Another World - The Galapagos Islands Part 1

If I was compiling my "Bucket List," visiting the Galapagos Islands would be at or very near the top. With this being towards the end of our trip, we were really looking forward to 4 weeks in this very different world. We would also be volunteering during this time, so it could be challenging to see everything while remaining committed to our duties with Galapagos ICE in the archipelago's biggest city, Puerto Ayora.

The two, needle-shaped objects above the water are actually birds. They are diving in for fish and it never gets old to watch anywhere on the islands.

It was somewhat of another flight escapade to reach the islands for us. We had a flight from Cusco to Lima, Lima to Bogota, Columbia, Bogota to Guayaquil, Ecuador (Mainland), and, lastly, Guayaquil to the Galapagos. All said and done, it was another 36 hours of travel with another night spent in an airport. We arrived later than expected with nerves afire to meet our host family. Most of the phrases we had looked up in the dictionary went out the door when we arrived and we were shown our own private room with bathroom, mini-fridge, and TV. It was MUCH more than we had expected. We immediately felt at home minus the language barrier that we would be fighting since no one else spoke English.

There are always birds and sea lions waiting around for a niblet when the local fisherman bring in their catch for the day at the Fisherman's Pier.

We had an early night the first night and got up early to explore Puerto Ayora, along with nearby Tortuga Bay. This proved to be a major highlight of the area. We saw small sharks and there was a beach without any currents or waves and waist-deep water for 500 feet or so from the beach. It was like swimming in a swimming pool.

The beach at Tortuga Bay with no current or waves and waist deep water for hundreds of feet out from the beach!

Later that week, we made our way to the Charles Darwin Research Center, where they study wildlife in the Galapagos and have a breeding center for giant tortoises. The tortoises hardly look real and are somewhat eerie to look at. We stopped by another beach, which is the closest to town, for a couple hours of snorkeling with our new snorkels and swimming. This was medicore snorkeling for the Galapagos and it still blew anything we have ever done out of the water!

The giant tortoises on Santa Cruz Island....They barely look real because they are so huge!

We decided to spend our first weekend on Isabela Island, which is the largest island and is a 2 hour boat ride west of where we are staying. We spent the first day on a busy tour. First, we hiked to one of the four active volcanoes on Isabela, Sierra Negra. The last eruption happened in 2005 and was clearly visible from the rim of the crater. The volcano landscape can be characterized by large areas of dense vegetation and then huge areas of dry and barren rock where the lava from old eruptions has cooled. It really makes for drastic changes, sometimes just feet apart. It was a long hike, but well worth the great views of the rest of the island. The second part of the tour was a tour of Las Tintoreras, which is a nearby island where many white-tipped reef sharks can be found. We walked the island and saw lots of baby marine iguanas, some sea lions, and the sharks. The part we were really looking forward to was snorkeling around the island, but before that, we managed to see two Galapagos penguins hunting together and, of course, many of the famous blue-footed boobies. The snorkeling showed us how much wildlife there really is around the islands. We saw 5 white-tipped reef sharks (only 1 swimming around), some sort of blowfish, some starfish, and thousands of other colorful fish.

Near the top of Sierra Negra Volcano with two other volcanoes on Isabela in the background.

The caldera of Sierra Negra Volcano. It had its last eruption in 2005.

A giant tortoise (not so giant) and an egg that is still in incubation. The sex is actually determined by what temperature the eggs are incubated at. Colder temps make males and warmer temps for females. Wierd.

Blue starfish. We saw several of these and blue is such an awesome color.

This is some sort of blowfish. I got close enough to see his spikes come out.

This white-tipped reef shark was resting near a cave with several others of his friends.

Some flamingos on Isabela Island. This is a large mating ground for them.

Young marine iguanas chilling on the railing on Tintoreras Island.

A Galapagos penguin looking for its mate while it hunts.

The next day, before our ferry back to Santa Cruz Island, we did some more snorkeling at Concha de Perla. We got some awesome video of the sea lions swimming with us here and managed to spot some rays here as well in this small bay area. While waiting for our ferry, we got our first siting of a sea turtle who was feeding on some algae under the dock.

The famous blue-footed booby.

Apparently this guy needed a makeshift pillow made of our sandals.

We have both gotten better with sea sickness after our fiasco when we dove with great whites in South Africa. This made the ferry rides much better.

Is he sleeping? Sea lions are like a cross between a penguin and an extremely flexible dog....Why "lion?"

We saw this sea turtle while waiting for the boat back to Santa Cruz from Isabela Island.

Back on Santa Cruz and the next week, we visited one of the many lava tunnels on the islands. These are caves made by lava during eruptions. The lava on the outside cools and solidifies, leaving the inside still flowing. When the flow empties downhill, a large cave is left. We also visited Las Grietas, which is a small rock formation and waterhole with shear cliffs on either side. They are about 30 feet high and drop into about 20 feet of water. This gives the perfect opportunity to jump down into the water from the rocks above. Erin, as you can imagine, did not take part, but I managed a couple jumps into the cold water.

We climbed and explored one of the lava tunnels near Puerto Ayora. This is actually a smaller one.

Bombs away!

We still have San Cristobal and Bartolome Islands to visit, along with our first scuba diving experience off the coast of Seymour Island. All this should prove to be an interesting second half of our visit here in the Galapagos.

(Written April 3rd)