Galapagos

As the sun rose we slowly motored into the main port of Isla San Cristobal, Puerto Baquerizo Moreno and dropped anchor.  We were soon welcomed by the locals (sealions), who within the hour made it abundantly clear that we would have a challenge on our hands keeping them off such a comfortable platform as RAFTKIN. While we waited for our agent and the customs team to come out to the boat to clear us, we installed our sealion defence system - all our fenders tied to the back steps and lashing across the lifelines to make a fence across the stern. 

The customs team was made up of seven people, each of whom had a defined role in the clearance process, from swimming the bottom of the boat to check its cleanliness (including taking video footage), to checking the contents of the cupboards and fridge.  The whole process was very efficient (if you call sending 7 people to do the work of two efficient) and we were all clear and ready to go ashore by 11am.  We hailed a water taxi, as you are not able to use dinghies in San Cristobal due to the sea lions and motored ashore, ready to explore.

Getting our land legs in San Cristobal

After a freshly ground, organic Galapagos coffee and deliciously fresh food in a local café, we walked around to Playa Mann, the nearest beach, where we gladly plunged into the cool water.  It was hot!  The cool water is driven by the cold currents (the Humbolt Current) that sweep north along the coast of South America and west into the Pacific. This is the same current that gave us up to 2 knots of extra boat speed getting to The Galapagos and provides the islands with its unique ecosystem. 

First swim with the seals

Back in town we caught up with Dol Solene, La Cigale and new friends Shawnigan for a few celebratory drinks and a pub dinner.  It was a great night catching up, sharing passage stories and planning our adventures on San Cristobal.  When we got back to RAFTKIN we found her occupied.  The fenders tied to the steps were no match for the sealions and we had two on the steps of each hull.  Our new tenants looked very comfortable, the fenders no more than pillows to rest their head.

Mind if I crash here for the day?

Good Friday we walked to the next beach around the coast from Playa Mann, Playa Punta Carola, where we had heard we could swim with the sealions and turtles.  It was a long walk in the hot sun, but the beach was beautiful and the water lovely and cool.  We were not disappointed and soon found the sealions and turtles in the bay, although the visibility was poor due to algae in the water, typical at this time of year.  We spent the morning at the beach and as the tide came in, so did the sealions to play in the surf.  They seemed to want to play with the kids in the surf.  The kids were not so sure about playing with the sealions.

New friends join in with Megan, Ella-Mae and Zenon

Back on RAFTKIN our defence system had failed and a couple of sealions had made themselves at home in the cockpit.  We shooed them out and spent the remainder of the afternoon scrubbing and washing off all the hair they left behind, then upgrading the lashing.  Not so bad when we stood back to watch the full moon rising over the headland and the sun setting behind us over the bay.

Our contingent of kid boats booked 5 taxis for Saturday 31^st March to take us across the island to the main points of interest, starting with El Junco Lagoon, the biggest freshwater lake in Galapagos.  It is located in the crater of a dormant volcano.  We walked to the summit and around the crater rim, taking in the stunning scenery and watching the frigate birds circling over the lagoon, occasionally diving in to clean the salt from their wings. 

Kid boats gather at the top of El Junco

We then travelled on to the Galapaguera Centre, the giant tortoise sanctuary run by the Galapagos National Park, which aims to repopulate the natural areas of the island with giant tortoises.  The tortoises were facing extinction prior to the project, due to many things, starting with the whalers that captured hundreds of tortoises and took them onto their boats, turning them upside down.  They would stay alive for months that way, providing fresh meat for the whalers. There are whalers log books from that era that report taking 700 tortoises for this purpose in a single visit.  The situation was worsened by introduced predators, such as goats and donkeys on the islands following on from human habitation.  Even now there are problems with the invasion of fireants, which eat the tortoise eggs before they hatch.  The Centre gives the tortoises a chance to survive in a habitat as close to their natural one as possible.  We saw tortoises that would fit in the palm of your hand in the nursery section, through to big old tortoises way past knee height in the open part of the sanctuary.  

RAFTKIN crew meets tortoise

Interestingly these tortoises were still only about 30-40 years old, which is not even middle age for a creature than can live for 150-200 years. The Centre returns tortoises to the wild every year, slowly rebuilding the population.

