The Voyage of the Beagle

In a break from the travelling tradition I established prior to my European vacation, I decided to take it easy for my first day in Quito. Tomorrow I've an early flight to Baltra island and I've plenty of time in and around Quito when I get back from the Galapagos. So, I took a walk round the Old Town (world heritage listed, natch), but didn't go into any of the churches or museums. It's a lovely collection of colonial architecture that I'll be exploring after the Galapagos. Interestingly the 2,800m altitude isn't affecting me the way Denver used to, although I certainly notice the lack of oxygen going uphill-trekking to Machu Picchu is going to be fun.

For $1.50 (USD is Ecuador's official currency) the Hare Krishna's gave me a 3 course veggie feast at their Govindas restaurant. Perhaps I'm not going to starve after all.

I'm enjoying being surrounded by Spanish-I'm understanding some and speaking rather less. There was a letter waiting for me back at the hotel to say my Galapagos boat was unexpectedly in dry dock. As a result I'm now leaving a day later, with a complimentary upgrade to a luxury vessel. This has heightened my now customary pre-organised trip nerves: I'm not quite sure who takes a luxury cruise round the Galapagos, but I have suspicions and fears. Still, just adds another top dollar experience to this executive backpacking lark.

With an extra day before I leave, I consulted the map to see where I should sensibly go. My Galapagos trip includes a hotel before and after, then I move to a hostel before hitting a different hotel, which is the jungle starting point. Since my current place is the most northerly, I headed to see the work of Guayasamin-the most northerly thing that interested me in Quito.

The Lonely Planet says Guayasamin is world renowned. I'd never heard of him. Up a pretty big hill in the wealthy looking Bellavista neighbourhood is the Guayasamin institute. As well as an artist, he was also a prolific collector: the colonial era religious painting was quite graphic, while the pre-Columbian pottery had its moments. One which was the summoning of the English speaker to show me round; the enthusiasm to show me round was charming and I loved the uncanny resemblance between the guide's English and slowly spoken Spanish.

Guayasamin himself did some great stuff-he was very concerned with the plight of man, especially indigenous South Americans.

He worked in the twentieth century and I saw elements of Picasso and El Greco in his painting. I felt these comparisons were a result of my experience of art, rather than influences on Guayasamin. I suspect his style came out of Ecuador and his own experiences.

I feel there is a point in European and North American modern art where talking about your aesthetic became more important than communicating directly through your work. The audience needed to know what they were looking at; for me this is when pretension outweighed substance and talent. Guayasamin is nothing of the sort, he is modern in style, accessible and heavyweight in meaning. It was my loss not to have heard of him before.

On top of the institute, there is the Chapel of Mankind. This is further up the hill and houses some larger works on his key themes in a striking purpose built structure. The views are also quite impressive. It is the classic project that had to be finished by his children after Guayasamin's death.

I've just started reading Darwin's Voyage of the Beagle and a look at the contents surprised me considerably. Darwin didn't visit Africa, but his Rio to Oz odyssey bears a striking similarity to my journey in reverse.

I like Quito, it's a very international city. I had curry for lunch and pizza for dinner (safe veggie options, given the state of my Spanish). After a butterfly came to see me during dinner, the bloke who owned the restaurant told me "In Ecuador, when a butterfly comes to your house, we say someone is bringing alcohol." I like that; especially when he followed it up with a wobbly legged walk.


GALAPAGOS
Day 1 Santa Cruz-Highlands, Tortoise Reserve and Lava Tunnel

There were 5 of us from the hotel, who were now luxury cruising-Ben and Jo from Farnham and Nick and Maria from Denmark-everyone seems very nice. It took quite a while to get to the military airport at Baltra, our way into the Galapagos. Our flight went via Guayaquil-something about Quito's altitude and refuelling, which I didn't really follow.

After taking bus and ferry to reach Santa Cruz, first up for the wildlife was the Galapagos classic-the Giant Tortoise.



Sailors and whalers loved them-you can chuck them in the hold, they'll live for months without food and water (this saved them from the fate of the dinosaurs) and then you've fresh meat when you want a curry. 100s of thousands ended up on navvies' plates. They just mosey about looking contented. Apparently they're none too smart, which is probably just as well since their physical limitations rule out most diversions. The Darwin Institute is working hard to get the numbers back up.

