Galapagos, A Summary Of

And so another travel chapter ends.  It is with a sense of achievement that I can proclaim to have lived up to my word and returned to South America solely to visit the Galapagos Islands.  The time frame has been perfect in order to achieve a sense of fulfillment in the amount I have seen and leave more than satisfied.  Financially the burden has been large.  These islands aren´t cheap, but I guess how you view this depends on what you value more, money or experience.

My final impressions of the place are as you would expect, different to what I had previously envisaged.  I came here to swim and play with both penguins and iguanas.  I leave here having done much more.  By far the most impressive undertaking of my trip was the eight day liveaboard scuba adventure to Wolf and Darwin Rocks.  The remainder of my time has entertained, although lacked somewhat when compared with my expectations of an adventurer´s paradise.

There is no doubting the significance of this place to the world.  It is incredible to see the more than obvious natural variances in so many species of animal.  These same differences were viewed by Charles Darwin all those years ago.  They captivated and helped inspire his hypothesis on the origin of species and evolution.  Here you can find evidence supporting these theories right on your door step.  There are flightless Cormorants, birds with stunted wings because they have evolved for a life in the water.  Vampire finches, little birds that have adapted to feed on the blood of other animals.  Marine iguanas, the world’s only ocean based lizard.  The list goes on. 

But with all these marvels within reach you find it almost impossible to feel as if you have truly grasped them.  This for me is the frustrating part.  Your expectations are of a real life discovery channel of wildlife but the actuality is somewhat less.   The Galapagos Islands are locked down tighter than the proverbial nuns....  And it is unfortunate for me to say this but I get a very real sense that it is mostly to protect the financial interests of the local population.  When staying on the islands, there is a tick and flick mentality to the tours offered.  This is probably why a multi day boat tour is preferable as you get some leeway with your activities.

 

When staying on the islands you will find that once you have been passed through the proverbial tourist meat grinder and seen all the usually array of pre-chewed sparkly stuff, you have one of two options.  You can sit on a beach and draw in the sand or you can bask in the one or two free activities on offer until the pain in your head gets too much.  In other words, once you have spent your money, you should leave.  But I had a month here and that was the time I was going to spend.  So I persisted.

Being a bit of an info geek and not averse to the odd bombing of scientific mumbo jumbo, I looked for interesting tours and the like to keep me happy.  Now my Spanish is nowhere near good enough for a scientific conversation, hence I signed up for the English speaking tours.  Unfortunately I was left wanting.  Almost all of my guides were less than convincing in both their mastery of the English language and their offerings of wisdom.  On the most part they managed to convey a definite sense of routine.  Hmmmm..... 1+1 = I know bad apples when I see them and these were bad apples.

Obviously I´m too Australian and bull headed to take well to this caper.  I thought “f@!k it, if these turkeys can´t give me what I want then I´ll just do it myself”.  That´s a big negatory on that one team leader....  Get off the happy happy little tourist merry go round and you will find out some fast facts of the non-sciencey type.  Like the one where happy little park rangers quickly become unhappy little park rangers when you decide to go and explore what it is that you want.  Result: they get $2,000 a head angry.  Even despite the fact you may have done absolutely nothing to interfere with anything.  Don´t expect any consistent reasoning for their displeasure either and the “oh, I´m an idiot tourist with no Spanish skills” trick only works the one time.  Cause now they know your name and details.  And they are very prudent on getting them exaaactly right.

FAST FACTS for the travelling public:  The deal is this:

You can snorkel where we tell you to, and if one suitable snorkelling hole for an island girt by sea and ridiculous marine wonder is not enough for you, you can take a tour J

Within the national park, you need a guided tour to do most activities unless it is designated otherwise.  And try to get off the designated path.  You will find a host of signs and rope fences preventing this.  On the other side of these fences lies...... you guessed it, a $2,000 fine!

You cannot approach within 2m of the wildlife unless you are on a boat tour then you can wedge a boat in the butt crack of any animal.

You definitely cannot by any stretch touch the animals unless they touch you, even if they are on your stuff or in your way.

Well Mr Park Ranger man, here is a list of animals that just happened to clamber on over and touched me.  Iguanas, turtles, giant tortoises, sharks, rays, fish, octopi, seals and the odd bird.  I must be the Ace freakin Ventura of the Galapagos.

