Ecuador

Amigos,

Here you get the full report about our adventures on the Galapagos Islands.

Day 1:

We booked an 8-day cruise tour to the central and southern islands of Galapagos on a small and nice yacht (16 passengers) called the Floreana. The tour started on Sunday in the channel between Isla Baltra, the island where the airport is, and Isla Santa Cruz, the most inhabited island. Harry, Freddy and I arrived early at the embarkation point and after some waiting we got a dingy ride to our boat, the Floreana. We were the first passengers on board and luckily we got the nicest cabins, above deck, far from the engine and with a nice view through a fairly good sized window. The rest of the passengers arrived all together about an hour later. Our fellow travelers turned out to be from Germany, Switzerland, Ireland and Australia. A nice mix, though with a quite strong German speaker presence. The few English speakers (3 in total) might have not always liked it. Sorry!!!

In the afternoon after lunch we did our first land excursion on Isla Baltra with our Ecuadorian guide, Mariouxi, who had a wide knowledge about the Galapagos flora and fauna and spoke English quite well. We had a short walk along the beach and for the first time we met with sea lions and Sally Lightfoot crabs, the red ones. After the walk we enjoyed taking a refreshing swim. The water was somewhat colder than what we were used to from the Caribbean Sea in Central America.

Day 2:

The second day started with an early dive at Seymour Channel already at 6.30 where we saw a green sea turtle, playful sea lions and lots of fish such as yellowtail surgeonfish, parrotfishes, gringos, king angelfish and Mexican hogfish. The diving was a bit different to what we were used to (Caribbean Sea). We had to wear a thick whole body wet suit with hood in order to stay warm under water and the currents were somewhat more challenging than experienced in other dive regions. But we managed well and enjoyed it an awful lot. After the first dive and breakfast, we went for our second land excursion this time on Isla Seymour. There we saw magnificent frigate-birds, the ones with the red puffed-up pouch underneath the beak, and blue –footed boobies, who were doing their ritual dancing before mating and others were nesting. The red pouch of the frigate bird is for attracting female frigate birds for mating. The birds were around everywhere and we could get really close to them. That was fantastic!

Later on we sailed for some hours further southeast to Isla Santa Fé. There we went for another excursion walk and where we could see some Santa Fé land iguanas. The species of iguana is found nowhere else in the world and we were lucky to see three of them on our walk. There we also saw a huge colony of sea lions which we enjoyed a lot. The island also has some interesting vegetation. Enormous stands of optunia cactus could be found everywhere. After our land excursion, we did some really nice snorkeling where we could see lots of colorful fish, a green sea turtle, a Stone Scropion Fish (it is difficult to spot), an eagle ray, a sting ray and the best were the young sea lions who were joyfully swimming around us. Incredible!!!

Day 3:

During the night we carried on our journey to the southernmost island of the archipelago, to Isla Española. On the island we saw again lots of blue-footed boobies and also the nasca booby which looks just as cute only does not have blue feet. The main attraction of the island is the waved albatross that only can be found here. We saw many of them, some breeding, others practicing mating rituals and again others flying around above us. Also a highlight was to see two Galapagos hawks resting on some bushes. We could get as close as one and a half meters to them. Amazing!!! Also we saw the Marine Iguanas for the first time here. They stack on top of each other during resting time to preserve the heat in their body, which they need for the search for food under water. They eat algae. Of course there were also lots of sea lions around. Incredible place!!!

At Gardener Reef which is close to Isla Española we did also two dives. The second dive was mind-blowing, a part from seeing 6 white tip sharks, 3 green sea turtles and many stingrays, we saw a big school of about 30 eagle rays hovering above us. An incredible experience!!!

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No wonder that this island has become our favorite place from our cruise.

