We met at the travel agency in the morning to pick up wetsuits and meet some fellow boat passengers. After a taxi – ferry – bus – bus combo to just get to the Seaman Journey we finally arrived at our ‘luxury’ floating home for the next 4 days and were greeted with cold flannels, drinks and snacks. The level of service given by the crew was impeccable and lasted the duration of the cruise.
After meeting our fellow 14 passengers we were given a briefing by our naturalist guide Marco and we set sail for Seymour North Island. Our first dry landing was a 2 hour walk and we saw hundreds of the ‘pirates of the air’ – frigate birds. We were just at the end of mating season and there were hundreds of nest all with different aged chicks in them. We were lucky to see a couple of the male birds with their big red pouches puffed up. We saw the famous blue-footed boobies from a distance and watched as the frigate birds tried to steal their food in mid-air.
It was back on the boat to change into our snorkelling gear and into the water. Hundreds of damsel and parrot fish swam around us and we were lucky to see both a huge trigger fish and a 5ft white tipped reef shark.
We were met by warm tea and a snack again and it was time to shower and change before our official welcome meeting and dinner. Marco warned us that the boat would now be sailing for 8 hours in very choppy waters and advised everyone to take a sea sickness tablet! Sure enough it was pretty hard to sleep through the rough crossing – and Dan and I don’t get sea sick normally!
The next 2 days worked along a similar theme with dry landings and snorkelling at Genovesa Island, Isla Plaza and Santa Fe.
Genovesa is home to a hundred thousand birds and this was a spectacular sight as we saw them in the air and on the ground. We were greeted by nesting Nazca, blue footed and red footed boobys, a couple of whom treated us to their courting display – a mix of ‘dancing’ and whistling to attract the female. These funny birds were a sight to behold and took no notice of us as we walked within inches of their nests and eggs.
We were also keeping our eyes peeled for the elusive short eared owl – Marco said he had never come away from the island without seeing one and was clearly worried when 1 hour in we still had spotted one! Luckily some eagle eyed members of our party spotted one flying and then one sitting on a rock – so well camouflaged it was hard to see!
Isla Plaza was home to large colonies of sea lions and we were lucky to see a number of pups of between a month and a year old – some of whom crawled right up to us out of curiosity! The Galapagos Park drums home the 2 metre rule and asks all visitor to keep 2 meters away from any animals but it was hard when the animals were coming up to you!
Santa Fe was a beautiful spot and we moored in a cove surrounded by beaches and turquoise water. We could hear the sea lions calling and could spot rays and turtles from the boat. Some passengers decided this was the spot to jump from the second deck of the boat which was fun but a bit scary!
As we walked our final dry landing we came across a sea lions colony with new pups – between 10 days and a month old! They were extremely cute and entertaining, everyone became very trigger happy on their cameras! Spectacular cacti grew on this island and land and marine iguanas took shade underneath them. Soon we were where everyone wanted to be – in the turquoise waters snorkelling and saw large groups of majestic spotted eagle rays, turtles, a shoal of large white tipped reef sharks and playful sea lions joining us for the swim.
The next morning we disembarked on San Cristobal island for a final trip to a giant tortoise breeding centre. We saw tortoises of every age from 1 month to 80 years and were particularly taken by their aggressive behaviour towards each other when eating, which we were told rarely happened in the wild.
Whilst extremely expensive, the cruise was a fantastic experience and the 1st class service and food complemented the amazing interaction we had with the birds and animals. Highlights for Dan and I were swimming and coming face to face with a 5’ shark (Dan) and a huge eagle spotted ray (me) as well as seeing the extremely cute and playful seal pups.
Back in Puerto Ayora we had a final meal in ‘Local Row’. During our week in the Galapagos we had some great meals, notably a fantastic steak at the Isla Grill, but the international restaurants were pretty expensive. ‘Local Row’ was a street of small, local restaurants who put all their tables outside in the closed off road every evening and put their fresh fish and lobster on display so you could walk up and down and choose exactly what you wanted to eat! We had a $5 lobster lunch one day and a fantastic whole bbq’d local Brujo fish between us on another night. This was by far the best and cheapest place to eat and the atmosphere was great! We topped the great meals off with 3 for $10 orange caipirinhas which were one of the best cocktails we’ve ever had!
As the taxi drove us back to the airport we were also lucky to see a number of wild tortoises in the fields which topped off an incredible 8 days!
Tiredbuthappytravels 