#16 My family and other animals

Island 1 – San Cristobal

We arrived at the main harbour on San Cristobal Island, the second largest town in the Galapagos, at night but you did not need daylight to know you were in a place teeming with wildlife.  The harbour houses a large colony of Galapagos sealions, in fact 15% of all sealions in the islands call this place their home.  All night long we could hear them barking at each other as they squabble over the best snoozing spots and when morning came we had one sealion on each stern platform happily resting, weeing and pooing the night away.  I jumped in to check the anchor and have a little swim with the sealions just as Tom spotted a large Galapagos shark cruising past.  That’s two new animals ticked off and we hadn’t even had breakfast yet!  The sealions are real characters in the town sleeping on park benches and stretched out on the docks and wharfs like dogs dozing in the sun. In fact they so resembled dogs both in the water (where they were really curious and playful) and out of it that I couldn’t resist at one point giving one a bit of a tummy tickle.  I got a sniff and a wriggle in response.  Going ashore you’re confronted with more unique life.  The famous swimming iguanas stroll up and down the promenade or swim along the shallows and all three types of boobies can be spotted resting and preening.

Checking into the Galapagos is an administrative nightmare – we agreed with most of the rules and regulations but some guidance went a little far…

Everyone who comes to this harbour by yacht has a sealion story and we were no exception.  There is an arms race of sorts between yacht crew and these animals.  The sealions’ challenge is to try to get themselves the best and most unique snoozing spot by claiming any new yacht as their territory.  The yacht crews build barricades across the stern of their boat (in our case both sterns) to prevent the sealions from getting on board.  We felt pretty confident in our defences (err, engineer on board?) as we went ashore for dinner one night but arriving back at the boat we could see the sealion barricade on the port side in tatters.  It was pitch black so we sent a scout (me) on board first to investigate (the sealions can bite so you have to be wary) and what did I find but a full length male sealion stretched out fully on the cockpit cushions in my favourite lounging spot.  There was a bit of a Mexican standoff as we barked at each other for a while and the only way I could get the thing out of there was grabbing the scrubbing brush and prodding him until, with a sigh and an evil look, he lumbered down off his bed and waddled to the back of the boat before slipping into the water.  There was sealion fur everywhere including on our cockpit table where he must have slept for a while before spotting the comfy cushions and we spent the next hour scrubbing and rebuilding our defences even stronger than before.  Our friends on Aquafox had an even more extreme experience when one actually broke into their boat and they found it asleep in the galley (kitchen)!  Fortunately it hadn’t found their bed!

A big highlight at San Cristobal was snorkelling and diving at a place called Kicker Rock, a huge granite slab sticking out of the ocean which we later learned was ejected from an erupting volcano.  I hadn’t dived for about 13 years but thought I would give it a go again and while I descended into the depths, Charlotte and the kids joined the snorkelers above.  It was a very cool experience and delivered a number of firsts for me.  The first was swimming through a massive bait ball consisting of thousands of sardine like fish and then seeing sealions and sharks feeding on this ball (thankfully after I was out of the way).  At times we could see schools of Galapagos, white tip, black tip and, on one occasion, hammerhead sharks loom out of the depths before seeing us and turning away.  We also spotted a seahorse clinging to the rock but my favourite was a large mobula ray, a smaller version of a manta ray cruising through the depths mouth open scooping up water rich with plankton. On the way there we cruised past a seabird colony and were lucky enough to see male frigate birds puffing out their bright red throats to attract females.

The other highlight was a day trip to Espaniol Island.  We strolled through a colony of Nasca Boobies so close to the chicks you could pet them (don’t worry, I refrained from a tummy tickle this time).  With no land predators, these birds are completely devoid of fear of humans and pay you absolutely no attention.  The highlight was actually completely unplanned.  After a great little snorkel we were on the hour long motor back to San Cristobal Island when the skipper stopped the engines, called us on deck and we watched while 3 large orca cruised past in formation.  We followed them for a bit and were joined by another boat whose guests jumped in the water with video equipment and took some amazing underwater photography.  The skipper said he hadn’t seen orca for 3 years so we were very lucky to get this bonus.

Island 2 – Isabella

After a week in San Cristobal we got up before dawn and motored all day to our next island, Isabella.  This is by far the biggest of the islands and resembles a seahorse on maps and charts.  With a strong current against us and no wind we ended up getting there just as it was getting dark which is not ideal in a new anchorage especially one with as many reefs around it as this one, but we dropped the hook next to a couple of other yachts and were happy with our spot.

Isabella had a completely different vibe to San Cristobal.  Up until 2005 there were no tourist visitors and very little infrastructure but this all changed when one of the volcanos erupted spectacularly and the locals were quick to catch on and start offering tours, accommodation and eating options.  The streets are unpaved sand and there is a real charm about the sleepy town with its little square complete with statues of Charles Darwin and very serious looking and important Ecuadorians. We happened to be there for Isabella Day which meant a big fiesta in the town and, bizarrely, multiple horse races along the main sandy street.  All day drinking, boisterous locals, kids running everywhere, horses pelting along with zero crowd control and whose riders were dressed in trainers and t-shirts with no helmets, what’s the worst that could happen eh? Unbelievably there were no injuries and the party went on into the early hours.

We loved Isabella the best of the three islands and three experiences stood out.

