San Cristobal Island, Galápagos – It’s been my dream, since I was seven, to visit the Galapagos Islands. On our day of departure from Quito, I woke early, showered, then shed a few tears when I realised this long held dream of mine was about to come true. As we drove to the airport above the forest of clouds that blanketed the deep valleys of the worlds second highest capital city, I suddenly realised that I knew very little about the Islands except that they had giant tortoises, big enough for a man to ride, and an abundence of rare wildlife. I knew nothing about the landscape, the people, the climate or it’s history. What awaited was a big surprise.
Our first island, and our point of entry, was San Cristobal. It has the smallest commercial airport I’ve ever seen! One runway, which had a downhill slope. One gate, if you can call it that. It was more of like a driveway in front of house, with space enough only for one plane to park in front of a small building. After paying our US$100 national park entrance fee, we grabbed our bags from the small carousel and took a short bus ride to the Blue Marlin hotel, our home for the next two nights. After our lunch of asparagus soup – topped with popcorn- fish, and chocolate mouse, we headed out to explore the island and do some snorkeling.
We first ventured towards the centre of information and on to a lookout where we could see the bay Charles Darwin landed in all those years ago. After snorkeling in this exact bay, we strolled over to Lovers Beach for more swimming and exploring. During our excursion we saw loads and loads of seals, laying on the beach and swimming. I was particularly fond of a small pup covered in sand. We saw an iguana sunning itself on a rock, so camoflouged, it took me several minutes to actually see it. There were all colours of crabs scuttling around the black lava remains. And birds galore. Blue footed boobies. Frigates, with their unusual shilohette against the sky. And thed large beaks of pelicans. All such amazing sights, but what I still really wanted to see was the giant tortoises.
Day two, we boarded a boat and ventured out to Kicker Island for some snorkeling. This uninhibited island made from a plug of volcanic ash was a formidable sight with one part of it appearing to look like a rock split in two. Here we were told, if we were lucky we’d get to swim with sharks! I wasn’t too comfortable with that idea at all. Particularly as we saw several large ones swimming beneath our boat as we pulled up. Luckily, by the time we got to our entry point our boat was surrounded with giant sea turtles and I was itching to get in. Goggles a flippers donned, I took one giant step off the front of the boat and before I knew it I was swimming with sea turtles! Such an amazing sight to have these beautiful, graceful creatures just floating beneath you. It wasn’t long before we then saw an eagle ray. Black with white spots and more triangular shaped than it’s realities the sting ray I’ve seen before. As I was admiring it, a seal swam right past me, frightening me to death. By this point, we were starting to swim through the split in Kicker Rock. As I looked down again, there they were, dozens of white tipped sharks! I reached for the person next to me for some security. I was pleased that we were of no interest to them and we passed by unnoticed. The colliding of the Humboldt and Panama currents were continuely felt, and I went from a freezing cold patch into a warm one, then back into a cold one. I was pleased when we were finally called back on the boat as I was starting to find myself in longer periods of the cold Humboldt current.
The afternoon was spent on a pristine white sand beach, which was home to some more seals, and a black iguana. All in all, an amazing two days and a great introduction to the Galápagos. It was capped off with the most amazing dinner of rice with octopus, tuna, shrimps and vegetables in a semi spicy creamy sauce and an evening of entertainment watching several hundred seals vying for a space on the beach. The Galápagos wasn’t what I had imagined at all, but already I was falling in love with its abundance of tame animal life, it’s rugged nature, and is scarcity of people.
Next stop, Florena Island. With a population of only 120, who knows what we have in store for us!
