Snorkeling with turtles and sea lions

Today we started early in the morning to see a sunrise around the Kicker Rock. And I must say it was the most astonishing view of our trip up to date. Rock was perfectly lit by the sun and we encircled it to take picture from each side. Then we had nice breakfast and went to the little bay for last snorkeling on the cruise. This snorkeling was really impressive! We had seen sea lions swimming in the water, turtles, a lot of different kinds of fish and even stingray. I spent over an hour swimming in the water and I liked it very much. Visibility was perfect on that day and I enjoyed using my Canon D10 underwater camera.
After snorkeling we get back on board and navigated to the small city nearby - Puerto Baquerizo Moreno. After lunch and siesta we disembarked to the pier (it means we had dry landing) then visited Interpretation Center. In that place you can learn a lot about Galapagos – how it was created and how it is changing over time. You can also see some models of the islands and read about human culture here. When you leave the museum, there's some trail leading to the nice view point up there. From this point you can observe some frigate birds and nice landscape of the area. I took pictures and went back to the village for some beer. We also wanted to find Internet cafe and publish blog entries, but to our surprise there were no Internet in the cafe – we checked 3 of them and didn't found Internet working. Just for your info – an hour of Internet access cost 1.80 USD. So after such defeat we sat down in the bar for Mojito, but after few minutes our acquaintance from the boat came and ask us to meet them in different place. So we quickly drunk our Mojito and moved to the other bar where almost all people from our boat were. There we had some beers and ceviche and long discussion about our guide, especially about his behavior. I will leave conclusion without comments...
After getting back on board, our guide invited us to final briefing meeting and explained what we'll do next day, or rather morning, because tomorrow we depart back to Quito. He also informed ask about envelopes waiting for us in the cabins. We should put separate tips for the crew and guide. The cruise in general was really nice and interesting - one guy even knew some polish words, because once was in Gdansk. The only bad thing about it was guide called Franklin. If you ever will go to Galapagos on Amigo or another yacht, just check if Franklin is not there. I believe other people have much more attitude and respect to their customers.

Espanola Island

Today we arrived to Espanola Island after 6 hours of overnight cruise. Boat jolted in every direction and it was really hard to sleep. When I stand up for a minute I almost vomited – laying position was much better. Luckily we survived this part of cruise. On Espanola Island we had dry landing – it means we arrived to kind of pier and suddenly noticed millions of iguanas, zillions of sea lions and trillions of crabs and birds. Animals were everywhere and we had to get round the pier to pass sea lions laying on it. The island is definitely for animals not for humans. And our guide again shown his dedication to the nature, but not to homo sapiens. On Espanola island we did special trail and on its route enjoyed nice birds and other animals. It was really interesting. And we had a lot of opportunities for photography. At the beginning weather was awful – dark and we had to use high ISO. Later it improved, but unfortunately our guide decided (not asking anyone) to get aboard almost an hour ahead of schedule!!! I was very angry on him and jumped on him. He didn't understand – for him it's better to spend 4-5 hours on board laying or sleeping than to see something interesting. I know he sees it every week, but we are paying for seeing these things. I wanted to have some time to take pictures and the rest of the group agreed with me. But his stupidity was stronger. He decided to get back and spend most of the day on board. He was resentful on me and didn't appear for the lunch and dinner – before we usually were eating at the same table, talking spanish and it was quite pleasant. It only confirms his lack of understanding. Later in the afternoon we was in the Gardener Bay for some swimming and snorkeling. Water was very dirty with a lot of sand and no visibility near the beach. I had a little headache, so didn't decide to swim around the rock where, what I heard later, visibility was better. People had seen shark and fish there. I stayed at the beach and had an opportunity to observe sea lions playing with waves and sand. I've also seen many iguanas, crabs and nice birds. But what was the best, was sea lion father with two kids. The guy was training small ones – it was like a performance in the circus. I spend almost half an hour there with my small camera and recorded some movies that maybe will be available here later. It was a lot of fun and was worth being there. Then we got back on board and have another tasteful dinner before navigating to another island...

