Galapagos Islands

We are so fortunate to be able to visit these extraordinary & unique islands - it's worth all the sailing to get here! 

 Soon after anchoring our agent, Bolivar, came out, (an agent is compulsory) he took our passports and other documents and returned an hour later with 2 customs men and a quarantine inspector.  The boat was inspected for plants and  insects – none found - and fruits & vegetables were looked at but only the oranges confiscated (to prevent yet another invasive strain entering the islands we guess).   

We paid just under $800 US which included our 3 National Park passes and we were stamped into the islands.  

                                                                                                                                                                                         

We were very excited to see our first sealions as they popped up under the boat.

                     First water-taxi trip to shore

The steps behind Harry & the small pontoon he is on are covered in sealions!

                                  Top view of steps...

Here in Wreck Bay, San Cristobal (Chatham Island) we have good holding for the anchor, a great little town 5 minutes away by water taxi, sealions swimming round the boat and barking through the night as well as blue-footed boobies, frigate birds and pelicans fishing around us.  

One of the unique cactus trees in flower in the main street.

      

          Sealions barring us from the board-walk

We even get the occasional turtle and marine iguana swimming past.  There is a good local market and a laundry that does an excellent wash/dry/fold and pack for $1 per kilo, such a treat.  The local restaurants do lunch or supper for $3 which is always delicious home-made soup followed by rice, boiled vegetables and fish or meat and they have all given Harry a choice of vegetarian meals (well, egg & potatoes or rice and veg!)

The sealions are fearless, great swimmers and they adore sunbathing and sleeping anywhere they can, especially on boats and in dinghies.  

This has ensured a good water-taxi business ($1 each way) as most of us do not want to risk leaving our dinghies at the dock and returning to find it full of smelly sealions!  

Molly, Harry & Emma

Harry has made new friends with Americans Emma & Molly on Elcie, and Justine & Colin on Full Monty.  
Emma took these great photos of frigate birds and pelicans from their boat when her Dad was gutting fish.

Harry had kayaked over to Elcie so the pelicans enjoyed their new vantage point.









John made a trade of 15 metres of old rope (our old genoa sheet) for a kayak paddle at one of the tour places, which means we now have 2 paddles which is much easier.

Harry & I kayaked over to the 2 swim platforms off the main beach that have been taken over by the sealions. 

 

5 or 6 young ones immediately swam over to see us and play around us which was great until we capsized, lost the camera which I was in the process of tying back on, and Harry’s bright blue T-shirt.  After a few efforts we managed to right the kayak and get back in without capsizing again but couldn’t see the camera.  We paddled back to the boat and returned in the dinghy with John and our fins & goggles to do a ‘grid’ search of the area.  After 10 minutes John spotted the T-shirt on the bottom and when he dived down the camera was beside it!  Can’t believe we got it back.  

The sealions , marine iguanas and bright orange ‘sally lightfoot’ crabs are on the rocks around the bay.  The iguanas are the only truly aquatic lizards and they graze on algae on the bottom of the sea, staying underwater for up to 40 minutes but as they use a lot of energy swimming they feed only 2 or 3 times a week.

A group of young marine iguanas enjoying the sunshine.

                                                                                                                                              In contrast to the dark grey marine iguanas the land iguanas are flamboyant in their bronze and gold skins.

The islands straddle the equator and the 90 degree west meridian, and are on a ‘hot spot’ between the Nazca, Cocos and Pacific tectonic plates.  97% of the islands are National Park and completely protected and the marine park extends for 40 miles offshore. 

 Even though it is all protected there are fishing fleets from around the world that lurk outside the boundary and often sneak in to fish.  The Equador government are trying really hard to protect the whole area, but it is a difficult job.

San Cristobal is the oldest island at 5 million years and the volcano here is dormant and contains a large fresh-water lake that provides the town with water (though all drinking water comes in by ship from Equador).  

 The stores ships arrive every 5 days with everything from potatoes to furniture on board.

 It is all ferried ashore in small barges.






The newest islands are Isabel and Fernandina, where there have been recent eruptions.  Charles Darwin visited the Galapagos on HMS Beagle and the Darwin Research centre is working hard with many experts from around the world to save the remaining species. 

A portrait gallery of giant tortoises

Chatham tortoise

Isabela tortoise

Floreana tortoise

Diego, an Espanola tortoise

The tortoise population on many islands was almost or completely wiped out by centuries of seafarers taking them for food and subsequently their fat being used as lamp oil.  One major problem, as with many other islands, is the invasion of dogs, cats, goats, pigs, donkeys and rats brought by humans.  They have successfully eradicated the wild pigs, goats, dogs and cats from a few islands and with captive breeding they have saved the populations of birds, iguanas and tortoises.  The dogs and cats eat the animals, the pigs destroy ground nests and the pigs, goats and donkeys eat all the greenery destroying both shade and food.  It was soon discovered that the pigs must be eliminated before the goats otherwise the undergrowth grows up and hides them!  

