Galapagos Islands - Installment #1 - Jan 8-9, 2006

The Galapagos Islands are in a remote location 600 miles west of Ecuador as evidenced by the 11 1/2 hours of airplane travel plus another 7+ hours of wait time at the airports that I endured to get here. And I had it relatively easy (compared to others) flying from SFO to Miami to Guayaquil on Saturday, January 7th and Guayaquil to Baltra on Sunday morning. Our plane landed on a single airstrip on a desert-like island with virtually no visible life. We could see our ship as we came in for a landing and rather quickly made our way by bus and boat to embark on the M.S. Islander with Lindblad Expeditions.

Sting Ray

Sunset - Santa Cruz Island

A warm welcome awaited us with no rest for the weary. The ship is full with 45 passengers from near (Miami) and far (S. Africa) but mostly from the U.S. After an orientation and safety drill, we began our first excursion piling into four zodiacs (like big inflatable rafts with an outboard motor in the back) and exploring around the island in amongst the mangroves. The late afternoon light was stunning as we watched a great blue heron sunning itself on a rock and a large turtle swimming next to the boat. This was our first taste of what is to come this week and it was a feast for the eyes and the cameras - we watched bright red and blue crabs scurry along the black shoreline lava rocks and around the lounging marine iguanas. Blue footed boobies (they have ice blue webbed feet - very distinctive!) and brown pelicans posed amongst the desert vegetation. Cactus finches fluttered around the dormant cacti (the rainy season is about to begin so the limited vegetation is brown and dormant as it awaits the initial rains). And sharks swam along with the boats for much of the time. An amazing variety of wildlife to see in a confined area and in such a short period of time. What a fabulous introduction to this unique area of the world.

View of Pinnacle Rock from the top of Bartolome

Back on the ship, we had a tasty dinner and then headed to bed. An early night to get ready for an early morning. At six a.m. Monday, the wake up call came so those interested could disembark and hike up Bartolome. We had sailed overnight to reach this new location. The area looked like Mars with remnants of volcanic activity - cinder cones, lava rocks, lava tubes - all in the reddish brown color. The National Park Service built a boardwalk-like structure to allow hikers to climb to the top without eroding the delicate landscape. Initial bits of vegetation are starting to take hold in this porous surface. It is an area reminiscent of Hawaii but with no introduction of foreign plants or seed by man, it is a relatively pure view of the geologic process at work.

Ghost Crab

Marine Iguana

After a quick breakfast back on the ship and an introduction to snorkeling, we were back out in the zodiacs heading to the beach for another hike and then some snorkeling. The hike introduced us to oyster catchers (black birds with long red beaks), ghost crabs (almost see-thru grey color with intricate design work overlaid) that darted in and out of their holes in the sand, lazy sea lions and a penguin swimming in the surf. The snorkeling conditions were less than ideal with pretty murky water though we managed to see a few colorful fish here and there. After lunch, we had another opportunity to snorkel and hike. This time the snorkeling conditions were much better so we saw a variety of fish as well as a friendly sea lion that came by for a visit. Our hike led out along the coast of Santiago Island at low tide where we saw multitudes of marine iguanas, yellow warblers, sea lions and finally, reaching the end point, we came upon a group of fur seals. With the sun setting in the distance, it was quite a memorable walk.

Another early evening to prepare for a six a.m. wake up call to see the tortoises.