Galapagos Islands 18th to 27th of May

  We left Panama on Sunday the 11^th of May to stay the first night of our trip at Las Islas Perlas again, so we can make sure the hull is completely clean. Had a good sail there, with catching a great big Mahi Mahi already half hour after we left Panama! But no wind.....

Monday morning at anchor Lisa and Pete got in the water bright and early at about six to start cleaning the hull. Pete even finished off with putting his scuba gear on and cleaning right down the bottom.

Finished by 10 and we are on our way... Still no wind, picking up after a little while so we could at least put the gennaker up and guess what, the boys caught another fish! This time a beautiful yellow fin tuna, which meant, fresh sashimi for afternoon tea!

 The rest of the afternoon we spent watching for about 2 hours a very big pot of dolphins playing around the boat. When one lot left, another would come. We just never get sick of watching then. We did some really great footage underwater with the gopro on a stick!

After the calm first couple of days the weather got really rough and poor Lisa and Jack weren’t feeling that well! A few days with wind and waves coming straight from the front! Yuck!

 
Lisa's turn on watch

 
 Mangoes!

Our first encounter with the Galapagos wildlife we made already about 200 nm off Galapagos. A few red footed boobies (they are birds! They have blue footed boobies as well, look really cool with these bright blue feet!) decided our boat is a great resting place for the night. And another 4 kept circling it. So..., yes you guessed it! They of course pooped all over the boat again!!

 Rocks just of San Cristobal

We finally arrive at San Cristobal bright and early on Sunday morning the 18^th. Quickly before we arrive, we change over flags, panama down, Ecuador and the yellow customs flag up. Now we have to wait until everything is inspected before we are to leave the boat. While we are waiting for our agent and the officials, we try spotting seal, which we find sitting on the rocks on land. Finally our agent and a crew of about 6 come on board to fill in paperwork and inspect every cupboard on board and look how we recycle etc... Then also a diver arrives to dive under the boat to check. Of course we pass with flying colours!!!

Now we can finally explore land. We notice that nobody takes their dinghy in, not allowed, only for drop off and pick up, and we also notice that everybody got fenders at the back of their boats and the Galapagos boats even have their boat boarded up with nets or barbed wire! We will find out soon enough the reasoning for this... On our way in with the ‘taxi acuatico’  we see an old boat which is covered with sea lions! And then when we come to the wharf, they are everywhere! You just about have to step over them! And they don’t care about the people. Just lay in the sun and sleep. And the little ones in and out of the water playing, getting nipped a bit from the adults when they get too annoying for them. San Cristobal has a lovely sleepy little town, where everything is pretty much closed on Sundays. Sundays is family day here and families are out together at the beach, etc. But the interpretation centre was open, so we visited this, which gives you  great information on the history of Galapagos. If you find some time, google it. It’s interesting and sad! But people here are working hard to bring back what was lost in the past. After that, back to the boat for an early dinner and early night as we were still very tired from the travelling. But before we slept, we also put our fenders out the back, to avoid the seals coming on board...

Wake up: 6am. Me: ‘Did I dream, this or did the kids come in last night to say there are seals on the boat?’ Pete: ‘No, I think I remember something like that as well..’ So we get quickly up and there is Jack sleeping in the salon. ‘Why did you sleep here Jack?’’ Two seals came on board and one was rolling around over my hatch and I was worried that it might break and the seal lands in my cabin, so I went up here!’ So we really didn’t dream it.

  I look out and there is a seal sleeping on our cushions in the cockpit! And another on the back steps of the boat!

  After we shoo them off, we start cleaning the seal smell away. They actually smell like wet dog. And they shed their fur as well as dogs. there was seal hair everywhere! But besides all that, it was very exciting to have them on the boat. so we learn, fenders are not enough, they just push them aside and come on. Pete thankfully still had the fruit nets, which he span across the top of the back steps. That was our compromise with the seals: They can sleep on the back steps, no problem, but not on the cushions!!! And all the time they come back to use our boat as a resting and sleeping place. But really, catamarans are sooo convenient for this! After this first big excitement, we put the dinghy in and Pete drove Ben over to see how the surf is, which was really good the day before. But his luck, nothing on this morning!! On the way they saw a lot of sea turtles, so instead they picked up Lisa and Jack and the three of them went for a swim with a whole lot of turtles. Fantastic! In the meantime I made a lovely pancake breakfast (Hey, Judy and Pete, all the mix is empty, can you please drop off more? Thanks!). All smiles around at the breakfast table, what an exciting and wonderful start of the day! And it wasn’t even 8am yet!