The first was diving at the drowned volcano, Tortuga.  Tom, Ceara and myself dived while Lottie and kids the snorkelled above and as the visibility was so clear we all saw the same things just from different perspectives.

We saw lots of hammerhead sharks but the piece de resistance was towards the end of the first dive when 2 absolutely humongous manta rays started cruising through our little group.  Their size was mind boggling, certainly the largest creature I have (knowingly) shared the water with. Our guide said they were 7 or 8 metres wing tip to wing tip which is wider than our fat boat!

Next up was the snorkel trip to Los Tunneles, a veritable underwater playground of partially collapsed volcanic lava tubes.  It was a lot of fun swimming through arches and underwater tunnels and it became even better when a sealion came to play.  It was even more playful than the ones in the anchorage.  It would watch us swim through a tunnel and then do it twice with a somersault at each end or some other flourish as if to say whatever we could do, it could do better!

One day we hired bikes and cycled along the coast and into the hills to the “wall of tears”, a large and pointless wall constructed by prisoners of war as part of their punishment.  It is said that during this ordeal “the weak men died and the strong men cried”.  Well, there were a few tears from us as we tackled the hill in the baking heat but it was worth it when we got there due to a giant tortoise related incident.  On the way there we were careering around a corner of the track when we had to slam the breaks on because the path appeared to be blocked by a big boulder.  On closer inspection the boulder had a scaly head and was chomping on a local apple that had fallen onto the path.  It was the biggest giant tortoise we had seen and the first we had seen in the wild. 

At the wall, we rested on a couple of benches beneath a crude shade.  A giant tortoise was resting in the shadow of the wall but as the sun rose, the shadow shrunk and as we watched it slowly and, it seemed, painfully got up onto its four legs and started lumbering towards us.  We watched fascinated as it came straight at us and stopped with its beak millimetres from Charlotte’s leg.  Satisfied it was in the shade again it lowered itself down onto the base of its shell again and with a big sigh, closed its eyes and continued to snooze as if we were invisible.

Island 3 – Santa Cruz

The last island on our tour was Santa Cruz and to get there we detoured around Tortuga, the sunken volcano island we dived at before, and a couple of big slabs of rock islands along the way to observe the nesting birds and sealion colonies.  At Tortugua with the sun rising and perfect sailing conditions we made the call to try out the drone for the first time while sailing.  The safest way was to launch and land with no sails up so the whole operation took all four adults.  I flew the drone, Lottie steered the boat and Ceara and Tom were in charge of hoisting, trimming and dropping sails.  It was very stressful and I almost crashed the drone into the boat at one point but the drone landed safely and the quality of videos and photos made it absolutely worth it.

Santa Cruz is the capital of the Galapagos and by far the busiest and most touristy of the lot. We were a little “toured out” by the time we got there so opted instead for some self exploration (ie exploring the island ourselves rather than finding ourselves spiritually).  Two trips stand out,  The first was hiring bikes and being dropped off by pick up truck in the centre of the island at the famous sink holes where we also experienced walking through a forest of trees that had evolved from the humble dandelion.  On the cycle back we stopped off at and walked through a lava tunnel.  It was similar in cross section to the London Underground tube and almost exactly circular.  On this trip we spotted countless giant tortoises strewn about the farmland and strolling down the paths.  Apparently there are only 10% of the original number of these animals on the islands but with all the breeding programs going on, its clear that numbers are rising fast, a real success story in conservation.

Trees evolved from dandelions, cows and giant tortoises living in harmony and lava tubes kilometres long, just another day in Santa Cruz

There is a stunning surf beach a short walk away from the anchorage and we spent a great morning there.  It really reminded me of one of those typical beautiful Australian surf beaches except with cacti, swimming iguanas and the odd sealion rather than surf life savers and ice cream kiosks.

Departure

The anchorage at Santa Cruz had more than three times the number of cruising yachts than we had seen anywhere else in the Galapagos.  As it is an official port of entry and exit most crews of these boats were, like us, preparing themselves for what would probably be the longest passage of their lives, the 3,000 mile journey across half the width of the Pacific Ocean to French Polynesia.  Everyone was completing final boat jobs, asking each other when they planned to leave and where to get the best produce and comparing potential routes and weather reports.  There was certainly some nervous excitement about and for the last few days of our stay it was all I could think about.

We had a three day countdown where we all had our jobs to complete including topping off diesel, filling propane gas tanks, ditching rubbish, getting cash for French Polynesia (love the fact they still use francs and refuse to use Euros!). checking out and then, the hardest part of all, the final food provision followed the next morning by panic buying more food “just in case”.

At 3pm on 25 March with our fruit nets crammed full and half a banana tree strapped to the back of the boat we had no more reason to stay, upped our two anchors (we had one out the back as well to keep us pointing towards the swell) and motored around the anchorage to wave goodbye to friends we had made.  Kirk on Aquafox grabbed a fog horn and gave us a few toots to send us on our way.  It was like setting off to climb a mountain or to walk to the south pole or something.  A few shouts of “see you on the other side!” and “good luck!” were the last words we would here from other humans outside our motley crew of 6 for the next three weeks.  The first hour motoring away from the harbour saw the entire crew madly downloading music and books until one by one we lost internet connection, our last connection with land until we made landfall in the South Pacific.

Spoiler alert!

Well we clearly made it to French Polynesia and reconnected with the internet which has allowed me to send this blog update.  I’ll describe our journey in the next blog but in the mean time we have some islands to explore!