limited resources used to monitor illegal fishing.  (maybe they should use some of my 100 bucks to do more patrolling)  If it were up to me, any long line fishing boats would be open season for torpedoing and weapons practice for the US Navy.

This leaves me with my final thought.  There is much debate over Darwin´s Origin of Species and whether man evolved from the apes.  Many of the people that know me would be surprised to find that I believe that we have not.  In most cases, man acts far more violently and irrationally than the animals we are said to have evolved from.  To me, mankind has evolved little to nothing at all, and given the time, will destroy nearly everything worthwhile in life, including himself.  Whoa, deep thought.

bkh