We followed that up with a bit of crawling through a partially collapsed lava tunnel.



While we waited for the tender to take us to the Galaxy (our boat), we got a good taster of tripping over wildlife: as the pterodactyl-alike frigates circled overhead, Ben spotted some interesting looking crabs



which Duncan (our naturalist guide) told us were everywhere. Then we saw our first blue-footed booby, which was great even if it did make me think of 'Allo 'Allo.

I think there's a crew member per passenger; the barman is wearing a waistcoat and bow tie. I'd been told to pack what I needed into a smaller bag and leave my excess gear in Quito due to the cabin size-what a joke, I've stayed in smaller hotel rooms than my top deck cabin with its 8 foot window.




Day 2 San Cristobal-Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, Cerro Brujo and Isla Lobos

The trip roughly works like this: wake up at new island, breakfast at 7, tender drops us off to make 2 or 3 visits during the day for walking, wildlife spotting, snorkelling etc, lunch at 12, dinner at 7, then overnight the boat navigates to new island. And repeat. It makes for very full days and rolling, slightly disturbed nights' sleep.

First stop of the day was Puerto Baquerizo Moreno on San Cristobal, where we visited the interpretation centre. This gave an overview of the archipelago's geology and history, as well as some stuff on the environmental threats. It was a useful introduction, tho I'd seen much of the geological stuff elsewhere in the ring of fire. What a great name for a place that is; and Johnny Cash wrote a song about it (that is now on my iPod).

After that we had 30 mins to wander round town: having previously woken Milly up (with the help of a loud Canadian girl), I popped back to spend a surreal half hour with her and her hangover. She's been on the island for a couple of months-apparently doing good works in the highlands in the week, while clearly trying to drink the island dry at the weekend. I mention this brief encounter for the many women who gave me a beasting about Mill when I was back in Europe.

Back on the Galaxy, we headed for the Cerro Brujo beach, home to a lot of sealions. Before we hit the beach, we needed to eat-did I mention the three 3 course meals a day? I'm stocking up for the possible lean times ahead.

After wandering round the beach and watching the sea lions sleep, go out to sea, eat lunch, come back ashore and shout at each other, I said to Maria that I could just watch sealions for a week-I think that's something of the Galapagos magic. You can see so much of an individual animal, and then there's such a variety of wildlife. Tomorrow afternoon's walk alone promises sealions, marine iguanas, nazca boobies, blue footed boobies, albatrosses and lava lizards. And snakes. These won't be simple glimpses, but close up encounters. Boobies have been known to lay eggs on tourist paths. One of today's highlights was simply sitting on the beach next to the sealions.



It was some afternoon. We snorkelled-firstly with the fish, which I still love and I saw a small ray. This was the moment when I really felt I was travelling again. Then we went snorkelling near some sealions. The babies started swimming with us. They may be comical on land, but in the water their combination of barrel rolls, spins, sharp turns and effortless acceleration is balletic. Incredibly they make your graceful author look a touch lugibrious-especially the time the sealion left it so late in the game of chicken that I thought he'd bash my head before turning away and I jerked my head back, thus filling with water, in swift succession, my snorkel and lungs. One was joined by two and then mum joined in too. It was very special.

After a quick change into dry clothes, we walked round Isla Lobos, which the sealions shared with frigates and 'nesting' blue footed boobies



The absence of predators during the booby's evolution has led to them laying their eggs on the ground and keeping them warm with their feet. It's hard to put into words just how much of an active disinterest the animals take in the tourists. When we finished the track, there were steps to take us down to the landing point to get back on the tender. We couldn't use the steps as a posse of sealions were sleeping there, so it was scramble over the rocks for us. As it should be-this is their home.

The day was capped off with sunset, 3 course dinner, a beer and a game of backgammon. I have got to get me one of these boat things.


Day 3 Espanola-Gardner Bay, Punta Suarez

We opened up with a couple of hours on the beach at Gardener Bay. The itinerary had described this as chilling out, but I spent most of the time walking amongst the sealions, wildlife spotting. The mockingbirds can identify water by sight alone



And I chanced upon my first marine iguana.



Some sealions wanted to join us on the towels.