All this out there though, it is not a bad place if your time is short or you are just looking for a place to relax and do nothing much during your travels.  I can think of more than a dozen other places though that would be cheaper to relax and do nothing much, but they probably don´t have seals you can just chill with.  Try not to get caught in the hype of not doing a boat tour around the islands.  I personally think this is a mistake.  The best stuff is the out of the way stuff and like the islands the wildlife is quite varied by local.  Now I will leave you with a little motto that will aid you in your decision making processes when visiting this area and it goes a little something like this:  It doesn´t pay to be tight on the Galapagos. 

And now for the good bit.  I won´t hate you much if you just scrolled down to the end looking for the pictures.  You can´t help a short attention span.  

Isabella Island.  The largest of the Galapagos archipelago and covered with many different kinds of volcanic rock.  It is like being on the moon.

On these rocks live many an aptly named Lava Lizard.  These little guys attend to those pesky insects so that you can relax and enjoy life.

Isabella is also home to some massive marine iguanas.  Could be a front rower.

Godzilla in waiting.

I think my quote was "The Galapagos are like the islands where all the left over animals went".  Flamingos....really.....

A Blue Footed Boobie targeting some unsuspecting little morsel.

Cute as hell sea lions.

Randy turtles.  Those guys in the background would prefer their privacy....

Underwater landscapes.

Underwater lava tunnels.

And people not following the rules.

Scuba Me!

Like all things you look forward to with great anticipation, they all come and go.  Some experiences leave you with a sense of disappointment and wanting while others, like this scuba trip, manage to blow your little mind.

So you know the experience was good, but how good is good and was it all good?  I think I will start with the tour group dynamic.  Imagine this: a tour worth a lot of money, a country not too far from the good ol US of A.  Worst possible outcome.... heaps of older yanks and little old me sitting on a boat 150nm off the Galapagos.  I must have said at some point in time “what are the chances of that?” because you guessed it!  Six rich Americans and little old me.  I was thinking real hard on how I could throw this trip and claim it on my travel insurance when I heard of a last minute inclusion to the itinerary.  He was a bloke called Denton who had accidentally missed the tour start date because he had got on the wrong plane in Guayaquil and ended up in the Jungle!  We would have to pick him up on our second day.  My thoughts were mixed as I was hoping to god he would be of a similar age to me and a complete dude, but I was also thinking “If he can´t get on the right plane to here, I ain´t buddying up with him in the middle of the bloody Pacific Ocean!”  But as the fortune gods would have it he ended up being a really cool Jamaican guy who just got the wrong end of the stick in Guayaquil.

So I had a friend!  And I needed it.  All the “back in California” and “I´ve had better here and seen better there” rubbish was wearing a little bit thin with this hot blooded bloke.  Wow, American tourists living up to their rep abroad, who would have thunk it?

But that was pretty much all the complaints I could have.  The crew were good, the food was great and the diving was out of this world!  We started our trip off with some introductory dives to get everyone used to the extra salty and retardedly cold conditions of the local waters (I am from sunny Australia, so I am allowed to say 19 degree C water is retardedly cold!).    The first few dive sites were close in to the main islands of the Galapagos and as such not to good on the ol quality meter.

 There were heaps of starfish....

As we moved further afield, the diving shifted up not just one gear but the whole gear box!  The waters became warmer (about 24 degrees C), the visibility improved massively and the animals, well.....holey crap!  Our first stop was Wolf Island where we encountered heaps of schooling hammer head and Galapagos sharks, big eagle rays and our first whale shark!  The whale shark encounter had me and my dive buddy excitedly punching the living hell out of each other under water as we were the only two to see this monster during our second dive safety stop.  On each dive I managed to employ some of my fish stalking skills to get extra close to these critters of the deep in order to bring you some photos that help portray the whole experience.

These guys were all around either soaring overhead or resting on the boat as we headed out.

There are lots of spotted eagle rays at Wolf.  This one is acting as a cleaning station for some jacks.

This is a black tip shark

One of many hammerheads.  They really don´t like to come too close.  Watch your bubbles if you want to approach them.

After Wolf Island, we moved on to Darwin Island where things bettered themselves yet again.  There were more sharks, including the odd whale shark, massive tuna, dolphins, octopi and the list goes on.  We saw schools of thousands of bonito being herded together by hungry dolphins.  I managed to run my finger from the tip to tail of a whale shark, dodging the dorsal and tail fins on the way.  It was nothing short of incredible.  I was in my element and not being afraid to get among it, I consistently got closer than anyone to the action.  And so the reputation of yet another crazy Aussie abroad continued.  It was absolutely amazing. 

