Genovesa Island

01 Dec 2011

Boats at anchor in the Genovesa flooded caldera

Overnight, we crossed the equator back into the northern hemisphere, just!  We are just a few minutes north of the line in the flooded caldera that is Genovesa Island.  Apart from the entrance, we are almost entirely surround by land.

Prince Philip's Steps

After breakfast, it's the usual routine, grab cameras, binoculars, drinking water, sun-block and trainers and into the dinghys.  Our landing point is Prince Philip Steps,named after his Royal Highness following his visit in the 1960s.  This was to be our first encounter with Reds-footed Boobies who nest in low bushes.  They are rather comical with blue face and bill and bright red feet.  We also saw lots of Blue-footed Boobies and Nazca Boobies, the latter mainly white with a black mask on their face.  Also nesting were Frigate birds and we even saw a Short-Eared Owl, hiding in the rocks.  The owls mainly eat the Galapagos Shearwaters, of which there were tens of thousands flying around the island. Shearwaters nest in holes, so the owls sit outside the holes.

Short-eared Owl

The birds on these islands have no fear of predators, so often you have to step over them as they are on the path, they also nest in bushes at eye-level along the path, so nature is really in your face here.

Blue-footed Booby

After lunch, we were taken across the caldera in the dinghys to a low cliff,  Here, we heaved ourselves over the side and went snorkelling, primarily looking for Hammerhead Sharks.  There were lots of familiar reef fish here and eventually, we found a Hammerhead cruising just below us, a magnificent sight!

Nazca Booby

Our guide was feeling cold at this stage so he got back in the dinghy, whilst we started snorkelling back to our start point.  Because the snorkelling site is on the inside walls of the flooded volcano, the walls just disappear down into the gloom, but sometime where the wall had collapsed, we could see the bottom and found a school of Manta Rays just below us, we were so lucky.

Back to the boat for lunch and after a break we headed back to the shore, this time at Darwin Bay where we went for a brief walk along the cliff and saw all the usual boobies, Herons and Frigate Birds.  When we arrived back at the beach, we went snorkelling again, but it wasn't as good as the morning snorkel.  That said, we did get to swim with four, two-metre long, White-Tipped Reef Sharks, who were only a metre or two away from us.  As usual, they weren't really interested in us, but it is the only time I've snorkelled with them, usually I've seen them whilst diving!

Red-footed Booby

Back on the boat, we have dinner and prepare ourselves for another long overnight cruise.

Santa Cruz and Baltra Islands

30 Nov 2011


We are getting used to the long overnight cruises, but we don't sleep particularly well, especially when the boat rolls and we think we are going to be flung out of bed!  The pitching isn't so bad, although sometimes when your head is below the height of your feet, it feels a bit weird.

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Dawn at Santa Cruz Island

This morning, after breakfast, we landed on Bacha Beach on northern Santa Cruz Island.  we found Pelicans, Whimbrels, Sanderlings, Common Noddies, Flamingos, Pin-tailed Ducks and Great Herons. We also encounter a large, noisy group of American tourist that provided us with some entertainment!

Flamingo

 

Back on the boat, we sailed across to Baltra Island where the boat was refuelled.  We were confined to our cabins whilst this is going on for safety reasons!

Great Heron

After lunch, we arrived back off the coast of Santa Cruz at Black Turtle Creek.  We got into the dinghys and after a rather 'hairy' chase through the surf and around the rocks we entered the sheltered lagoon,and our boatmen took us around the brackish waters of the creeks that are surrounded by mangroves.  There were plenty of Night Herons, but most people were fascinated to see Turtles mating in the shallow waters.  Apparently the mating process takes several hours with the males clinging on to the backs of the females, whilst other hopeful males circle the couple!

Female Turtle

Also in the mangrove lakes we saw several large Rays and White-Tipped Reef Sharks, I had no idea Reef Sharks frequented such shallow lagoons!

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Lava Heron

Back on board ship we had dinner and the boat immediately pulled up the anchor for another long overnight cruise.  Some time around midnight, we will cross the equator back into the Northern Hemisphere.