We had about 15 mins after returning from the beach to get some dry clothes on for today's snorkelling; naturally we were greeted by a quick snack when we alighted from the tender onto the Galaxy. Only 5 of the 11 passengers took up the snorkel opportunity, but we were richly rewarded. At the time, yesterday's outing had seemed marvellous, but this kicked it into touch.

The plan was to swim round the islet in Gardener Bay. It seemed we'd barely got into the chilly water, when I was able to put out the shout of 'Turtle' and we all spent a few minutes as a Green Turtle glided along-another creature which appears comical out of water and shames you for that thought when seen in its main environment.

The fish were more interesting too. There were several colourful shoals, a silvery one ran as if a shark was arriving. There were a few larger fish too, including some beautiful Wrasse.

I'd been swimming for a minute or so with a young sealion and was trying to get Nick's attention when all hell broke loose. I'm not sure how many sealions there were, but I could see half a dozen at any one time. Seeing as they were flying all around the 5 of us, there must have been more. I reckon one was less than 6 inches from my face. They swam under, alongside and at me, making a lot of eye contact. At least one enjoyed chewing on my fin. Eventually the cold forced us from the sea before they tired of us. Marvellous.

We had a couple of hours free after lunch, which were widely used for a siesta after last night's rough journey interrupted a lot of sleep and made a lot of people sick. My sealegs seem as good as ever.

It was a frisky afternoon at Punta Suarez-birds everywhere were engaged in mating rituals. The blue footed boobies combine dance, calls and making presents of sticks and pebbles.



The albatross were really special. They did a little dancing, some crossing of beaks



and made some wonderful sounds I got on video. We saw both birds nesting and sadly an abandoned albatross egg. One albatross walked up to me until it was close enough to touch; perhaps this is how wildlife should behave-sadly this combination of curiosity and fearlessness feels completely alien. Iguanas, crabs and sealions were also about in large numbers. Even on the tracks, you have to be really careful where you step-the iguanas are especially at risk of being trodden on.

Half the guys leave tomorrow, so we had a goodbye cocktail and a team photo.




Day 4 Santa Cruz-Black Turtle Cove, Bachas Beach

Today had the potential to be a touch disappointing-with people disembarking and new arrivals getting on, the itinerary's a little skimpy with a big gap in the middle of the day.

However, I've just got back from a wonderful boat trip round Black Turtle Cove. The cove is a series of mangrove lined inlets, which we navigated in the dinghies, often using paddles rather than engines. A Galapagos flamingo flew overhead as the tender neared the coast. We arrived just after 7 in the beautiful fresh morning sunlight to be greeted by 4 blue footed boobies at the entrance. It was booby breakfast time and we saw dozens of booby dives-the birds dive from something like 30 feet, plunging beak first into the water at speed. The whole area seemed a very dangerous place for fish as we also saw sting ray, spotted eagle ray and many white-tip reef sharks. Both the sharks and turtles seemed to enjoy the shallows around the mangrove roots; in the branches above we saw more boobies as well as brown pelican, lava and great blue herons. I've yet to see a bird and it then fly away, which I'm still finding extraordinary.

I hope the bout of sickness abates-Jo's not good today (and it's her birthday tomorrow), we didn't see Carolyn at all yesterday and Dave struggled the day before. This is the kind of trip where you don't want to miss a minute.

We headed to the beach on Baltra, while Duncan dropped the others off and picked up the 10 new guys. The idea was to take it easy, but there were still plenty of sealions to paddle and sit with.

After lunch and a quick meet of the 10 new faces, we headed to Bachas beach. This was unusually sealion free and crab lite. Behind our landing spot was a lagoon, where flamingoes could often be found. As they were on an away fixture, Duncan led us 15 mins to a second lagoon, where 3 flamingoes were walking around, disturbing the mud and eating shrimp.



I like that other flamingoes are migratory, but scientists don't think this is the case with Galapagos flamingoes-they clearly know this a great place. We stayed for quite a while, then 5 mins into the walk back 2 flamingoes flew over our heads. We walked past turtle tracks and the holes they dig for eggs before returning to the lagoon where we started, which was now home to 2 flamingoes. Class.

Duncan described the Bachas beach snorkelling as 'beginners', so Ben and I stayed chatting on the beach, waiting for someone to shout about rays, sharks and turtles. When no one did, we just stayed chatting to Duncan.

