THE GOOD OF THE GALAPAGOS

The steam has settled since my last post, I went and spoke with the travel agency we booked our tour through and although they appeared to be sincerely concerned about our misfortune and claimed they'll try to refund some of our money, I highly doubt anything will ever happen. You win some and lose some, but what's done is done so we might as well dwell on all of the great aspects of our time in the Galapagos.

First of all, the passengers on board the Princess with us were, for the most part, a lot of fun.  Since it was a lower priced tour we were on the same level as everyone else and when we saw the fancy ships docked at ports with older passengers all showered, hair combed, wearing newly purchased zip-off pants, button down safari-style shirts and sun hats and carrying mega telephoto cameras we got a good laugh at what our group looked like.  We were a bunch of young, grubby looking, wild-haired, dirty clothed kids who were mostly all out traveling the world.  It was fantastic having so many people to share stories of where we'd all been, where we're all going and all of the lessons we've learned along the way.  We never would have fit in on any of those fancy boats anyway.

The Princess of the Galapagos

Second was the colors of the water.  When we were sailing between islands the ocean was the richest, deepest, fullest shade of navy blue you can imagine, but if you looked at it for more than a few seconds at a time, it appeared to change into a black that was as black and as viscous as oil.  It was beautiful.  Then as we pulled into ports, we found ourselves floating on water the most brilliant shades of turquoises and teals.  It was spectacularly clear and looked so inviting to take a swim, but turned out to be a little deceptive and we froze our tails off every time we jumped in.

We got to snorkel a few times to experience the underwater world of the Galapagos and though I would have liked to swim around for hours on end, it was so cold that 20 minutes was about the max we could handle.  We got to swim amongst the schools of brightly colored fish and view some amazing corals.  We saw White-tipped Reef Sharks, sting rays and penguins up close.  We got within arms length of sea lions, the young ones completely unafraid of humans.  Although we didn't see dolphins while snorkeling, we did get an incredible up-close look at hundreds and hundreds of them from the boat.  One day we sailed into a pod that stayed with us for a good half hour.  In every direction you could see their dorsal fins breaking the surface and watch them playfully jumping about.  The most spectacular view, however, came from the bow of the ship.  The dolphins were directly in front and under our ship, cruising right along with us, jumping, rolling and putting on a show for their captive audience.  But my favorite animal of the ocean was the Green Sea Turtles.  The way they looked in the water was so mysterious, mythical and prehistoric.  Their motions were slow and gentle as they effortlessly flapped their flippers as if they were flying through the water.

 White-tipped Reef Sharks

Galapagos Penguins

Dolphins

As expected, the animals on the islands were abundant and fascinating.  Massive groups of stinky Sea Lions were present on nearly every island and it was interesting to watch the male bulls patrol their segment of shore.  We actually had one who plopped himself on a dock we needed to walk down to get to our boat.  He barked at us and leaped towards us a few times while our guide slapped his flip-flops together in attempt to get him to move.  We had no luck but the bull eventually laid down and we all hustled past him.  The female Sea Lions were fairly inactive, lazing on the shores with their young pups, who were unbelievably adorable.  The more we observed the Sea Lions, the more human-like qualities they seemed to show; the pups were active and playful with each other and were constantly bugging their mothers by crawling over them or attempting to run away.  They never got far before either the mother scurried in front of them or their uncoordinated movements caused them to trip and nose-dive into the sand.  They liked to be close to each other and there were frequently small groups snuggling together on the beach (maybe the group snuggling isn't so human-like but the being in groups is), and anytime there appeared to be an argument between 2 of them, another would simply squeeze in between them and that would end the dispute.

 Sea Lions

We saw many kinds of birds - various finches and warblers, ducks, herons, hawks, albatross and flamingos.  We saw gulls and doves that looked quite different from those we're used to in the U.S. and Frigate birds with their split tails and inflated red chests.  Of course we saw Boobies - the Blue Footed Boobies with their most unusual, unnatural seeming feet and beady, creepy little eyes.  We also got to see the Masked Boobies who weren't all that unusual looking but had the most blinding white feathers of any bird I've ever seen.

Yellow Warbler

Great Blue Heron

Galapagos Hawk

 Greater Flamingo

Swallow-tailed Gull

Galapagos Doves

 Magnificent Frigatebird

Blue-footed Booby

 Masked Booby

Iguanas were perhaps the most abundant of all animals we saw on the islands.  Their spiked bodies, color variations, humorous ways in which they moved, spit and piled up on each other made them intriguing and interesting to watch and photograph.  They have adapted very well to their surroundings and there were many occasions in which we'd be walking along and not notice until the last second that there were hundreds laying alongside the path on the rocks or even right in front of our feet.

Land Iguana

The Galapagos Giant Tortoises were spectacular and a wonder, living to be 150 years old and weigh up to 250 kilograms!  The history of these reptiles on the islands is a grim and sad story, but thankfully the slaughtering of them was halted before they went extinct.  They have made great strides in bringing back the population of tortoises, but sadly it's all done on farms due to the number of introduced animal predators still present despite the park's attempt to eradicate them, which would then allow the tortoises to once again reproduce and survive through their first few years in the wild.