Leon Dormida and San Cristobal Islands

29 Nov 2011


After another long overnight cruise, we arrived at Leon Dormida Island, just off the coast of San Cristobal Island.  Most people are becoming acclimatised to the boat now, and most managed a decent nights sleep, despite the slight swell.

The boat hadn't anchored and we slowly cruised around the impressive lava cliffs of Leon Dormida, or Sleeping Lion in spanish.  We had been expecting loads of sea birds to be nesting on the cliffs, but the birds don't really have predators, so most nest in low bushes or on the ground. We did see a few Blue-footed Boobies and Frigate birds roosting in bushes though.

Leon Dormida Island

We then had breakfast whilst the boat cruised on to Puerto Baquarizo Moreno on southern San Cristobal Island.  This is quite a big port and we came ashore onto a jetty in the middle of town.  A bus was waiting to take us to the Interpretation Centre where we learned more about the formation of the islands, the colonisation by birds, animals and plants and finally a bit about the human history of the islands, including inevitably Charles Darwin.

Puerto Baquarizo Moreno - San Cristobal

Back in town we were free to wander around for an hour or so, and most took the chance to visit the tourist shops on the sea-front and have a beer or coffee.  We ate an icecream sitting on bench by the sea, with two Sea-Lions sound asleep underneath the bench next to us!

Basking Sea-Lion on the Promenade

We had lunch on board, then returned to the port and a trip to a beach just outside town for some snorkelling.  The sea was quite rough and the bay a bit stony, but immediately I put my head in the water I encountered a large female Turtle.  As I swam around I found two more turtles cruising around in the shallow water.  As usual, we shared the beach with Sea-Lion.  The dominant Bull cruises up and down the beach, sometimes lurching up on to shore if it spots another male trying to sneak in for a look at his harem of female Sea-Lions.

Bull Sea-Lion - beach-master

We did see a tourist deciding to rush into the water for a swim, whilst the male was passing.  The bulls can be aggressive, but in this instance got close enough to frighten the errant swimmer.

Passengers from Galapagos Voyager landing at the jetty

After an hour of lazing in the beach, we headed back into town and hopped on the dinghys back to the boat.

Espanola Island

28 Nov 2011

Following an overnight cruise, we woke up next to Punta Suarez on Espanola Island. I say woke up, but I suspect that many people didn't sleep well on the first overnight cruise.  No matter, we survived, which is as well as we have several more nights of cruising ahead of us.

Our cabin was one of two double-bedded cabins on the boat and was located on the starboard side of the boat on the main deck.  The windows above the deck looked out to the bow of the boat.  The side windows looked onto the outside passage-way running along the side of boat.  As well as a double bed, we had a small cupboard, some drawers under the bed and a small shower-room with loo and washbasin in it.  Due to the size of the boat, one side of the bed was against a wall (my side of the bed!).

There were 4 cabins, two doubles and two twins, on this deck as well as the dining room and lounge area. Right at the stern, there was an open fantail deck which we used for getting on and off dinghys.  On the deck above, were a further four twin-bed cabins, the bridge and a covered sun deck at the stern.  Above this, was an open sun deck with loungers and the all-important washing-line!  Some days our boat looked a bit like a floating laundry.

Waved-Albatross Chick - a handsome little critter!

 

After breakfast, we boarded our dinghy and headed for Punta Suarez on Espanola Island, one of the most southerly of the islands we will visit.  Our walk on island included seeing myriads of marina Iguanas, Nazca Boobies, Sea-lions, Waved Albatrosses, Espanola Mockingbirds, and several Galapagos Hawks.  The Waved Albatrosses only nest on this island and it is the end of the breeding season, so it was wonderful to see them and their horribly ugly babies.  We also saw a couple of adults going through the courtship rituals, but they won't mate this year as they are due to leave for the ocean-wandering life-style next month.

Adult Waved-Albatross

The photographers amongst us, have at last moved on from 'snapping' every cute baby bird/crab/seal immediately they step on shore and we are all getting a little blase about stepping over and around birds/crabs/iguanas that have absolutely no fear of humans.

Male Marine Iguana - or a Doctor Who character

Back on board the ship, lunch was served as we cruised to Gardiner Bay, then after time for lunch to digest, it was across to the beach for some snorkelling.  We had the thrill of snorkelling with Sea-Lions, although it is a little unnerving to see a grey shape heading toward you underwater.  They were just curious and never really got close to us.  We also saw quite a lot a large Rays as well.