Day 4:

We carried on sailing at night and got to Isla Floreana early in the morning. At Punta Cormorant where there is a reddish-sand beach we started our excursion walk to a lagoon where you can see, in case you are fortunate, some of Galapagos around 300 flamingos. We were lucky and could see about 10 flamingos, in the distance though. We carried on our walk across an isthmus and reached a beautiful white –sand beach where we took a short rest. In the afternoon we visited Post Office Bay where whalers used to leave their mail in a barrel. Any captain of a boat that was heading to where the mail was addressed would deliver it. The same principle of post office still exists today, but instead of whalers it is for tourists now. So I left a postcard for Nele, my niece in Germany, in the barrel hoping that some other German tourist is going to take it with him or her back to Germany to Seelenfeld, the village where Nele lives. It will be interesting to see if it works!

On our way back from the “post office” we could see two Galapagos penguins in the water right at the beach. We would have loved to swim with them but unfortunately we didn’t have our snorkel gear with us. Too bad!!!

Also we did two dives, one at Cormorant Point and the other one at Devil`s Crown.
The visibility wasn’t too good, less than 10 m, but we could see quite a lot of stuff anyway, some sharks, sea turtles, stingrays, different types of triggerfish and pufferfish and some cute sea lions who wanted to play with us. Fantastic!!!!

In the afternoon we sailed back north to the most central island, Isla Santa Cruz. While we were having lunch, somebody from the table next to ours shouted out “Dolphins”. It took seconds and everybody was up on deck looking at hundreds of dolphins swimming beside and in front of the boat. It was incredible, definitely an unforgettable moment. Thanks to Harry, we do have a nice video sequence of it.

At night we were in the harbor of Puerto Ayora, the most visited town in Galapagos with a population of 12,000 inhabitants. There we (except Harry, who spent the night on the toilet on the boat) went out with our fellow travelers to party and celebrate, Dan´s, the Irish guys birthday. We went for a number of Cuba Libres and did some serious dancing (Salsa, disco, etc). We had great fun!!!

Day 5:

For some strange reason, I guess to make more money out of it, the 4-day cruises and 8-day cruises are mixed on the same boat. So almost everybody of our fellow travelers left the boat except the Irish couple (Dan and April) and us. Since new passengers were expected to come, we had to spend most of the day in Puerto Ayora, doing what ever we wanted to do.

In the morning however we visited the Charles Darwin Research Station with our guide and we saw some giant tortoises. Quite impressive these big guys!!! In the afternoon we went to a private ranch in the highlands where we could see two smaller giant tortoises in wild life.

Back at the boat we had a visit from two dozen pelicans who were really hungry waiting for leftovers from the kitchen.

Our new fellow travelers from UK, Australia, New Zealand and Switzerland arrived in the afternoon.

Day 6:

At night we carried on sailing to Isla Rábida which lies northwest of Isla Santa Cruz. There we could hardly see any wildlife which our guide explained as a consequence of the “el niño” phenomenon through which many animals, above all sea lions and flamingos, moved to islands further to the west. The phenomenon causes the temperature of the Panama current (or el niño current) to increase by which the access to food decreases. Anyway, we saw some nice pelicans nesting and we enjoyed the views.

At midday we carried on sailing towards north to the western part of Isla Santiago, to Puerto Egas. During our land excursion we could see the endemic (which only can be found here) Galapagos sea lion, plenty of red Sally Lightfoot crabs and lots of marine iguanas. During snorkeling we could see some baby reef sharks (black-tipped) and a giant sea lion.

We also did a dive at Punta Rábida. The visibility was so-so, around 6 m, but we could see lot s of sting rays, puffers, garden eels and lot of other fish.

Day 7:

We carried on sailing to Isla Bartolomé which lies just east of Isla Santiago. It’s a tiny island and more known for its scenery and geological characteristics, wild and unearthly looking lava landscape, than for its wildlife. We had some beautiful views toward Isla Santiago and saw some pelicans and sea lions in the distance.

In the afternoon we disembarked at Sullivan Bay on Isla Santiago where we walked on a century-old solidified lava flow. We could see uneroded volcanic formations, lava bubbles and tree-trunk molds in the surface. Pretty amazing stuff!!!