Bonito by the tonne.  I discovered a little trick with these Ferrari´s of the ocean. Point at them and it is almost like trowing a lasoo around them.  They will now follow where you are pointing (at least for a little while).

Yep, there were many a hammerhead.

This is a big 12m mumma whale shark.  She was tagged earlier by some local scuba Steves with spearguns and tag prongs.

On top of a whale shark.  Bam!

The good life in front of Darwin´s Arch.

Quintessential Andrew.

The diving culminated with some very cold water dives to the north of Fernandina Island.  Here the waters were a little below 14 degrees C.  Wearing nothing but a 7mm suit and hood I soon came to feel the cold.  Consistently diving 30m and staying in the water for nearly an hour per dive, I became border line hypothermic.  After the second dive, my motor and neural skills declined rapidly and not even a 20 minute hot shower after could cure me.  I managed to bring my core temperature back by wrapping myself in all my clothes and lying on the sun deck of the boat for an hour.  It was for this reason that I decided to opt out of the third dive of the day and snorkel instead.  Best move EVER.  Because I did this, I was assigned a panga (tender) driver of my own to look over me as I did what I wanted too.  As we were heading off to the area I wanted to snorkel the driver spotted some orca.  At light speed we were over there right next to a massive mother a calf and what looked to be another juvenile.  The driver and I had spent some time getting to know each other earlier on the trip and I think it was because of this he quickly hit me up to see if I wanted to hop in.  As he hit me up the mumma orca breached showing a full set of pearly whites.  Massive.  I have to admit I was a little slow in my getting back to him on that one!  There were a few thoughts battling it out in my mind.  The first:  Big animal...BIG TEETH.  The second:  When are you going to get this chance again bro?  The third:  Just get in the water you girl.  And with that my mind was set and I was in.  But as soon as the orcas came they went and I actually didn´t get to see them in the cloudy waters.  ARRRRR! 

Mumma orca.  Big teeth.

All this was soon forgotten though because I was snorkelling less than a meter away from hunting penguins, grazing turtles and iguanas!  And none of them were going anywhere fast.  I just chilled in the water for some 60 minutes just soaking it all up.  It was the best snorkelling experience ever! 

Iguana in the water

And I mucked around with this little fella for a bit too.

But it was all about the pengiunos!

The last day of the tour was a land based day where we got to see some of the sights of the main Galapagos island, Santa Cruz.  These sights included the giant tortoises the Galapagos are so famous for.

Now I think I should do a service for all those of you who are thinking of ever scuba diving the Galapagos.  Here is what I have learnt in my time on the islands:

1. Land based diving is not even a shadow of what is on offer out wide upon a liveaboard.  But liveaboards are expensive as hell in comparison.  Last minute deals are readily available in the low season if you have the time to shop around.  You can fairly regularly save around the 25% mark.  But a word of advice is that the cost of hiring equipment is extra and pretty costly.  Then there are dive videos and gratuities.
2. Finding a tour from the Galapagos is what I did and it was very easy.  I booked through Scuba Iguana but there are other operators you can use.  It is easier than booking through an agent in Guayaquil or Quito because you can more readily find a place that specialises in scuba trips.  That said, you can just email the operators directly and negotiate that way.     
3. The best diving is during the period of the year when the Humboldt Current is in force and the waters are colder.  I would highly recommend October which is smack bang in the middle of the low season.  The skies may be pretty grey, but the waters are rammed with more animals than any other time of the year.
4. The diving is more advanced than the usual.  Currents can be pretty strong (3 knots or so) and the visibility out wide is still only limited to about 20m on a good day.  You will experience thermoclines that at any time can just wash in with the current.  Some temperature differentials were in the order of 6 degrees.
5. Though we did not experience any big swells, the group before us did.  This can make surfacing and getting back into the pangas (tenders) difficult.  You will more than likely be diving out of the pangas for all but your first dives.
6. Bottom time is important.  You want to be good on your air so that you can stay down longer to see as much action as possible.  Depths are consistently around the 20 to 30m mark.  Though I was diving on air, others were using Nitrox in order to not have to worry about their bottom times maxing out.  This forced me up on the odd occasion.
7. If you are using an underwater camera, the temperature differentials in the water play havoc with any condensation inside your housing.  Pack plenty of silica to try to counteract this.  
8. And finally, the Galapagos is about the big stuff.  The underwater landscapes are dull and drab.  It is the animals that make it amazing.  Hence as I mentioned earlier, go when the animals are at their peak.

