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Swimming with sharks, manta rays and beautiful tropical fish. The clear warm water that you slip into just to keep cool, the golden sun sets and the relaxing pace of the boat.
Impossible to count the iguanas, the lava lizards and impossible to express the wonder of swimming with fully grown sea turtles in the wild.
No trip to Ecuador could be complete without a visit to the Galapagos. We trawled around Quito to get the best deal. We wanted a boat trip for 8 days, to go to as many of the uninhabited islands as possible... and we wanted value for money. The flight out there and the entrance fee were also expensive, so we decided to spend 2 extra days out their to help justify the cost!
We flew in from the heat of Guayaquil to the heat of the Galapagos to join our boat, the Friendship. A crew of 6 and 15/16 passengers. For 6 gorgeous days we toured around Santa Cruz, Santa Fe, Española, Floreña, Rabida, James and Seymour.
Typically the crew woke us at 7am with breakfast: Juice, fruit, eggs ad bread. We´d spend the morning on an island, looking for turtles on land, blue footed boobies, land and marine igunanas... We´d have a spot of snorkeling in the bay, looking at tropical fish, white tip sharks, sting rays and then lunch. Usually 3 courses, followed by a siesta - to let the scorching heat of the midday sun subside. Afternoons were a mixture of snorkling, nature walks and motoring onto the next island or bay.
What a life!
Because of the price we didn´t have great expectations of the accomodation on board. After all, it is the wildlife you want to see, rather then the inside of a plush cabin! However, the food was really good, the crew were friendly (William the mechanic was very patient with my halting Spanish!), and the other passengers were all like minded budget backpackers.
The place was just magic. Having a couple of extra days on San Cristobel after the tour allowed time to appreciate the experience, before heading back to civilisation.
On 2 occasions dolpins swan with our boat, but they were going too fast and soon left us behind. On snorkelling trips you never knew when something special would happen. Devils Crown was a wonderful snorkel site, and twice we found we were swimming with grown up sea turtles...waiting for a high tide in order to ´´hit the beach´´ to lay their eggs. Near James Island (Santiago) we swam with penguins, endemic to the Galapagos, while they were fishing for sardines. They travel at 40 kph under water, so there was no keeping up with them.
A list of what we saw though still doesn´t help to explain about this wonderful place.
The islands are on a fault line, and in geological terms are very new, the older islands are only 3 million years. The vegetation is very interesting, comparing the different islands, showing the stages of pioneering speices as the first plants try to establish a foothold on the black lava. In some places where the land is older there are small scrub bushes, and on Santa Fe a rain forest in the middle.
You will know, the islands are famous for starting Charles Darwin´s thoughts about evolution. Before Darwin, people in the Christian (and Jewish) World believed that everything was created at the same time - over a course of 7 days. Darwin studied 12 different finches on the Galapagos islands. He realized that they all came from one type of bird originally, but that they had changed to suit the environments that they faced. The differences in their beaks was the most obvious. The result of this was a gradual realization that everything was not created in 7 days....causing a conflict betwen scientists and the Church. All the other creatures and plants on the Galapagos have a similar relative on the mainland, but with subtle differences.
At first we were a bit skeptical of the leading theory about how the creatures and plants came to be on the islands. Apparently they made the journey from Latin America on the sea currents, taking 8 days from the coast of Panama to the Galapagos. However, back on the mainland, after a flood in the jungle we saw huge rafts of still growing mangroves floating down the brown swollen waters. Some were inhabited by pairs of birds, and from there it didn´t take great imagination to understand how the Galapagos might have become inhabited by the wildlife.
I´ve still got more to write on these islands. This place really has enthused us, so, more tomorrow!
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