Galapagos Mockingbird about to take up snorkelling

Back on ship we relaxed on deck until dinnertime.  Following dinner most people went to bed fairly early to catch up with sleep, and to attempt to get to sleep before we started moving again.

Santa Cruz Island - South Plaza Island - Santa Fe Island

27 Nov 2011


Our slumbers on board were rudely disturbed at 3.00 with the ships anchor being pulled up and the chain being stored directly under our cabin!  We slept fitfully, as we continued cruising until 6.00 when the anchor went back down.

Galapagos Voyager moored at South Plaza Island

At breakfast at 7.00, this was to become routine breakfast time, we found ourselves anchored alongside South Plaza Island.  On the low cliffs we could see lots of sea-birds roosting and overhead, Frigate Birds and one or two Red-Billed Tropic-birds.

Not long after breakfast, we did a 'dry-landing' on South Plaza island and made the acquaintance of Galapagos Sea-lions.  'Dry landing' meant our inflatable dinghy pulling up to a jetty/steps/rocks so we could step off in trainers.

Sally-Lightfoot Crab

After a walk with our guide, Williams, we returned to the boat with cameras full of pictures of birds, Sally-lighfoot Crabs and Land Iguanas.

Male Land Iguana in breeding colours

The boat then sailed to Santa Fe Island whilst we had lunch.

After lunch, it was into the dinghy and off to Barrington Bay where we had a 'wet-landing'.  This entailed reversing the dinghy into a beach, then all of us clambering out into the sea to walk up onto the beach.  During this landing, we started to get to know the 'foibles'of some of our fellow guests.  Watching someone hopping around on a sandy beach trying to rinse sand of feet, dry feet, put socks on and then lace up trainers did provide some amusement!

Bull Sea-Lion guarding his beach

Shortly after getting out of the boat a male Sea-Lion charged up the beach to inspect us and make lots of noise to impress his rivals!  After a short walk around, we had the chance to snorkel. The water was cool, but the visibility was good and we saw lots of reef fish, Parrot-fish, Bump-head Wrasse, Giant Damselle fish, Puffer fish and Sergeant-majors.

Back on the boat we had a chance to relax before dinner with a beer.  We then attended the 6.30 briefing, during which Williams told us the plans for the next 24 hours.  After this we had a three-course dinner, which once again was excellent.  Not long after dinner, the anchor came up and we we headed for Espanola Island, a seven hour overnight cruise away.  The sea was a little choppy, and several people started to suffer from sea-sickness.

Quito - Galapagos Islands

26 Nov 2011

Quito - Galapagos

5.30 is a great time of the morning - oh yes it is!  Another trip back to the airport awaited us after breakfast, but at least as it was weekend, the traffic was a little less mad.

Quito airport made up for it in spades though!  Check in reminded me of a rock concert just after they open the doors and everyone is trying to get to the front by the stage.  After some searching, we did find there were a number of what might have been queues, but no visual sign about which desk was handling which flight. There were flights to Cuenca, Coca, Guayaquil and Baltra all leaving at roughly the same time.  People for the earliest flight to Cuenca were behind us and they were sometimes helped by officials to get to the front of the scrum.  Suddenly, our 'queue' started moving and we managed to pick up boarding passes and check in our luggage.  By this time it was less than 30 minutes before our flight was due to leave and we still had security to deal with.

Once in the departure lounge, we heard that final boarding for our flight was taking place, so we rushed straight through and out onto the tarmac where there were 2 aircraft.  Luckily, we got the right one, because there was no obvious signs as to which was going where.

Amazingly, the flight almost left on time and we headed to Guayaquil some 30 minutes flying time away.  Guayaquil lies on the Pacific coast and is Ecuadors biggest city.  Once there, we stayed on the aircraft whilst many others left the flight.  The cleaners came on and cleaned around us and then quickly they started boarding more passengers.

New arrivals include a noisy party of South Koreans, but soon after we were airborne for the 2 hour flight out into the Pacific to the Galapagos Islands.  Also on our flight was a huge party from Tupperware who were on a day trip to the Galapagos! I wonder how much they had to sell to get a 'jolly' like that?

