Boobies and tortoises and sea lions, oh my!

Vilcabamba, Ecuador

So we got back from the Galapagos Monday and it was great! The boat we stayed on was the newest in the fleet sailing the Galapagos and it was really nice but not up to the luxury standards us budget travelers were expecting. If we had paid full price, like some of the people on our boat did, we would have been rather mad but we didnt so were not. The boat had lots of space and windows everywhere (even in the shower), but the food, service and other aspects of the boat were only ok. The only luxury service we really got was the guide who was superb.

The boat was divided into two groups, the scuba divers and the walkers. Since neither Jess or I had scuba dived we part of the hardcore walking group. There were 16 guest on the boat and 10 crew. Originally the whole boat was booked for diving only but 2 weeks ago the Galapagos national parked restricted 2 dive sites, off the islands of Darwin and Wolfe, to only 3 boats and ares was not one of them. Theses two dive sites are the two most northern islands in the national park and also the best places to see Hammerhead and Whale sharks, which is what the Galapagos is know for. Anyways once the divers heard this 8 of them dropped out leaving spots open on the boat for us. Of the walkers there was a Canadian/Irish couple, a guy from Whales (UK that is), a group of 3 Peruvians from Canada, and a Swiss couple that only really spoke German, Spanish, and French. The 6 divers were all based out of a dive shop in the not so close to the ocean region of Columbus, Ohio. If anyone has the urge to learn go diving in Columbus, ask for Jack and Gordy at Aquatic Adventures!

First off let me state that the Galapagos are a amazing national park, and i doubt you will get so close to so many wild animals and birds anywhere else in the World. The trip started early Monday morning when we left our hostel in Guayaquil to head for the airport. There we were met by our travel agent who helped check us in and more importantly reminded us that the price of the trip was confidential and if anyone asked we paid $1800. We laughed... he didnt. We went through security and then waited in the terminal. The interesting thing about flying to the Galapagos is there is two airports which are on two different islands but they dont decipher between the two. So our tickets said we were flying to San Cristobal but there we ended up going to Baltra. This was very confusing to us but seemed business as usual in Ecuador. The flights to the Galapagos start in Quito then land in Guayaquil and then go to the islands. Once we got to the Galapagos we were met by our guide Ruly who was a Ecuadorian native and the dive master Santiago. On the island of Baltra there is nothing except a airport and harbor so we collect our stuff proceeded to the boat.

The one thing we didnt know about the sailing in the Galapagos is it´s pretty much the open ocean and the seas are rough and the water is pretty cold (mid 60s). Everywhere we went there were sea lions on the beaches and they had no fear of us. There were so many in some spots it was important not to trip over them when you were taking pictures. We also saw blue footed boobies which do dive bombs into the water to catch fish. Usually they fish by themselves but on the last day we saw 100´s that had a trapped a school a fish and dive bombed them all at once (we have an amazing video of this). We also saw crabs, pink flamingoes, and number of other animals (check out the pictures once we post them, probably early next week). The snorkeling, all though cold, was amazing. We saw many of the things the divers did, but not a hammerhead shark. This included sea turtles, white tip reef sharks, marine iguanas, penguins, sea lions, sting rays, and a ton of fish. This was probably the best snorkeling i´ve done, which tops the great barrier reef.

The days were all pretty much the same iternary. Breakfast at 8, first landvisit at 9, then maybe a snorkel, lunch at 1 (while sailing to next spot), 2nd land visit at 3, another snorkel, and dinner at 7. We sailed almost every night and the first night was the worst that even the crew said was unusually rough. That so that meant that we got abosolutly no sleep. As the nights went on we got used to rocking and rolling.

8 days was enough time for us, even though there was a lot more so see. Tomorrow we are leaving for a 3 day trek around Vilcabamba and we should be on our way to Peru Monday.

Hope all is well

Justin

PS we didnt feel the earthquake nor did we even hear about it until we heard about it through email. We are interested in doing any type of engineering diaster relief and we should be in that area in a few weeks. Please email me if you hear of anything or have any contacts. thnxs