Giant Tortoise

We visited a place called Post Office Bay, so named because at the end of the 18th century a barrel was set near the beach and acted as a makeshift mail drop.  British whaling ships would leave letters there to be picked up by homeward bound vessels who would then deliver the letters.  The post office is still there and in use today.  Visitors can leave postcards which can then be picked up later by other visitors who will deliver them to their postmarked addresses.  We left a couple of letters that may someday be delivered (we thought it would be a fun experiment) and also found a few from around the Bay Area that we're planning on hauling around the world on our bikes for a while and then delivering when we return home.

Post Office Bay

The landscapes of the Galapagos were also noteworthy.  These are small, volcanic islands and therefore the ground is rocky and rough with black lava fields everywhere.  It is a magnificent contrast against the white and red sand beaches on the islands, turquoise water and red crabs living in the rock crevices along the shores.  The vegetation was sparse and desert-like on most of the islands with cacti and gnarly shrubs everywhere, but on the bigger islands, large, prolific trees were also present.  There was also beautiful ground covers on one of the islands.  We were there during their dry season and they had turned from their typical shades of green to reds, oranges and yellows and it somewhat felt like we were walking around in a psychodelic Dr. Seuss sort of world.

Crab

Overall, I have to say I'm glad we visited the Galapagos.  Although I wouldn't recommend a budget trip to anyone, it's a fantastic place worthy of experiencing.

GALAPAGOS ISLANDS

I wasn´t exactly sure what to expect from a trip to the Galapagos Islands, but what we got was far from what I imagined.  I had known for years that I wanted to visit this place a distant land I had read so much about in all of my years of biology education a place of beautiful and strange landscapes, of unique and abundant wildlife.  All of these things were present and I´d like to write of all the interesting, beautiful and awesome things we saw on the islands, but it´s going to have to wait for a few days until I am no longer red in the face with steam pouring out of my ears.  I walked away from this trip feeling angry, disappointed and jipped, questioning whether it was worth going or not.


There is no such tihng as a cheap visit to the Galapagos.  Even the most inexpensive tours cost a pretty penny and I quickly realized those islands are not a place to visit unless you have an extremely large bank account or have saved up many thousands of dollars exclusively for this purpose.  Unfortunately, we weren´t in either of those situations and fell victims to the corruption of the tourist industry in South America.


When we booked our tour, we knew the boat would be small and crowded, the rooms wouldn´t be the most comfortable accomodations and the meals would be anything but gourmet, but we were okay with that as none of us believed the boat should be the most important aspect of the tour.  It should simply be a place to eat, sleep and transport us between the islands.  Other than that, the itinerary looked great showing that we were to visit a different island everyday and though the price was expensive, it was still affordable and approximately what we had planned to pay anyway.


Were we ever so unpleasantly surprised.  The boat, ´The Princess of the Galapagos,´ was a crummy piece of floating crap.  The cabins were ridiculously small, barely large enough for 2 people to stand in at the same time and there was a constant smell of diesel fumes present throughout the vessel.  There was no warm water, though we were told there was.  The ride was rocky and rough with all of us walking around like drunken sailors, feeling sick to our stomachs despite taking our sea-sickness pills.  The first night I pulled back my sheets to climb into bed a cockroach (fortunately not the big, scary kind) scurried across my bedding.  I´m happy to not be afraid of creepy, crawly things, smashed it with my book and proceeded to get into bed and fall asleep.  The boat itself was a wreck.  The anchor system didn´t work and every time we arrived or left a location, the crew had to lower and pull it up by hand.  The engine frequently broke down and one of the crew members was continuously down in the engine room attempting to fix whatever was broken.  There were times we were positive we´d be bobbing around in the middle of the sea for days before anyone would rescue us.  There was a generator attached to the back of the boat (just outside our bedroom window) that ran day and night, providing power to the ship because the engine wasn´t doing its job.  Needless to say, it was obnoxiously loud and if I had had a wrecking bar on board the thing would have been smashed within the first day.

I tried to think of reasons as to why the boat could be in such unacceptable condition, but I couldn´t find any.  There´s no excuse, given the amount paid per week by each of the 16 passengers, that there´s not enough to repair and maintain this boat.  The answer is simple, but it disgusts me because it´s so wrong.  We pay a fat wad of cash to go on the tour and all but the few bucks it costs for food, fuel and to pay the guides their measly salaries goes straight into the hands of the owner of the boat - the fat man who´s probably never even stepped foot on his rip-off piece of garbage.

Okay, so the boat was pathetic, but I could accept that.  Afterall, it was the islands and the animals we were there to see.  But what do you know - more disappointment.  Rather than spending the majority of our days exploring the islands we found ourselves on a boat that only allowed short excursions on land and therefore most of our times was spent on board the Princess.  Yes, we did get to see a lot of animals in the few short hours we were on the islands everyday, but it made me furious knowing that other boats were spending so much more of their days exploring all over the islands and sailing at night while we were stuck sailing for much of the daytime hours.  I felt like a prisioner, bored, tired and sea-sick and therefore many of us on board spent many days just laying around or sleeping.  We took some very expensive naps!  I spoke with our guide and asked why we were on this horrible schedule and his answer to me was, ¨I have no control.  The schedule is all decided by the owner of the boat.  We´ve had lots of complaints about this in the past, but there´s nothing I can do about it.¨  I don´t understand how we can pay so much money and get such crummy service in return.  Apparently we fell into a great big scam and were just a few more victims of the disgusting amount of corruption down here.