To the Galapagos

Map of Galapagos (with sea turtle)

A trip to the Galapagos Islands was in the back of my mind moving north, so with some help from Leonor and a friend of hers, I put together the plan.

I secured the last standby seat on the first of five daily flights. 600 miles into the Pacific, the 737 landed at Baltra, the primary airport of Glop. Two hours later I met the rest of the visitors aboard the Rumba. An international group- Sweden, Switzerland, Spain, and USA. We all got along well and enjoyed four nights/five days visiting eight islands.

Rumba

There were ten visitors, one guide and five crew on the 50 foot boat. And the food was good!

Boat travel varied between nights or days depending on the goal, or the landing the guide wanted to accomplish. The longest travel time was six hours (Rumba could do seven knots) the shortest thirty minutes.

Carlos, ship's cook

The landings were wet or dry, and with some rough seas, the dry some times were damp. Most landings were on beaches and amongst sea lions. The guide would explain the particular island's geology, flora and fauna.

Some Galapagos flora

Every landing had sea lions. They were so trusting Dominic (Swiss) laid down between several females and pups. Where in the world can you do that? You really do need to stay away from the dominant males. Either shore or water contacts can be dangerous, and no animal could be touched. We did not have any problems.

Dominic and the sea lions

Most beach landings involved snorkeling opportunities. We swam with sharks, sea lions, rays, and a multitude of tropical fish.

A dory trip, the first day, took us into Black Turtle cove-a mangrove bay that held dozens of sea turtles, sharks, fish and spotted rays. My photos do not show underwater objects well so images are limited. The water is clear enough to see 6 feet deep.

Sea turtle

Next stop was an opuntia cactus forest. Very old, and held countless land iguanas. Each island has different sized iguanas and some colony of sea birds. The most famous is the blue footed booby. Males have large pupils, females have small pupils.

Cactus forest

Iguana

Male and female Blue Footed Boobies

During the entire trip I saw and picked up two pieces of beach garbage. That indicates the educational program, run by The Ecuadoran Park service (and some stiff rules), have been successful in reaching the 200,000 annual visitors. How nice to walk on clean beaches!

More another time.

Hope all are well,

Paul