On our way up to the lake  

The volcano lake

We did a tour of the southern, inhabited area of San Cristobal and saw the frigate birds washing themselves in the fresh water of the volcano lake as we walked around the rim.  Then the clouds came across and the lake and birds disappeared into the fog - rather unexpected.  

                                                                                                                                                                                    

 Harry enjoyed visiting the strange tree house built in what is claimed to be the largest and oldest tree in Galapagos (imported trees from Equador in the 1880’s).  There is a small bar and café built by it, mainly constructed from beer bottles, and you can stay in the tree house but none of us really wanted to as it was rickety and grubby.

The room on the right is built out of beer crates

And the bar from beer bottles with a blue wine bottle lampshade.











We did a backpackers tour to other islands with fellow travellers from Norway, Switzerland, Holland, Germany and America, average age 20, all of whom were lovely.  

Half way between San Cristobal and Floreana Islands the skipper of our speed boat spotted a fin, stopped the boat and a huge whale shark swam slowly by - the largest shark in the world but a filter feeder so harmless but at around 20 feet long still pretty impressive.  John and our National Park guide, Wilson, both grabbed their fins and jumped in and John got these incredible photographs. 

Wilson had only seen 3 whale sharks before and this was my first – such a beautiful creature.

Floreana has a population of 130 and is the only island (so far) to have 100% green power.  It is also one that has a good source of water.  Floreana has a strange history of mainly Germans coming to live an isolated life and ending up disappearing in mysterious circumstances.   We went for a snorkel from the boat and I was in the main area with 3 German men who stripped off completely to get into their trunks – it was a very small space - Harry was horrified!

On Isabela we left at 7.30am to do a long trek up to the top of the active volcano where the crater is 10 km across (second largest in the world), it was hard going for me but well worth it for the view down into the crater, full of black and steaming lava. 

 

        Collapsed lava tunnels on the surface











As we started our descent the rain came down and soon all the paths were streams and little waterfalls making it very slippery and quite hard going.  We started to dry out once the truck had taken us down into the sunshine and off to a very late lunch.   

The following day we had another early start and were rewarded with sightings of white-tipped sharks and Galapagos penguins which are a sub-species of Humbolt penguins and the only equatorial ones.  They move around the islands following the colder currents and Harry has wanted to see one for years.

Penguin surrounded by blue-footed boobies

Last time we were here on Sara Jane we were only allowed to anchor in Santa Cruz and it was interesting to see how much it has developed since 2000 with new jetties and smarter, cleaner shops and streets. I got some stores here that aren’t available on San Cristobal such as popcorn, a sort of baked bean and tinned cream.

'School' at the Darwin Centre

 The Darwin centre is really interesting and was the last home of ‘Lonesome George’ who died last year – he was a Pinta long-necked tortoise and the last of his species.  We did see him in 2000 at the centre and Wilson told us that his body has been preserved along with DNA and other samples for future use.  He is very much the mascot of the islands as they do not want any more creatures to become extinct because of human activity.  

The tortoise population on Espanola Island was down to 12 females and 2 males when they were taken to the Darwin Centre.  A few years later San Diego zoo sent another male and over the past 25 years they have bred 800 and re-established a colony on the island.   The little ones are so cute, all numbered in different colour paint to show which island they come from.  They start off in small enclosures then spend a couple of years in an area that is almost like their home island to get them acclimatised.  When they are 3 – 5 years old and about a foot long they are big enough to survive predators and are then micro-chipped before being released on their home turf.

Harry is getting very good at his underwater photography and got these shots of turtles while being washed back & forth by the swell.  The turtles were grazing on seaweed off a beach a mile from the boat.

Our favourite land bird?  It has to be the ‘vampire’ finch.  Depending on which island they are on the Darwin finches have evolved to eat seeds or insects or to hold a twig or cactus spine and drill, but only one ended up on an island with no foliage.  So it evolved of course and now drinks blood from the boobies, just at the base of their feathers.  Impressive survival skills.

When we returned the solar panel and wind generator had kept the batteries topped up and the anchor light on.  The fridge & freezer run off the generator so we had cooled them down as much as possible then packed cushions on them – they were not too warm, thank goodness, and nothing had to be chucked out.

Santa Cruz Fish Market from the sea 

And from the land with a sealion begging for scraps - and chasing off the pelicans!









After 4 weeks here it is time to leave so we have logged in to a couple of Pacific radio nets to keep in touch with other boats.  We know Elcie is near Pitcairn now, Chaotic Harmony is in the Marquesas and other friends are either at sea or leaving the Galapagos soon so as to have plenty of time in French Polynesia before the next hurricane season.

 Harry & I have just finished scrubbing the weed off the waterline which was fun as a sealion was swimming around us and nibbling the weed on the propeller.  Two large puffer fish followed us around and ate all the barnacles and little crabs that I scraped off the wind-vane rudder but a lot of the tiny crabs landed on me first then had the cheek to nip me.   

We will leave at sunrise tomorrow, Sunday and will be heading SSW for over 2000 miles to get to our next stop, Easter Island, in about 16 days time.  As we can only anchor there if it is calm (same for Pitcairn) we may not get ashore so have to store for 5 weeks just in case.

We are really going to miss this wonderful place.