The ship has a large flat screen in the bar and after dinner someone put on the appropriately named Big Fish-not sure I'd have stayed awake had it not been for the popcorn.


Day 5 Santiago Island-Sullivan Bay, snorkelling. Bartolome Island-snorkelling, landing

Picking up the pace with 4 excursions today after the quiet yesterday, which left me exhausted.

Our first visit of the day was to the lava field in Sullivan Bay. Duncan described this as a geological day and we saw very little animal life-a couple of marine iguanas, a handful of small nervy lava coloured lizards (nervy as snakes and Galapagos hawks find them tasty) and a hornet like thing that landed on me before Duncan flicked it off saying 'it bites'. The field consisted of lava that flowed just over 100 years ago, reshaping and extending the existing Santiago Island. The shapes, patterns and terrain were varied and interesting: flat parts, tiny cones, rope like formations reminiscent of sweet manufacture at the Big Banana and sharp fragmented rock, which recalled my lava walking exploits on Hawaii.

In many ways this was a window on the past of the Galapagos. This was a harsh, desolate looking environment, but broadly speaking this is the starting point of each island in the archipelago. The biodiversity and plethora of life developped in a place that looks hopelessly unwelcoming. As I've heard the greatest living Englishman say 'life will find a way'. Given time.

I was reminded of Rangitoto in Auckland harbour-you could see how life developped. From small pioneer plants in tiny cracks to cacti, the first plants allow soil to form and eventually something more complex.
Amazing to think that from this beginning, other islands became world renowned ecosystems; for now the lava field looks like an inhospitable part of an alien world.



Onto the first snorkel of the day. I flipped off the back of the dinghy and by the time I surfaced someone was shouting 'shark'. How many times have you heard that in a film just before a supporting character loses limb or life. This was different as everyone in the water swam towards the shout to get a good look at a white tip reef shark, which was about 5 feet long. Later I found another and swam with it for a few minutes (while placing my hand on my head like a fin to alert anyone else); we reached a shallow spot, with a sandy bottom and there was a cracking money shot as the sun poured through the water and the shark was illuminated swimming a couple of feet above his shadow.

I saw a couple of other sharks amongst a myriad of fish-all of whom appeared completely not bothered by the dorsal finned killer, who seemed equally uninterested in lunch. Most notable was the striking blue parrotfish feeding in a small underwater cave and the shoal of yellow tailed grunt-they were a good size and I don't think I've ever seen so many fish together, swim underneath them and they'd have blocked out the light.

The outing will live longest in the memory for one of the leit motifs of my travels-penguins. I first encountered the endemic Galapagos Penguin under the water; for maybe 5 seconds I watched it fly through the water until it sped away from me. Having followed my nose for a bit, I got a bit disorientated and couldn't see anyone else. So I stuck my head out the water and saw Ben in the dinghy pointing towards some rocks where I could see 4 snorkellers. I swam over and as I got closer looked around to see what was going on. Then I noticed there were 4 bodies in the water, but no heads. As soon as I got my head into the open air, I saw the penguin going about its business on a rock-it was about 3 feet away from me. I clung merrily onto the sharp rock for quite some time, while the penguin was gloriously unperturbed. I'm not nonchalant, but something as extraordinary as that is just part of one day-in other places, companies could sell whole trips on the chance of such an occurrence.

Given how brilliant the snorkelling has been, it would have been top to have been able to dive-sadly not an option the boat offers. Joyce and Stefan, who joined us yesterday, were diving before and they saw hammerhead sharks! That would've been summat else.

Meals have moved to a buffet stylé now that we've got more folk on board; even without Alan's Big Plate I'm making this count as the activity level here makes it a challenge to maintain my fighting weight.

The second snorkel of the day was a swim round the rocks to the beach. Once again I jumped out the boat and swiftly came across white tip sharks and some big shoals of fish. I've also seen a lot of sea stars today. At one point I swam over to the cliff edge and had a staring contest with a Sally lightfoot crab-the red ones Ben and I find endlessly interesting and photogenic. A little later I spotted another penguin; I shouted to the others and swam over. Initially I was bobbing round the rocks and penguin solo, but after a few minutes the crowd of 2 or 3 boats and a group of snorkellers probably made the penguin think about selling t-shirts.