The Big Dive Build Up

Now I do know that it is good story telling practice to set out a chronology of events so the general reading public have a reasonable chance to follow your ramblings.  But this time I am going to have to stray from this golden rule.  There are pressing matters that need to be addressed upfront my friends and now is the time!

 

The iguana situation is heading critical.  I have recently learnt that these critters aren´t as marine as their name would suggest.  As it turns out, they hate cold water and would rather wait till low tide to smack down that now exposed tasty tasty sea moss.  Three hours in a wetsuit in 18 degree water waiting for the buggers to get off their warm little rocks taught me this one.  THEN to spice it up a notch, there is some interracial goings on.  Marine iguanas have been getting their freak on with their local land dwelling cousins resulting in the world driest marine iguana.  Hmmmm, if the bible doesn´t cover that somewhere, then it should.  I am seriously thinking about just snatching one of these buggers of a rock and making my own marine happenings.  That’s right all, when nature gets weak, I am willing to put things right.

But point made, now return lets return to my chronology shall we... 

Sooo, these islands have way more than just not so marine iguanas.  We have: big yellow land iguanas, little iguanas, big turtles and tortoises, seals, sea lions, penguins, boobies (yep boobies herherher), sharks, orcas, whales etc, etc.  The coolest aspect of all this nature is that it is just there.  Yes, over there.  All you need to do is get out and see it.  So that was one of my first missions upon arrival. 

Numero uno on my list of out there activities was operation “Scuba Steve”.  The Galapagos is one of the world’s premier dive destinations and here I was with time galore to indulge.  Finding a dive itinerary was easy, but exceptionally costly.  To see what the Galapagos has to offer in all its splendor there is no denying that you have to do a liveaboard dive trip.  An eight day liveaboard dive charter costs in the order of 5,000 to 5,500 USD!  And this is for only 7 days of diving at 3 dives a day!  Expensive even when compared to Australia.  You have little choice in the matter either.  The best diving is some 20 hours away by boat and only a handful of operators have permits to travel there.  Market cornered... 

But this being the low season and all, I was hounded with last minute options, some with savings of around 25% on offer.  When the lady doing the dealing mentioned that the last trip had seen 20 whale sharks in one day coupled with a total of 12 sun fish, a bazillion hammer head sharks and some crazy big tuna etc, I was sold!  I would have ridden behind the dive boat for 20 hours on an inner tube to see that kind of stuff!  But instead they insisted I pay a s@!t tonne of money.   

Now to the drama of actually acquiring the money for the trip.  I will sum up my hassles with one concise sentence.  I HATE Australian Banks (big hate).  How can the most successful businesses in Australia be so poor at what they do?  Give me my friggin money, its simple!  The kind lady on the other end of the phone though explained to me however this is apparently not so.  This was right before I popped a capillary in my eye, turned big and green and mashed a village! But everything as always gets worked out if you have the motivation.  And I am a motivated motha when it comes to my diving! 

With five days to pass before my cruise starts, I had nothing to do other than explore.  I found quickly that there are a lot of areas around that are designated out of bounds.  I also found that if you just go a little beyond these boundaries there is some really cool stuff!  Now I did say that one of the things I was going to do when I got here was kick it marine iguana style on a rock to check out these little native critters.  Done....and it was COOL!  There were heaps of the little guys around the rocky headlands of Tortuga Bay (which you technically weren´t supposed to venture over).  The big fellas tended to keep a little distance from you but I found if you just go and sit down on the rocks near the water’s edge, the little iguanas practically swoon.  I had one guy traverse some 20m of rock to come and chill out right next to me. 

The little guy in person.  He knew how to compose a great photo.

Note to self but.  These guys have a whole nasal purge thing going where they clean excess salt they ingest from their bodies.  Yeah, they purge it a hell of a long way if you get my drift. Nasty.

There are also a number of other animals just out and about doing their thing.  Down at the boat ramp a local seal greets the fisherman when they arrive along with the usual brigade of beady eyed pelicans.  Little land based iguanas roam freely just on the edges of the town as well.  One challenged me to a duel by showing me his red neck and doing some pretty impressive push ups.  Lucky I´ve never dueled an iguana before and I´m trying to be more likable with nature, so I let him go this time.

