00:53.707S 089:36.825W The Galapagos Experience
Shaya Moya
Don & Susan Smyth
Tue 21 Jun 2011 18:09
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Day 1: Arrival
We arrived in the Galapagos on the June 11th at
0900 at it was in all honesty a gloomy site. It look a little like some English
coastal village, Cloudy, grey and boring. Our local customs agent was
however a ball of energy, literally a ball. He was as tall as was wide and
round. He was also very efficient and before we knew what had happened all the
documents had been processed, we'd visited immigration at the Police station and
had the 45 second tour of the little seaside village of San Cristobal. Before we
knew it we were sitting inside his little home taking care of the payments which
was also very efficient. The number jotted down at random on a scrap piece of
paper and presented as "de biill". Whilst counting out the "dollares" he
received a call, introduced us to his wife and was out the door, only to return
briefly snatch some of the dollares and disappear to Santa Isabell never to be
seen again. His wife dealt with us from that point on. Thank You
Bolivar!
After a brief walk along the key we did what we
always do and found a spot for breakfast. A bitta eggs and bakey. The Galapagos
version was slightly different to what we had in mind and they call it "Eggs
Cowboy Style". I think that's just the polite form of "eggs with everything
fried up together for the Gringos" but nevertheless we enjoyed our first meal on
land so they know what the Gringos like in San Cristobal.
After breakfast we found our spot for the remainder
of the stay, a short stretch of paved walkway between Casa Blanca ( Cafe del mar
pora Galapagos) and The Hotel Miconia (The only Hotel amongst all the Hostels on
the beachfront) which had a form of wifi for paying guests and a pretty good
menu. We relaxed a little at Casa Blanca and started to get to
grips with what we thought was going to be a grey, drizzly time. We then
forced ourselves to seek out a dive centre and at least try to enjoy ourselves.
The dive centre was quickly found and dives for the next day were booked
extremely casually. "You guys do dive tours?"... "Yes". "Can we go
tomorrow?"..."Yes, come back later for try on equipment at fife
o'klok"
It was around 1300 when we decided to spend the
rest of the day on the boat relaxing. So we hopped in a water taxi and
headed across out to where Shaya Moya was anchored to find that Liquid
Living had arrived. Liquid Living is a 50ft catamaran inhabited
by our new South African friends. Simon, Sharon and their three kids, Shannon
(6), Jordan (4) and Alex (1). Also on board Matt, Simon's mate and my new
found beer buddy. We were in two minds about seeing them there. Firstly,
Great! glad to see them so soon again and yay! people to talk to
other then ourselves. Secondly, Damn! how did they get here so fast
and aaargh... we'll never hear the end of this. It took us 9 days to get to
the Galapagos (without motoring) but they took just 6 days and they caught more
fish then I did. We knew then that we had to improve our overall
performance!! So we lost the race and the
fishing competition which meant that we had to buy dinner and we did that night.
Dinner turned into a great night out. Parents (Dad
included) and children(Matt and I not included) were home by 2200, and Matt
and I decided to stay a little while. We met all sorts of tourists,
volunteers and locals. Without going into to much detail. Grand Ol Time!
 This Taxi Driver gave me my nick-name and within
hours the whole island was calling me "Gringo
Loco"
I think it's coz of my hair!
  Not exactly Paradise at first sight... Looks can be
deceiving!
Blue-footed Boobie... note the blue feet
Day 2: Dive Day
At 0845 we stood outside the dive shop, some more
rejuvenated then others from a good nights sleep. The day trip meant visiting
four sites by boat, what fun! First we stopped at a little island just off the
coast where we snorkelled with sea lions, marine iguanas, turtles. We also saw
blue-footed boobies (birds with blue feet), pelicans and big red crabs.
After the snorkelling tour we headed out for one of
the Galapagos's most famous dive-sites... Kicker Rock. The first dive was
amazing we swam through one of the two passages and around the northern face.
The abundance of life down there was truly amazing and to list all the fantastic
things we saw would take forever. Some of the highlights included: Octopus,
Turtles, Eagle Rays... that's right more then just one, White Tip Sharks,
Galapagos Sharks and Black Tip Sharks. It was definitely one of my
top 10 dives. The duration of the dive was cut a little short due to
the heavy breathing of our Israeli friend, but no-one complained. After the
first dive we headed to a secluded beach where we had lunch and time to
relax.
For the second dive we went back to Kicker Rock,
but this time we would swim through the narrower passage and around
the Southern face. Much of the same you'd think but noooo! We were still in
search of the "big fish", the Hammer-Head Shark. The visibility was not so
good on the second dive which made it all the more exciting to be hunting
one of the more aggressive sharks. We were all frantically looking around when
the dive-master, Martin, suddenly turned and bashed his head with his two fists
on either side, the sign for Hammer-Head Shark. I was lucky to be close enough
and caught an exhilarating glimpse of the monster out in the blue, just before
it disappeared. The hunt was now on! I was determined to see it or another one
again. Maybe a little too determined, that led to a very close encounter
with a very large Galapagos shark which had me back-pedalling to the
amusement of the other divers in the group. Not long after that, we shared
a lot of underwater "High Five"s and followed the empty Israeli tank to the
surface again. Again, nobody complained. On the boat ride home we decided to go
for a few drinks together later and after dinner that's just what Matt and
I did. We met up with the group I'd been diving with and did what people do on
Saturday nights.