Our last stop was Puerto Chino Beach on the east coast of the island.  Its main feature was that there was surf, with waves big enough to body surf.  We had a quick swim before we all bundled back into the taxis to drive back to a local restaurant where we had a delicious lunch of fish and rice and plantain chips, with a view across the valley towards the coastline.

Easter Sunday had a surprise for us.  The Easter sealion visited RAFTKIN during the night, then decided to stay the night in the cockpit leaving behind some Easter treats for Dave and me to clean up in the morning. April fools?  We had a family day and walked through town, then over to the Interpretation Centre where we learned about the volcanic formation of the islands, the evolution of the species endemic to Galapagos and the history of human settlement of the archipelago.  A half hour walk through the National Park brought us to Las Tijeteras, a rocky bay where the sealions like to play.  We went swimming around the bay with the sealions, which swim so effortlessly through the water and genuinely look to be having fun as they hunt for fish. 

Top to bottom bike ride - El Junco to Wreck Bay

With the other kid boats we hired some bikes on Monday 2^nd April, then organised taxis to take us to the top of the mountain at El Junco.  From there we had a largely downhill ride all the way back to Puerto Baquerizo Moreno.  The ride was broken by a stop in the town of El Progresso, the first human settlement on the island, where we stopped at El Ceibo, a 300 year old tree that had been turned into a treehouse, complete with swinging bridge access and fireman’s pole egress.  There were many other amusements to be enjoyed by the kids and the young at heart.

The Treehouse

Our last day in San Cristobal was a special day for me, as I went on a 360 tour with Dol Selene and the Pelizeno Pirates.  We left early in the morning in a large speed boat and motored out to Kiker Rock.  Standing 148 m above sea level, this incredible rock formation is quite a landmark, but even better for snorkelling.  We swam through the split in the rock, where we saw nurse sharks swimming along the ocean floor, then around the western side of the rock where we enjoyed encounters with sea turtles, sealions and oodles of fish. 

Kicker Rock

Seal at Kicker Rock

The boat then took us to a small beach on the west coast of San Cristobal where we saw turtle tracks in the sand as it is nesting season.  As we sped around the northern tip of the island we were followed by the largest pod of dolphins I have ever seen – there were hundreds!  We slowed to look for boobies on the cliffs and saw some red footed and masked boobies, as well as frigate birds. 

360 Tour - San Cristobal

As we travelled down the west coast of the island, we stopped at a small beach for lunch, then went ashore for a short walk to a couple of coastal lagoons.  The lagoons, which are sometimes cut off during low tide, are full of nurse sharks, eagle rays and turtles.  The small lagoon was off limits, but we were allowed to swim in the big lagoon.  Visibility was not great, which was kind of eerie, especially knowing there were sharks in the water!  As I circumnavigated the lagoon I was overtaken by a flock (what do you call a group of rays?) of spotted eagle rays.  I also swam over many sharks and turtles.  When I got out and sat on the rocks next to the small lagoon to warm up in the sun, one of the turtles made her escape as the tide came in and the channel to the large lagoon deepened.

Large turtle escapes small lagoon

As soon as I got back on RAFTKIN it was time to haul up the anchor and sail to Isla Isabela.  We sailed smoothly out of San Cristobal with beautiful breeze, but sadly the wind died out after only about an hour and we had to motor the rest of the way to Isla Isabela. As the light stole up from the horizon we saw the small rocky island, Isla Tortuga, rising dramatically up out of the sea. Beyond it lay Isla Isabela.  We motored into the harbour and had our anchor down at around 10am, but once again had to wait for our agent and a customs official come out to our boat to check things were in order, before we were free to go and explore Isabela. 

Isabela was a whole different ball game to San Cristobal.  For a start, there were no sealions waiting to jump on our boat… Phew!  The water was so much clearer and there were so many small fish swimming around our boat, which soon turned into large fish like tuna and wahoo chasing the small fish.  We also had small nurse sharks and spotted eagle rays swimming around the boat and even sea turtles.  Dave, Hayley and Megan took the dinghy in to shore to explore town.  It was a couple of kilometres walk into town, but they soon met up with the other kid boats in the Boobie Bar.  They got the lowdown on where to go (without a tour group) from James, who owned Boobie Bar, and so a plan for the next few days was soon hatched out.