I managed to pass a couple of other days with scuba diving day trips.  Now the Galapagos is not the most enthralling marine scape in the world, but it has buckets of marine life to spruce the gig up.  I have never seen so many fish in my life.  Most of my dives were clouded in bait balls.  Below are a few photos of the usual suspects you can be sure to see when you dive locally. 

Sand Eels by the dozen all darting back and forth like something from a Muppet show.  I love their little flip top heads. 

 

There were many fishes slackjawing.

The seals were making easy prey of these fishes.  One actually managed to chase a fish down and eat it a full 2m in front of us.  Das cool ya.

 

Now this is what an angry bull sea lion looks like moments before that little voice in your head goes "oh crap...."  This guy had a toothy lunge at me and nearly made it stick! 

The smaller guys were way more fun.  We spent about 10 min in the shallows with three of these guys as they darted around hamming it up for the cameras.

 More hamming.

And did I mention, these fellas are FAST!

Unfortunately, the water is not so clear locally and the temperature...well...not to good if you ain´t a plankton eating mammal from the subarctic bro.  All the more reason to look forward to the 8 days of diving bliss in the clear warmer waters 20 hours off the Galapagos. 

And to the present.  Chronology fully restored.  I am one day out from my trip and chilling it island style to some local beats.  I have met me a couple of Galapafolk who are wickedly friendly.  They introduced me to the rocket fuel they call Aguadiente and in return I introduced them to the words “awesome” and “awesomeness”.  They freaking love these words too, everything now is aaawesome!  I love South Americans.  Chou, Chou and a Choucitto.      

      

    

   

How to Blow a Month

And so, it begins again.  Avid readers and followers of my travel blog will know what exactly this entails.  Pragmatists will know the reasons why.  Yes, I am out for adventure.  Ordinary life is best suited for ordinary people.  Hey, this should be my new motto!  Frankly it is a little too neat and tidy for my liking.

What are we doing?  Where are we going?  And importantly, why?  Well it has to begin with some sort of discontent.  And it goes a little something like this. 

After the epic adventures that were, I returned to Australia anew.  I was full of invigorated ideas and plans for the future.  First, find a new engineering role away from the town whence I came.  Second, set up a new life dedicated to the pursuit of my engineering and other interests.  The rest, well it had not been composed in solid print yet but you get the idea.  Bigger, better, faster and more fun.  I never really was the one for planning all the steps of my life up front.

And so it became.  I found work a neat 1400km to the south in a town called Newcastle.  This time I would be casting my wares designing equipment for the mining industry.  I found a new house, a new house mate and even bought a brand new car.  But as life teaches us, not all things go to plan and you have to adapt to the changes to come.  My new job crumbled around me as my role became untenable under the leadership of a mediocre boss.  With my work life coming apart I began to feel discontent with my situation.  Quickly I asked myself the big question “are you happy?”  When the answer came back as a simple and conclusive “no”, well that is when things got interesting. 

Out of the blue a job interview came my way with a company offering a better role, more money and the revised promise of work to enjoy.  Sounded pretty bloody good to me (please pardon my French).  So an interview I had and a new job I got. 

Now those of you engrossed in the phenomenon of the modern working life will know that being time poor is often the most crippling factor in pursuing your interests.  Realising I had an opportunity here and with some cunning negotiation I managed to set up a 6 week window between the finish of my old role and the beginning of my new one.  I may have also negotiated a bit of a payout from my old company that helped me out a little in what was next to follow. 

Without hesitation, a call went out to my new bestest ever travel agent.  The instructions were clear.  She had 3 hours to book me a flight to the Galapagos Islands leaving in 2 weeks time. Duration: all of October.  Big ask!  I think she was a little taken aback, but she delivered like a true champion.  

So now I sit aboard a large winged beastie of human origins commuting the Pacific Ocean once more for lands a little more “Bueno”.  It is off to an island land that was overlooked last adventure but which will feel my foot print this time.  I am going to lounge it up like a marine iguana when the sun is right.  Party with the seals when I feel the need.  And I will do it all with a penguin tucked under my arm for good measure.  Charles Darwin, I´m bombing your house (in a figurative sense obviously).       

 "Muy Bien Amegos"