We did also two dives, one at Cousin Rock and the other at Bartolomé. At Cousins Rock we saw an enormous, really enormous, school of black striped salemas. We were under and in between the school and it got almost pitch black because the fishes blocked all the sun light from above. That was spine-chilling!! Again we saw sharks, (Galapagos sharks and whit-tipped reef sharks), sea turtles, playful sea lions and lots of other fish.

At night we had our last party with our fellow travelers on the boat.

Day 8:

We finished our cruise with a beautiful early morning excursion to Black Turtle Cove on Isla Santa Cruz. We didn´t go on land but stayed in the dingy boat from were we could see a school of golden mustard rays, a green sea turtle, some reef sharks, sea lions and thousands of blue-footed boobies diving all at the same time in a feeding frenzy. What a fantastic experience!!!

In the morning we left the boat and traveled back to Puerto Ayora were we stayed the next three days.

Before we left the Galapagos Islands we (Harry, Freddy, Alicia (our fellow traveler from New Zealand) and myself) booked two more dives to Gordon Rocks which is a well known dive site with good chances of seeing hammerhead sharks and other big fish. The dives were fantastic, we saw in total 6 hammerhead sharks, lots of sea turtles and many schools of fish. On the second dive four hammerhead sharks came really close to us, for a short while (seconds only) they swam parallel with us and then they went off. Incredible!!!

You might have figured already, the cruise and the diving has been an amazing unforgettable experience for us. It is highly recomandable.

Lots of love,

Sabrina and Fredrik

We have come half way through our cruise and have visited the islands of North Seymour, Santa Fe, Española, Floreana and Santa Cruz. Here we have seen lots of fantastic wildlife such as blue footed boobies, frigate birds, Galapagos hawks, flamingos, marine iguanas, land iguanas, sea lions, albatrosses, Galapagos penguins, giant tortoise on land and green sea turtles, sea lions, sharks, rays and lots of other fish below water while we were diving and snorkeling. We also had an encounter with hundreds of dolphins while cruising between the islands yesterday.

To be here and to experience this wonderful paradise of almost unspoiled wildlife is fantastic. The animals are not scared and you can get as close as half a meter to them. It’s an amazing unforgettable experience.

Today we will carry on our cruise and next week we will give you the whole report and lots of photos of course.

Take care for now!!!

Lots of love,

Sabrina and Fredrik

Leute, jetzt sind wir auf den Galapagos Inseln und morgen geht unsere einwöchige "Kreuzfahrt" um die Inseln herum los. Die Schiffsfahrt haben wir hier vor Ort durch ein Last-Minute Angegot buchen können. Es ist dadurch etwas billiger geworden, aber der Preis ist immer noch lang entfernt von wirklich billig. Das Boot, "Florentina", ist relativ klein, 16 Passagiere, und zur Besatzung gehören ausser dem gewöhnlichem Schiffspersonal, ein Koch und sein Hilfspersonal, ein Naturalist und ein Divemaster. Wir werden dann an den unterschiedlichen Inseln anlegen und mit dem Naturalisten Naturausflüge machen. Ausserdem werden wir fünf Tauchgänge machen, um auch die Unterwassertierwelt bewundern zu können. Man kann hier, von riesen Schildkröten über Pinguine, Wasser- und Landleguane, Albatrosse, Seelöwen, Delfine, Hammerhaie und etliches mehr, eine einmalige Tierwelt sehen.

Mehr dazu seht ihr hier in ungefähr einer Woche.

Bis denne, lasst es euch gut gehen in der alten Heimat.

Liebe Grüsse,

Sabrina und Fredrik

PS: Harald, der Gelbfüssler und unser Tauchbuddy von Roatan, Honduras, ist übrigens auch wieder mit dabei. Wir haben uns bereits in Panama City getroffen und sind zusammen nach Quito in Ecuador geflogen und dann weiter hierhin. Bis zum 15. Mai reisen wir noch zusammen.