  Diving at Kicker Rock looking
for....
big sharks ( Galapagos Shark)
Day 3: The Tour
The next morning we were up at 0800 again and off
to join Liquid Living for an island tour. In true SA style we ended up on
the back of a bakkie (pick-up) minus one. Matt had decided to sleep
in. No worries... the rest of the bunch chatted and laughed our way from one
site to the other, taking photos, discussing how it was very difficult to
impress South Africans with some birds and lizards, drinking water, eating fruit
and chips (crisps), trying not to fall off the bakkie, getting wet, getting dry
again and general fun having. We stopped at two
beaches, an old volcano crater-turned-lake and the tortoise sanctuary. We also
stopped to get more drinks and mistook a private home for a restaurant
(which was, in my defence, next-door). Wondering why the people sat at the two
tables were looking at so weirdly, I cruised in, as you do, with a
loud "Hola Amigos, dos agua por favour?" to which the answer was a stiff
finger pointing next-door. I felt like such a "Gringo" but I guess that's
what I am.
The tortoise sanctuary was quite nice the enormous
tortoises were great to see, although rather lethargic. Africa just can't be
beaten on the wildlife frontier. There were also finches and little lizards.
Their whole claim to fame is that they are endemic to the islands and I guess
that's important. It certainly explains why there are so many "bunny-huggers" in
there khakis, strops and wide-brimmed hats cruising around with mega-binoculars
and super-duper cameras. Besides Dad of course.
  Bakkie Jol!!
  Big Tortoise
Marine Iguanas and a Big Red Galapagos Crab
Day 4: Intended Date-of-Departure
On day 4 we asked about refuelling to leave and
were told that all the jerry-cans were being used and that we could only get
fuel the next day. This gave us an extra day, so I decided to look around for
some other parts we needed and found a chap who said he travelled to the main
island to collect post and packages for the locals and would look for the parts
we needed. Great, we thought and we settled in to a relaxing, reading, sleeping,
eating, drinking and not much else day. We met with the others at the
Miconia and had dinner, watched the kids playing around, got wifi things
done and retired to an early night. Much needed!
Day 5: Second Intended
Date-of-Departure
Refuelling in The Galapagos is not a simple task.
There are no fuel-docks or barges, they like to do it the old fashioned way with
Jerry-cans. This is not an issue if you need 25l to get you to the next garage,
it is however a major schlep when you need 400l. Then there is the added
difficulty of transporting diesel from one container to the next on a constantly
rocking floatation device with a very expensive, unforgiving wooden finish
around the little round hole you want to pour the oily stuff into. All the
grease-monkeys in the world are crying out siphon it!! And that's what I did. It
is still not easy and I found myself standing on my left foot, holding the
one end of the pipe between the toes on my right foot, in the funnel
leading to the tank, whilst my two hands were wrapped around the spout on the
jerry-can to seal it around my lips so as to create pressure by blowing
into the jerry-can instead of sucking on the end of the pipe. I use this method
to reduce the amount of diesel you drink if you do it the other way. It works
great usually but after doing it for 2 hours with god-knows how many jerry-cans
you end up looking like a shiny mannequin and smelling like you've been swimming
in an oil-spill. All done and said, I was reasonably successful.
All we had to do now was wait till 1600 for the guy
with our parts and then we'd be off... or so we thought. 1600 the chap arrived,
without our parts, and so did our generator problems. We had a
leak on the raw (salt) water pump and needed to get that
repaired. Another dinner at Miconia another few beers with Matt and another day
in Galapagos... still having fun though!
  Diesel
Madness
Great Place
Day 6: We're off in Convoy
I spent the last day stocking up on
greens, finding a fish-killing stick and saying my goodbyes to new-found
friends. Dad got the generator sorted out with some help from a local engineer.
Simon got his second engine starter fixed and the family rounded up. D.O.T,
another boat we met were also set and the convoy left the Galapagos after a
wonderful visit at 1630. The race is on again and so is the fishing competition.
Thank you to all the wonderful people we met
for making our trip to the Galapagos Island of San Cristobal one we will
never forget.
Martin Delgado - Divemaster
Michele and Veg - crazy couple from
London
Luis and the people at Casa Blanca
Lobo Loco our Nightlife Guide
The Water-Taxis
Mike and Brent (D.O.T) for the hilarious night at
Casa Blanca when we met
Emmy, Mia and the Israeli for the great dive
trip
Special Thanks to Liquid Living...
You guys are great and I'm sure we're going to have a lot of fun in The Marqueses, and all the way to Tahiti...If you can keep up! |