Land of Flamingos and sea turtles

I woke up at 6:20 with terrible headache. That was after first night on board of this rocking boat. Fortunately I was sleeping well – like in the cradle. We arrived to Floreana island in that cradle, so it was time to have a shower, breakfast and visit the flamingos. Ecuadorian cuisine amazed me again. We had tasteful desayuno. I ate twice as much as normally do. After that we got on dinghy and made a route to the island. Landing was wet this time. First thing we saw was a small sea lion sunbathing on the magma rock. Then we headed to flamingo mere. There were plenty of them. Some were dancing as our guide explained us and some were just waiting for their better life like humans do. We had not much time there, because as I realized later, people prefer to spend time on the beach, or on the boat. It's crazy – you're on Galapagos islands and easily give few hours of your day to laying on the beach or sitting on board of the boat and reading a book. I really can't understand it. I'd rather spend a day watching flamingos, but I was not allowed too. Stupid regulations. But ok, we had no choice, so used our time to take some pictures good enough to publish on this blog – but that's it. Nothing amazing. After that we headed to the other side of the island where we had a chance to watch giant turtles in the wild. And they really were there! I was surprised. You can really see them not only in the zoo! Moreover we saw blue heron just doing different poses to be photographed for over 10 minutes and another sea lions and plenty of colorful, very quick, nice crabs. Then we boarded back to the boat. It was the end of the day for me. The rest was very boring. Snorkeling in very crowded rocks, lunch, siesta after dinner, time on the very boring beach, dinner – nothing interesting at all. Ok, during snorkeling I've noticed something reminding stingray, so I got away from the water. Later it turned out that it wasn't venomous, but I hadn't know it in the moment it was few centimeters below me. So people were doing things that could also do at home. But this time they had to pay a lot of money for this. I still don't understand the case. Am I crazy or so? Maybe tomorrow we can see something wonderful again?

Pictures from these two days are straight from the camera – no processing, because I had no possibility to fix them. Sorry about that. Better versions will available in the gallery when I'm back.

Excursion with Aerogal

Another day we had to wake up very early – 3:50. We had Aerogal flight at 6:40, but you always need some time for taking a shower, have breakfast, pack your luggage and get to the airport. Fortunately receptionist from Cayman hotel ordered a taxi for 4:45 and we arrived to the airport few minutes after 6am. In the departure hall of aeropuerto nacional we were asked to pay 10 USD for just departing to Galapagos islands. Then we were boarded on 757-200 altogether with about 100 other passengers. I was surprised that this flight might be such crowded. Weather in Quito was beautiful and we departed on time. After 30 minutes of flight we landed in Guayaquil to take some more passengers. Then it took about 2 more hours to get to Baltra on Galapagos islands. They asked us to pay 100 USD more as an entrance fee and gave us colorful piece of paper. Ok, I thought – it might be used as toilet paper in case of emergency. Nevertheless it is very expensive piece of paper. Then we had to find a guy from Amigo yacht who was obliged to transfer us to the boat in Puerto Ayora. Guy was not very nice, told us that we are waiting for 3 more people and left us for more than an hour. Airport was small and very crowded and the waiting was really boring. Guy came for us after an hour and decided to take us alone not waiting for other people, because all flights just arrived. It turned out that other people were already in Puerto Ayora. So the yacht was full and we boarded the it for some lunch. What surprised us a lot was that we got spaghetti with bolognese sauce and some vegetables. After the lunch we disembarked to the city and visited Charles Darwin station. A lot of big turtles and some iguanas. It was like a zoo, nothing amazing, but some good opportunities to take pictures. Weather was not great and it got dark really quickly, so from the photographic point of view we weren't lucky. Due to this we had some more time and visited local restaurant for some beer. However waitress (actually old, black, local lady) was so great that we decided to order some food. We had baked banana with cheese and some fish with rice. I must say that after that I got in love with ecuadorian cuisine. It's tasty and very healthy. The confirmation of this theory came with the dinner on yacht. It was really great and I went sleep full. Our first day on Galapagos came to an end.


And especially for MickeyW who likes such pictures - Ecuadorian "McDrive" :)

Quito

Flight from Miami to Quito wasn't any special. We just departed and arrived on time. In Quito airport we landed in the dark, but what I noticed was the fact that size of the airport reminded me very well Warsaw Airport. Inside the hall there were 10 desks where clerks were giving visas. I got the stamp in my passport and finally was in Ecuador. Very pleasant way. Then we caught a taxi and headed to the hotel Cayman. Everyone here speaks spanish, so it's really easy to communicate. In the hotel we had good reception and got room with balcony. Unfortunately for not long, because in the early morning we must wake up and go to the airport. But we still have some time to rearrange our luggage, leave a part of it in the hotel and take only 20kg to Galapagos islands.