We had excellent views of some of the islands as we came in to land, the sea was an electric blue colour.  Once off the aircraft, we were carefully checked in to make sure that we'd payed our National Park Entrance Fee of $100. 

The main airport in the Galapagos is at Baltra, an airfield built by the Americans during the 2nd World War mainly to be able to defend the Panaman Canal not too far to the north.  The island is very flat and the foundations and ruins of the enormous airbase are still easily visible.

Arrivals was just a largish shed (perhaps I'm doing it a disfavour here) and luggage was moved into the shed on tractors and trailers. It was then uncermoniously dumped on the floor and a 'sniffer dog' let loose in amongst the bags.  Food and seeds are forbidden to be imported to the islands, in case it contaminates the ecostructure of the islands.

We boarded a small coach that took us to the channel between Baltra and Santa Cruz Islands.  Here we got off the coach and saw our luggage off a small lorry.  The bags were put on top of the ferry and we all climbed inside.  Once on the island of Santa Cruz, a bus was waiting for us and after loading our luggage, we headed south across the island, climbing all the time.

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Giant Land Tortoise

High up on the mountain, we took a short diversion to a farm where we saw in excess of 80 giant land tortoises, we decided that we'd seem larger in the Seychelles,  but it was interesting to see so many.

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Hot Giant Land Tortoises - trying to cool down

After an ice-cream, we continued on south, and back downhill, to Puerto Ayora.  This small town is the biggest on the island and has many shops, a few hotels and is where many people, including ourselves, join their small cruise boats.  We jumped into a inflatable dinghy and motored across to the Galapagos Voyager, our home for the next week.  The boat only has eight cabins so there are only ever 16 guests on board.

After a quick look at our cabin, we headed back to shore and went to visit the Charles Darwin Research Centre, whose main purpose is to preserve some of the rarer island tortoises.  Amongst the inmates of the Centre is 'Lonesome George' the only Giant Tortoise from the island of Pinto left on the planet

Back on board, we had a briefing about our programme for the next week and the ships routine was explained.  We were told that we would be sailing overnight between midnight and 3.00 in the morning and would be heading to South Plaza Island.

After an excellent dinner on board, we settled down in our small cabin for our first night aboard.

Cuenca - Quito

25 Nov 2011


Today we had a real treat, a lie-in!

Convent in Cuenca

After a late breakfast, we headed down to the Rio Tomebamba behind the hotel and saw hummingbirds, wagtails and Ruffous-collared Sparrows.  Following this, we packed our baga again and then crossed the road for a cup of coffee whilst we waited for our airport transport.

Spanish Colonial Houses - Cuenca

Much to our amazement, Cuenca airport is very modern and air-conditioned, so waiting for our flight was painless.  The flight was on time and we headed back north to Quito passing through a storm cloud shortly before landing.  I've rarely heard rain so hard on a aircraft fuselage whilst still airborne.

Quito airport was its usual chaotic self, but we found our tour rep who scooped us up and got us to our bus.  We were pleasantly suprised to find Lois 2 driving the bus!

Back at the Dann Carlton we collected our left luggage and headed back upstairs to unpack and repack in anticipation of our Galapagos trip tomorrow.

As it was still raining, we snuck through the hotel casino into a back street where we knew there was a restaurant next door to the hotel.  The decor in the restaurant was in the 'minimalist' style and had some odd features, not least a couple of tables surround by pink mosquito nets hung from the ceiling.  The food was, sort of, nouvelle fusion cuisine and very tasty, but the service was rather variable.  This might have been because it was the begining of a fiesta weekend and the restaurant was very busy.  Most of the women were given a rose on arrival, but we decided this was for those who had pre-booked.

Back at the hotel, we logged onto the internet, and shortly after that the room started swaying gently!  (I don't think the twos events were associated!)  It lasted about 30 seconds and we realised we'd experienced an earth tremor on the fifth floor of a building, an interesting experience!  (It seems that earth tremors are so normal, it didn't even make the local press.)  We did the last bits of packing and went to bed early as, guess what, we have another early start tomorrow!