 Local seals and how beautiful are these crabs?

At 9am we were to meet our agent to go on an island tour. Out taxi is twin cab ute, like all taxis here. To not having to squash with four in the back, Lisa and Jack hopped in the tray with a big smile on their faces! What a great way to go! Our driver only spoke spanish, so my good little friend, the dictionary, got a good workout. But I understood most of what he told us and could translate it for the rest of the family.

Our first stop was at a turtle breeding farm. They are on all the main islands here to try and reverse, what has been happening in the last centuries. With the breeding they have a 60% survival rate, which is much higher than in nature. There were 11 kinds of tortoises here on the islands, but 2 are already extinct, with one of them dying in 2012. 'Lonesome George' was the last of his kind. They tried very hard to find a mate for him, but couldn't. Then they put some other tortoise ladies with him, but he didn't want them! Poor George! They dedicated a whole book to him.

The little tortoises a kept in smaller enclosures and when they are 2 years old they move them into semi wild enclosures and with 5 years of age, they are released into the wild. It it done very natural and the tortoise numbers are increasing again. Lisa thought, these little tortoises were just too adorable!

Our next stop was at a lava lake, which we didn't see too much of it, as it was in the clouds. Still a nice walk.

And then off to Playa Blanca to swim with the seals and tortoises. This was awesome! The seals love to swim with people! They come really close, nipped on Pete's and Jacks feet and Ben's fins and Lisa's hair. I quickly pulled my feet away when I felt their wiskers! It was just to great. And then we spotted some turtles and they don't even get scared either and swim away. You can go straight next to them and they don't care! So great. We had the best time. 

Our tour finished off with a lovely late lunch. What a fantastic day! Lisa reckons, this was the best day of her life so far! 

Our next island of Galapagos was Santa Cruz. It took us about 5 hours to sail there, all went well. Here is the Charles Darwin Research Centre, which we visited straight away after we arrived. Here as well is of course a tortoise breeding centre. The next day the kids and I went for a long walk to Tortuga bay, where we snorkeled a bit and spend some time at the beach. Lots of water iguanas there.

Cactus tree

 Here at this island we also did a dive at Beagle Rock and Daphne. Two great dives! We saw turtles, a manta ray lots of beautiful reef fish, lots of white tipped reef sharks and the best was a wall of fish! I don't know how to describe it, sadly the gopro was flat so no photos, thousands of fish a bit bigger than my hand that build a wall and you can make them move away but they close straight away back in, really cool!

On the way to the dive sites 

Yesterday we went on an island tour with a local taxi. Had a great day. First stop to see some flamingos!  

Then we drove up on a hill where you can see the whole island from north to south and see into a volcano crater.  

Next stop was at a lava tunnel. It is 2.2km long and the second longest in South America and the fourth longest in the world. Was really cool.

Then we had a great lunch with our taxi driver, who showed us a non tourist local eating place. So yummy food!

Last stop was a place where we could see the tortoises in the wild! Some of them where huge and about 100 years old and others were only little and only about 15 years old. 

A 100 year old male trying to mate with a 15 year old female. Poor thing was trying to get away, but got stuck in a bush...

On the way home, we saw lots on the side of the road. Funny, we have kangaroos and here there are tortoises on the side of the road. It takes a while but if you have to stop for them to cross the road....

Today was school day and shopping day. Ben and I went to the local markets to stock up on fresh fruit and vegies for our 3 week trip to the Marquesas. Tomorrow we will be leaving for another Galapagos island, Isabela, our last stop here! 

To some it up, as the lovely locals say: It is paradise here!

Sailed to Isabela today. What a perfect day for sailing! We had the gennaker up and the main sail, blue sky and flat seas and 8 to 10 knot speed! Why can't it be like that all the time. We got here at lunch time, but it took Pete all afternoon with the port captain, as our agent forgot to put our details in for here.... So the boys checked the place out a bit, found some penguins, like our fairy penguins. They are the most northern penguins. Tomorrow we will go a bit more snorkeling and then we will be of to Nuku Hiva, Marquesas French Polynesia. Three weeks of sailing. Been trying to upload more photos, but internet is terrible here for bigger files... Will try but. Other than that, you will have to wait until Nuku Hiva.