Over Friday and Saturday we explored the areas within walking distance of the dinghy dock, namely the town, the flamingos and the tortoise sanctuary to see the Isabela giant tortoises.  In the afternoon we found ourselves at the Iguana Bar (aptly named for the marine iguanas that accumulated on the rock wall that surrounded the bar with the setting sun) where there was a beach with a bit of a surf break, a great shade tree and a bar with coffee and wifi.  It’s the little things in life…

Iguana Bar

The joke is on us!  Isabela giant tortoises

Sunday and Monday we explored further afield, starting with another top to bottom ride.  Hayley and Dave met up with Pelizeno, Shawnigan and Dol Selene in town where they picked up their bikes and a taxi to take them to the base of the volcano.  From there it was mostly a downhill ride to the lava caves, Sucre's Cave, where they spent about an hour exploring the interconnecting tunnels.  Back on their bikes they continued to the coast, stopping at a lookout for a lunch break before continuing down to town.

Bike ride lookout lunch stop

There was an official ice-block break in town before the big ride out to the Wall of Tears, an impressive looking structure standing out in the middle of nowhere.  The Wall of Tears is a drystone wall that was built by prisoners of the Isabela Penitentiary in the 1950s. The huge wall stands as a testament to that time. Despite it being relatively recent the only purpose for the wall construction seems to have been to break the prisoner’s spirits.  The ride out to the wall was through the national park where there were ‘wild’ tortoises (!) to be found climbing the stairs.  From the wall we hiked up to the headland where we could look back over the whole bay towards our anchorage and out towards Isla Tortuga.  

The wall of tears

Iguanas at the beach

In the afternoons we returned, like marine iguanas, to Iguana Bar to enjoy a swim, a coffee and chill out near the slack wire.  H & M even had a go at slack wire!

Hayley tries slack wire

Sunset over Isobela anchorage

On Tuesday 10^th April Lucy (La Cigale) and I took all the kids on an island tour.  Lucy’s Spanish is superb and she was able to negotiate a taxi to take us to Sucre's Cave.  So different to limestone caves or sandstone canyons, they glittered with gold when we switched our head torches on.  We travelled on to the lookout the rest of the crew had ridden to on Sunday and finished at the flamingo sanctuary where there was a boardwalk built through the wetland.  So cool to get close to these peculiar birds.  With their long legs they look so graceful until their heads start bobbing around and they become almost comic book character.  They were almost iridescent pink, quite different to the birds we saw in Bonaire.

Sucres Cave

More pretty flamingos!

There was a little bit of drama surrounding our departure, as our exit zarpe wasn’t ready due to a computer problem with customs.  Without this we could not leave and go to the last island we planned to visit, Santa Cruz.  The paperwork was promised at 6am the next morning, so we enjoyed our dinner special (a 3-course meal no less!) and dinghied back out to RAFTKIN.  The paperwork arrived just after 6:30am, mucho grascios Stephen!  We hauled up the anchor and, with next to no breeze, had an easy motor sail over to Santa Cruz. 

We motored into Puerto Ayora in the late afternoon on Thursday 11^th April, after an awesome welcome to Isla Santa Cruz by the biggest dolphins we have seen.  Anchoring was a bit of a challenge, as we had never used a stern anchor before, but after three attempts we finally succeeded and had tripled our knowledge of dropping a stern anchor.  After clearing with our Agent and customs once again we were free to go ashore and explore, so after a quick change we met up with some friends in town for dinner.  Town was a busy place, very developed for tourism, with cool cafes, bars and restaurants all along the streets.  It was quite a shock after the quiet, sandy streets of Isabela.

