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Arrival
We knew this was going to be a good trip before we even got on the boat.
Waiting at the jetty near the airport at Baltra we were treated to the sight of huge pelicans diving into the water and big sea lions lumbered past us (after posing for a few photos) to huffily reclaim the benches in case we dared to sit down ourselves. We'd barely been on the boat 5 minutes when the crew's shouts alerted us to about 4 Galapagos sharks swimming around the boat looking for food. We weren't even in the national park zone yet, we hadn't even lifted the anchor.
Spondylus
Our boat, the good ship Spondylus, was a fairly strange looking one as it was all wood on the outside which was actually really nice, although it looked a lot like Noah´s Ark. It took 16 passengers and 8 crew and had a large sun deck upstairs with loads of nice sofas and a bar and seating area undercover downstairs. The cabins were pretty small and the showers were tiny but still it was worth it for life on the ocean's wave.
There were 2 changeover days on the boat Monday and Thursday so we spent our week with 2 different groups of people as only 1 couple travelled Monday to Monday like us. Both groups were really nice. The first was virtually all European and about the same age as ourselves whereas the second group was nearly all American and older than us but both groups were a lot of fun.
The crew were all really friendly, our guide Roderigo was a bit crazy, very off the wall but really nice and knew a lot. The food was also pretty good. Again 3 course lunches and dinners so our waist lines have still not stopped expanding by any means.
The first night on board was pretty rocky which left me feeling slightly queasy but I got used to it pretty quickly and the rocking actually put me to sleep so I tended to have 2 or 3 naps a day! We went through a really rough patch on our last night, my birthday. The 4 of us who were still up had to throw ourselves out of the way of rolling wine bottles only to get covered in ketchup as bottles behind us flew of the tables and smashed on the floor.
The nights on the top deck were really lovely. We saw some really good sunsets and the stars were amazing. We could see so many. Weird to see the North Star and the Southern Cross all in one go.
The Islands
We visited 1 or 2 islands every day. The itinerary was something like this:
The islands themselves are not beautiful. Most of them are very barren and any vegetation are usually cacti or palo santos trees which have no leaves. The islands are products of volcanos so on some of them you can see massive lava flows and can walk/crawl through big lava tunnels. However some of the beaches are very nice with really pale, soft sand made from white coral and the water is gorgeous shades of blue and turquoise.
The animals
It is incredible how close you get to the animals on the Galapagos islands. They have absolutely no fear of humans whatsoever. Only the crabs seemed slightly dubious as we pushed cameras in their faces. The birds all nested on or next to the pathways that we were allowed to walk through. Blue-footed, red-footed and masked Boobies, Frigate birds and Albatrosses would happily feed their chicks and carry out their ridiculous looking courtship dances while we peered at them from inches away. One albatross was happily laying an egg as we tip toed past her.
It's a hard call to say which bird had the funniest 'love dance'. The Frigate males have a red balloon on their chest which they puff up as much as they can to capture a female´s attention. Whenever a female flew past they all made a funny noise and flapped their wings as much as possible in the vain hope of winning her attention.
Blue-footed Boobies have a different ritual where they pick up their left foot then their right a few times to show off their big blue feet. Then they raise the joint of their wings as high as possible and whistle. Then repeat. A lot. As they're repeating this ritual they gradually creep closer and closer to the female and then without warning have some sort of beak fight with her (not so romantic). Then the male hops off to find a very nice twig which he presents ceremoniously to the lady (not sure why as they don't actually build nests with twigs). Hmmm true love!
Most of the beaches were absolutely covered with sea lions. At first you think they are loads of rocks then you realise they are tons of sleeping sea lions. There is usually one massive male with a harem of 30 females and loads of little baby sea lions which are really cute. They spend most of the time sleeping but quite often when you go snorkeling the younger ones would be tempted to come in and play with you. This usually involved them swimming rings around you to show off and tie you up in knots while you tried to follow them. They like to show you they are superior! We also saw some fur seals off one of the islands which also happily swam with us showing us every single trick in the book with their spins and somersaults and rolls underwater - truly amazing!
We also got to see a few penguins (there are not many in the Galapagos). These birds liked to show off almost as much as the sea lions, posing for pictures on the rocks. In the water they were amazing. I could not believe how fast they were.They would shoot past before you had time to work out if it really was a penguin.
Snorkeling was absolutely amazing. We snorkeled twice nearly everyday and I saw so many amazing fish. Not sure of all of their names but I looked some up in a book and my favourite was a Moorish Idol. Also saw tons of angel fish, butterfly fish, wrasses, puffa fish some trumpet fish and a million others all different colours and patterns. Also managed to watch turtles underwater, some stingray and eagle ray, white tipped reef sharks (slightly scary). My favourite snorkeling session revealed turtles, sealions, penguins and a shark all in one go.
We also saw loads of land iguanas, marine iguanas and lava lizards, the odd snake (most impressively a Frigate bird diving down and scooping a snake off the beach), giant tortoises and my favourite on my birthday we saw a huge school (is that the right term?) of dolphins. There were at least 15 and they swam across the front of the boat all diving in and out of the water, it was really amazing to watch. We also thought we saw a whale but it was a bit far away so a slightly unconfirmed sighting!
Birthday
The last night on board was my birthday. We got treated to various birthday tunes on the tannoy system all day and the chef made me a huge cake with my name on it for after dinner which was really nice. We all got a cocktail to help celebrate which with the combo of champagne, red and white white and a rough sea was really enough! Combined with swimming with sealions and seeing dolphins made it a birthday to remember.
The Galapagos was an amazing experience - don't think we will ever see anything like it. Painfully expensive but absolutely worth it!
More photos to follow...
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The Hallgrens says:
Can you tell me what tour company your Galapagos trip was with? Were you satisfied with it? My husband and I will be there in May and are trying to decide who to use. Thanks!