Back on the beach Duncan got me earworming Goldfinger. We crossed the dunes to the beach on the other side, where there were a couple of Galapagos sharks and 8 or more white tip chilling within 6 feet of the water's edge. As they swarmed, it was very James Bond baddie.

Last stop for the day was Bartolomé-a small island with a number of volcanic features and a climb of a touch over 100m. Volcanic rock is impossibly heavy, nice for me to know that all the time at the gym has paid off



The reason for coming here tho is the picture postcard view



I am cream crackered-low sleep, high activity.

When we navigate tonight, we shall cross the equator-straddling the equator is just one more extraordinary thing about this incredible little archipelago. For scientific purposes, I should probably leave the tap running all night.


Day 6 Genovesa Island-Darwin Bay, Prince Philip's Steps

Genovesa is a relatively remote island and we're spending our time in a big bay that was once a volcano crater. We boated to the beach in Darwin Bay for a hike (mostly birds here) and snorkel. The sky was thick with birds-something I singularly failed to capture on camera.

It all got a bit overwhelming today-my senses are starting to overload with the weight of information and sights. Walking round Genovesa it seemed every bush contained not just one bird, but almost colonies. So many of the birds were nesting and there were a number of chicks who were at least semi-independent. At one point someone said John and I turned to see a red footed booby in a bush behind me at head height about 12 inches away. Everywhere I look there's things that anywhere else would be unbelievable.

The main inhabitants here are red footed boobies



and frigates



The latter get their names from their piratical nature-they can hunt for themselves, but prefer to steal off others. One of their techniques is to grab a booby mid air and shake it into regurgitating-pleased to say I've not seen this. As a result boobies tend to eat what they catch while still underwater. Finches and yellow crowned night heron also made an appearance.

And of course only a fool would pass us a sally lightfoot crab photo op



We've become good mates



The snorkelling was tough-rocks and sand combined with the current to make visibility less than great and swimming hard work. Still I saw some lovely larger fish including (I believe) green and chameleon wrasse and blue chin parrotfish plus a reef shark swam just under me.

We had a welcoming committee at Prince Philip's Steps



This is a Galapagos Fur Seal, which is actually a sealion-gotta love these natural history dudes. So it was Phil the Greek who came here and they named the steps after him. Time for a new name I reckon. I wonder how much offence he caused-the steps are basically natural with a handrail, so he probably asked if they'd been done by Indians.

Just at the top, a frigate was saying hello to the ladies



This is their 'come get some' look-given the number of nesting frigates, I'd given up on seeing any courting so this was tip top. Sadly when we returned an hour and a half later, he was still inflated and alone.

There were boobies everywhere-nesting, fighting, being bombed by frigates and courting.

Often when a couple is getting together a 3rd booby tries to get involved (the goosebooby). The booby of the same sex takes out the goosebooby; occasionally a booby returns to find their place taken by the goosebooby. Then all hell breaks loose.

We saw a couple of short eared owls, who hunt during the day and were excitedly watching (tho not eating) the large number of storm petrels.




Day 7. South Plaza and Santa Fé Islands

At the landing point on South Plaza we were 'greeted' by the biggest bull sealion I've seen. There were significant numbers of sealions and the young ones swimming just a couple of metres off the north coast provided an almost continual sideshow as they cavorted in the surf. Sealions' nipples don't protrude, so visually the difference between a youngster resting his head and having breakfast is hard to spot, fortunately the slurping sound of suckling is a dead giveaway.

This was our first proper encounter with the land iguana, a more colourful variant that his marine relative.



Vegatively this was a more interesting island with reds, yellows and greens to add to the colours of rock and guano. At the end of the day, the Galapagos is fauna, not flora. We walked across to the other side of the tiny island (approx 1km by 100m); on the cliffs we saw many birds, including a glimpse of nesting red-billed tropicbirds. More surprising was the visibility in the sea 30m or so below; I was especially pleased to see mullet. Sadly Nick and Maria had to leave-our one day delay and inflexible flights resulted in a speed boat fetching them at half 9. I'll try not to make what they missed sound too amazing.

I sat up top in the wind for the navigation to Santa Fé-Duncan had said there was a chance to see rays flipping out of the water. A larger squadron of frigates than usual decided to accompany us.