Large dolphins welcome us to Santa Cruz

Friday morning we were up early to met up with Shawnigan in a water taxi that took us to Finch Bay wharf, on the western side of the harbour.  We walked west from the harbour about 30 minutes to a large canyon, Las Gavedas, that extends from the sea well inland.  There is a similar canyon on the eastern side of the harbour and if you look on Google Earth you can see these two fault lines on either side of Puerto Ayora.  The western canyon has sunk below sea level, but where we entered the canyon was far enough from the sea that fresh water coming down the canyon has mixed with the sea water so that it is briny.  The water in the canyon is cold, but not like a Blue Mountains canyon, and a strange blue colour.  It was also the clearest water we swam in whilst in Galapagos – no algae here, but there were large fish!  We swam the first section of the canyon, then there was a bit of a rock scramble, before we had to duck dive through a swim-under into the next section of the canyon.  There were some excellent jumping cliffs in this section of the canyon and being early (before the majority of tourists arrived) we could enjoy a few jumps before we made our way back to the boats for breakfast.

Las Gavedas, Finch Bay

In the late morning we had packed a picnic lunch and we walked out to Tortuga Beach, about 3-4 km walk west of the town centre, in the National Park.  We spent all afternoon at the surf beach riding the boogie boards, digging in the sand and mucking about in the waves.  As we were packing up our gear in the afternoon, we met a lady from the USA who is teaching in Galapagos.  She seemed to be looking for shells, but in fact she was picking up microplastic from the beach.  She showed us what to look for and once you see it, you can’t help but start picking up the tiny plastic balls.  All the kids got involved and after half an hour we had collected enough to fill the bottom bulge of a coke bottle we sadly found on the beach.  It was a great lesson for us all.  We had all noticed that the beaches in Galapagos we very clean and mostly devoid of the bulk plastic we had seen washed up on the windward shores of the other islands we explored in the Caribbean and Panama, a credit to the authorities managing these unique islands.  The microplastics are a whole new concern as it shows the problem of plastic doesn’t just go away.

Kids at Tortuga Beach

Surf play!

Micro plastics :-(

Saturday morning was another early start.  We met in a water taxi just before 6am to then get a taxi out to the farmers market for fresh food provisioning.  We had been advised to get there early.  The market was a vibrant place with so much produce, many things I had not imagined we would get in Galapagos.  Everyone was so polite and I bungled my way through the language barrier, returning to RAFTKIN like a black sheep with three bags full of fresh fruit, vegetables and eggs. 

We quickly stowed everything away so that we could walk out to the Darwin Centre before it closed at 12pm.  The Darwin Centre brought together all the things we had learnt about the plants and animals of Galapagos into one place, where we could read about their evolution and now conservation. 

Darwin Centre - strange tortoise

Kids learn fast at Darwin Centre

At 4pm all the boat kids in Puerto Ayora made their way to the kids playground near the wharf to celebrate Hayley and Taj’s birthdays.  There must have been about 16 children – such a fun afternoon.  Afterwards we walked up to La Gomera, one of the amazing restaurants in town, for a birthday celebration dinner. 

Party!

Just taking a load off

Sunday morning we had pancakes for breakfast, before we met La Cigale in town late morning, took two taxis and travelled up into the highlands to the lava tunnels.  One tunnel is about 800 m long.  It has lights strung through it, but they can switch those off on request which of course we did.  The taxis dropped us off one side of the tunnels and we walked down and through the volcanically formed tunnel, which was like a small railway tunnel.  With torches off you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face.  With torches on the walls glittered gold. 

Lava Tubes trek

After a short stop for a break in Santa Rosa we drove on to the top of the volcano, where there was a figure 8 walk that passed around the rim of two large volcanic craters.  Both were long ago extinct and covered in vegetation, but quite a marvel to see.

Boat kids on the edge Los Gemelos crater

We had another early start on Monday morning so that we could get back out to Las Gavedas, Finch Bay before the tourist crowds.  This time Dave and Megan joined us (Megan had thought the early start too much previously).  We arrived at the canyon at around 7am and had it to ourselves.  So peaceful and serene, until we jumped in squealing!

Boat kids early morning walk to Las Gavedas

Megan swims under the sump

Tuesday 17^th April Hayley, Megan and I picked up Isabelle in a water taxi and we went into town for a last wander before the passage.  We got back to the boat around 12 pm, pulled up the anchor and motored out of Santa Cruz in a glass-out, three weeks sailing ahead of us.  Not quite the weather window we were hoping for, but the advantage of the glassy sea was that we saw the hundred turtles bobbing on the water’s surface to say “adios amigos!”.

Last drinks in Santa Cruz with Isabelle