The Galapagos Islands
These famous islands pop up on their own volcanic platform right on the equator about 600 miles from the Ecuadorian mainland, hence the winds during our passage from Bahia de Caraquez (17th to 21st Jan) were very light. Raquel (aka Mag) took watches too. In the sloshing hours of night she saw tidal waves looming in front of the moonless galaxy, heard whales’ guttural groans and took us on some exiting tours of inky waves, topped with phosphorescence and flashing foam. It has been hard to steer straight without an autopilot. We caught whatever we dialled up, Mag got a 20lb Dorado (which Nick dove into retrieve after it slipped its noose), I caught a 25 lb Tuna and Nick landed a 18 lb Wahoo, each fish one day (of eating) apart. The tawny outline of Punta pit became visible on the morning of the fifth day and we sailed down the east coast of San Christobal before rocking through some severe tidal streams around the corner to Wreck bay, the provincial capital. We passed a huge white waterfall falling off the black rugged cliffs into the heaving sea below. This was a special sighting for these otherwise dry islands, caused by the tail end of El nino. It’s been a wet wet season here and the gently climbing slopes shone bottle green then disappeared into blurred grey clouds at the top of the island at 730 m asl.
Eddie, cousin of our Bahia friend Mario, unexpectedly called us on VHF as we entered Wreck bay to welcome us and invite us to his house/luxurious shorefront hotel for a cold drink. We felt so special and lucky to know locals before even setting foot ashore. Eddie runs the Wave Hunters operation in the Galapagos, actually he pretty much runs the Galapagos. Two sailing boats, ‘Gato Go’ and ‘Little Swan’ were anchored along with twenty or so wooden, rust streaked, fishing boats. A pong drifted through the air, not of fish, not directly, but of sea-lion poo. Brown languid sasages, barking and snorting, weighed the side decks and dinghies of all the boats despite various barriers and barbed wire strung up in defence against the inevitable collection of foulness that resulted from the sea lions resting there. Amusing for us – they can’t quite lurch from the sea onto Pina Colada’s high decks.
Eddy showed us around the colourful shore side settlement; where the Port captains office was, the immigration, police, etc, then left us to wash, relax and settle in. Within the first couple of days the three of us had sussed out the surf breaks around the island and we had wandered through the new and beautifully constructed interpretive centre that displays all sorts of interesting information about the islands natural environment and history. We explored the various walking trails constructed through the rocky dry forest to vantage points with old military cannon installations, huge fibreglass statues of Darwin surrounded by his subject animals, and some tidy wooden balconies overlooking cliffs where frigate birds breed above bays coloured blue and green.
We hung out at the Wave Hunters Hotel on a number of occasions, dining on delicious Galapagos slipper lobster, pork steaks, chicken, salads etc then going out dancing and drinking with the guests and staff. One night, after going ashore with Eddie and his surfy guests to one of the two local bars we entertained 6 or 7 people on Pina Colada until the eastern sky turned apricot above the town - great night!
On another day, Raq and I rode the mountain bikes up the road to the top of the island. The ride was relentlessly steep, steamy and testing. Mag was going to rip my head off for suggesting the whole idea but her legs were too wobbly for her to stand up from the verge where she had collapsed (fortunately, as I was feeling it too).
Raquel, Nick and I met Dad in the hot open foyer of the airport on the 28th of Jan and immediately set off to pack in as much sightseeing with Raq there as we could before she flew out the following day. We hired a taxi and visited a tortoise enclosure 14 miles north. The tortoises were spread throughout the 30 acres due to the recent rains, and not congregated at the man made watering holes. However along the trail we encountered two or three large ones (150 kilos +) and various other individuals of smaller sizes including some fist sized ones just a few weeks old that were being fed in a pen. A tortoise would make a nice pet on board, you don’t have to feed or water the bigger ones and they can live for up to one year in the hold of a ship. Approximately 100,000 tortoises were harvested by sailing fleets since the Galapagos were discovered in 1535, causing the extinction of four subspecies.
In the highlands the four of us followed a path to the top of a volcano to look at a crater lake ‘El Junco’ which is about as big as a footy oval. Mosses and liverworts dangled off the branches of a solitary orange tree on the crater rim. The regular rain gauge was empty but the horizontal rain gauge bucket was overflowing due to the clouds. We had sunset coldies and dinner on board before everyone crashed out.
Eddie, cousin of our Bahia friend Mario, unexpectedly called us on VHF as we entered Wreck bay to welcome us and invite us to his house/luxurious shorefront hotel for a cold drink. We felt so special and lucky to know locals before even setting foot ashore. Eddie runs the Wave Hunters operation in the Galapagos, actually he pretty much runs the Galapagos. Two sailing boats, ‘Gato Go’ and ‘Little Swan’ were anchored along with twenty or so wooden, rust streaked, fishing boats. A pong drifted through the air, not of fish, not directly, but of sea-lion poo. Brown languid sasages, barking and snorting, weighed the side decks and dinghies of all the boats despite various barriers and barbed wire strung up in defence against the inevitable collection of foulness that resulted from the sea lions resting there. Amusing for us – they can’t quite lurch from the sea onto Pina Colada’s high decks.
Eddy showed us around the colourful shore side settlement; where the Port captains office was, the immigration, police, etc, then left us to wash, relax and settle in. Within the first couple of days the three of us had sussed out the surf breaks around the island and we had wandered through the new and beautifully constructed interpretive centre that displays all sorts of interesting information about the islands natural environment and history. We explored the various walking trails constructed through the rocky dry forest to vantage points with old military cannon installations, huge fibreglass statues of Darwin surrounded by his subject animals, and some tidy wooden balconies overlooking cliffs where frigate birds breed above bays coloured blue and green.
We hung out at the Wave Hunters Hotel on a number of occasions, dining on delicious Galapagos slipper lobster, pork steaks, chicken, salads etc then going out dancing and drinking with the guests and staff. One night, after going ashore with Eddie and his surfy guests to one of the two local bars we entertained 6 or 7 people on Pina Colada until the eastern sky turned apricot above the town - great night!
On another day, Raq and I rode the mountain bikes up the road to the top of the island. The ride was relentlessly steep, steamy and testing. Mag was going to rip my head off for suggesting the whole idea but her legs were too wobbly for her to stand up from the verge where she had collapsed (fortunately, as I was feeling it too).
Raquel, Nick and I met Dad in the hot open foyer of the airport on the 28th of Jan and immediately set off to pack in as much sightseeing with Raq there as we could before she flew out the following day. We hired a taxi and visited a tortoise enclosure 14 miles north. The tortoises were spread throughout the 30 acres due to the recent rains, and not congregated at the man made watering holes. However along the trail we encountered two or three large ones (150 kilos +) and various other individuals of smaller sizes including some fist sized ones just a few weeks old that were being fed in a pen. A tortoise would make a nice pet on board, you don’t have to feed or water the bigger ones and they can live for up to one year in the hold of a ship. Approximately 100,000 tortoises were harvested by sailing fleets since the Galapagos were discovered in 1535, causing the extinction of four subspecies.
In the highlands the four of us followed a path to the top of a volcano to look at a crater lake ‘El Junco’ which is about as big as a footy oval. Mosses and liverworts dangled off the branches of a solitary orange tree on the crater rim. The regular rain gauge was empty but the horizontal rain gauge bucket was overflowing due to the clouds. We had sunset coldies and dinner on board before everyone crashed out.
posted by Nick and Blue at
1:25 am
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