So to our final snorkel, which was a bit chilly, but I think the $40 I saved by not hiring a wetsuit was a reasonable decision. I haven't caught my death and I was always amongst the last out the water. Now I just have to work out hot to fritter those $40.

Santa Fé has an interesting crescent bay, which has a rock islet across half of it, creating a nice anchorage and snorkelling area. A blast of icey water lets you know when you've swum beyond the edge of the islet. The initial part of the snorkel must have been what inspired Billy Idol when he sang about a 'fish filled fantasy'. It was like a greatest hits of the past 7 days. The fish mostly disappeared as the sealions came in.
I'd almost forgotten the fun of sealions-at one stage I had 5 to myself, though I did back away when I saw the big bull!

After a quick shower we landed on the beach in a throng of sealions. Almost immediately Duncan spotted a Galapagos Hawk-these are a vulnerable species with about 800 on the islands. When we returned to the beach there was one sat on a stone pillar reminding visitors to behave. The pillar was practically on the narrow path, so the hawk was ridiculously close-it was so close some of my photos blurred.



I looked back as we left and saw there were now 2 sat there! Santa Fé also has an endemic land iguana



we were lucky to see several. Unlike marine iguanas, who pile on top of each in a huddle, these guys are territorial and keep their distance.

We're navigating to Santa Cruz before dinner and it all got a bit rushed at the end, so it was just a quick farewell to the sealions.



On the way back the water seemed to swarm with rays, sharks and turtles, while the pelicans did a spot of fishing. As a coup de grace we got Jimmy to drive the tender straight through a (moored) catamaran, which was nice.

Having turned down the offer of a trip to town on the first two evenings, Ben, Jo and I headed ashore to Puerto Ayora. Sat on my bar stool I could still feel the boat moving, happily a few beers sorted that.


Day 8. Santa Cruz Island. Charles Darwin Research Station.

What would the Galapagos be without Darwin? I really can't answer that question-it is possible that the tourism generated has made Darwin's impact on the islands negative; it's equally possible the interest Darwin aroused saved the islands. I'd back Tortoise and Darwin to be the top two Family Fortunes answers on Galapagos and we'll get both at the final port of call-the Charles Darwin Research Station.

Although it seems strange that Darwin has only become directly involved at the very end of the trip, it is appropriate-without the preceding islands and animals, what would Darwin be?

Fingers crossed there's a statue of him.

A sealion came to say goodbye as we left the Galaxy for Darwin and the crossing of Santa Cruz to get to the airport at Baltra. I was sad to leave-it's been a great home and we were exceedingly well looked after. By a long way this is the most expensive week of the year-I reckon it's a touch more than wedding-fest and Glastonbury combined, which would be second and third. I do feel we got value for money tho-both in terms of the experience and what was done for us.

The Darwin station is predominantly a scientific facility, but you can see some of their tortoise breeding programme and a very little on the land iguanas. For the first few years tortoises are very susceptible to predators. Endemically this was a non issue, but introduced species (rats especially) have caused havoc; one island only had adult tortoises such was the appetite for eggs and younglings. Numbers had already been reduced by generations of sailors putting tortoises in ship hulls for fresh meat (a giant tortoise will live for a year without food or water). They took a disproportionate number of females as they were more commonly found by the coast and, being smaller, were easier to lift.

So the scientists breed tortoises at the station and take eggs from the islands (tortoises leave their eggs after laying). The tortoise's sex depends on the incubation temperature, so they try to get more females to hasten the rebuilding of the population. Conditions in the wild, without the predators, are simulated closely, so for example there's not too much water. When they're big enough and their shells are hard enough they're released onto to the relevant island, where they should enjoy a long life. Good work science dudes, say I. Like most miniatures, they are cute.



This is Lonesome George.



He's the last of his species-the tortoises of Pinta Island. He's been offered lady tortoises from near species to no effect; a Swiss student tried turning her hand to getting a sperm sample without success (she averaged 10 mins on other tortoises); he even lives with a couple of fillies. It seems George isn't up for it; when he goes, there'll be only 10 species of Galapagos tortoise.

There was no statue of Darwin, rather a living statue of the Galapagos



I'm sad to leave, it's been really exhilarating, but I feel very tired now. If you've got the cash and seasickness isn't a big concern, then go-even if the return flight's rather rough. Like many of my favourite spots, there really is nowhere else like it.