November 24th-25th 2014
I wake up early at the Francis Drake Hotel in Santa Cruz and quickly pack my bag, heading down to Santa Cruz’s main pier at about 6:30, 30 an hour before the water taxi to San Cristobal is due to leave. I’ve been told not to worry about booking in advance, that there’s always space, and so I’m naturally a little surprised when I’m told quite firmly that there’s absolutely no space on any of the 7 am boats, and I’m going to have to wait until 2 pm. an annoyance, though hardly the end of the world.
I return to the travel agency that had told me I’d be fine and ask them. they seem genuinely stunned and spend the next twenty minutes on the phone only to tell me the same thing. However they are kind enough to let me store my bag with them. I pay them the 30 USD for the 2pm boat. I’m not upset or stressed out about it. If there’s one rule of travel it’s that any plan you make can and usually will change, you just have to roll with it.
I leave their office behind, flexing my hands and wincing, those wounds from day 3 of the cruise are getting pretty infected, somehow snorkelling several times a day with a bunch of open wounds isn’t a good idea. You live you learn.
I end up running into Jen whose waiting for her day trip to North Seymour Island hoping to see some Magnificent frigate birds with their red pouches out, one of those few species I’ve not yet scene. I’m actually in the middle of negotiating to do the same day trip on the coming Thursday for 150 USD when I notice the woman from the ferry agency waving to me from a block away. I hurry over and find out they’ve found a place for me. Let’s go back to that first rule of travel.
Snatching up my bag I jog to the pier weighed down by my 24 kilos of baggage. (If you’re wise you’ll pack lighter than me, though that figure includes my day pack and big pack.) I’m rushed through the checkpoint looking for seeds and plants and other living organisms and introduced to a friendly Ecuadorian family who will be on my boat.
There’s no sign of our boat yet and as minutes turn to half hours I have to wonder why I bothered running. I dab some polysporin onto my countless weeping yellow wounds and wait. Eventually we’re ushered onto a water taxi which takes us to a rather large boat. We climb aboard, 6 of us in all, though the boat can hold at least 40 or 50 and then we’re off.
The waters are rough and soon enough no one feels like shouting over the roar of the engines so I put on some music and try to keep calm. We speed across the open pacific bouncing up and down, too rough to risk much movement, though when I start getting soaked at the back of the boat I eventually brave the swaying bucking boat for some safer pasteurs in the inside section of the boat.
About 90 minutes into the 150 minute journey I notice some excitement in the people still outside. I stumble back out and look to the seas. I”m instantly conflicted, glad I walked out, upset my camera is tucked away in the bottom of a dry bag in the bottom of my backpack. All around us Dolphins are exploding up out of the water, jumping higher than I ever thought dolphins could jump. There’s hundreds of them, and they put on a show for us, zipping along side our speeding boat.
It’s an incredible spectacle and I wish I’d been able to capture it for you, but you’ll have to take my world for it. The dolphins seemed to work together, jumping over, under and along side each other. We cut through the ocean with incredible speed and eventually the two or so dolphins seem to get tired of chasing, falling behind and waiting for the next audience to entertain.
About an hour late we’re landing at the pier in San Cristobal. Instantly I have one impression of the city, it’s definitely the prettiest in the Galapagos. The buildings are painted bright colours for the most part and the promenade along the harbour is well maintained, though occasionally it does smell kind of bad. That’s just one of the sacrifices of being home to thousands of Sea Lions. I thought I’d already seen a lot of them, but San Cristobal brings that assessment into question.
I shoulder my pack and walk up past a bunch of sea lions a few feet away. As I reach the seafront street I run into Max and Gabriella the swiss couple from my cruise and say a quick hello before continuing along my way in search of accommodation. I’m about to duck into hostel San Fransisco when a friendly lady from Hostal Albatross comes out and herds me into her property with a friendly smile. (The two are right next door on the sea front a few blocks from the pier and reflecting I feel like I chose the right one)
She shows me to a room up on the 4th floor of the building for 15 USD with a private bathroom, function fan, and big double bed. I’m sold and thank her before dumping my pack and going for a quick walk. 10 minutes along the coastal promenade takes me to a beach where a bunch of ships have been pulled up for work, as well as one left to rot in the rising tide.
Normally the boats would dominate the photography, but since it’s galapagos of course the animals must take charge. Sea Lion are everywhere, Females and Males, Kids and grownups, lying in the shade offered by the beached vessels, or playing in the tame surf with each other, or if it’s an adult Male, honking obnoxiously at anyone or anything from the shallows. I’m not weighing in on humans here, but in terms of sea lions, the women seem like a much better sort.
From here I walk back along the ocean and am luck y enough to spot a pair of blue footed bobbies, not that common in town, because it’s the galapagos, just a short distance away from them a few Sea lion are cavorting around.
Having had my fill of pictures and videos my stomach pangs for a different kind of fullness. I head back up into town and find a second story local restaurant on one of the streets perpendicular to the ocean. There I have a combo veggie burger fries and a banana milkshake for 5 bucks, (A pretty good deal in the galapagos.)
I head back to my Hotel for a while and make use of the best internet I found in the Galapagos, even managing to upload a couple of pictures, which seemed a near impossible dream back in Santa Cruz. Granted to use the internet I’m sitting on the steps, but no biggie. The internet craving completed I head back to my room and pass out for 90 minutes too exhausted to do much else.
Waking up refreshed I head back towards that same beach and explore a little further out to that side of town, all the way to a military check point where I’m not allowed past. Heading back to the ship beach I see a group of young army recruits singing and marching to the end of a pier and then, all semblance of formality is gone and their backflipping into the water. They whoop and encourage each other and genuinely put on quite a show before retaking their formation and marching back into the base.
I explore the town of San Cristobal a little more before finding myself at the end of a long pier watching the sun go down. It’s a beautiful view and as the sea lions swim in the water below me, I delight in the life I’m living.
I find dinner at a specialty burger shop a few blocks back from the ocean and am suitably impressed by my fully loaded 6 dollar burger, delighting in a little western food in my belly. It’s to bed early and I have a look through some photos from the cruise, trimming the total down to just over 2000 in the 8 days before collapsing into a long and heavy sleep.
I wake the next morning determined to do something more with my day. For this reason after breakfast at that lovely second story restaurant I grab my own snorkelling gear and set out for Playa Mann, an easy 15 minute walk from town.
Following the signs is easy enough and I find myself there quickly, at yet another beach lined with volcanic black rock and so many sea lions, including countless babies. There is one problem though, a loud honking male patrols the narrow beach in the shallows and after almost being bitten by one I’m pretty hesitant to try to make it out. That, combined with the fact that it’s extremely low tide meaning a rocky entry has me nervous. that said I still manage it, waiting for the loud male to be distracted by a group of females at one end of the beach I make a run for it and make it out past the danger zone and into deeper waters.
As I struggle against a mild current I find myself remembering just how much of a difference flippers make, without them snorkelling is actually a bit of a struggle. That said I do manage to find lots of sea urchins, some bright tropical fish, and a few swimming sea lions. That said I tire more quickly and head back to the beach.
Getting back is even harder than getting out, and my heart drops into my mouth as I watch from out in the deeper waters waiting for a chance. He seems to notice me and swerves in my direction. I swim away and thankfully he does not further adjust his course, heading out to the deeper waters, probably hungry.
I crawl back in onto the sand and that’s when I find them, a handful of tiny Sea Lion pups playing in the recently created tide pools. I can’t speak to the magic of watching them all, it was hard to describe and i’ll just leave it to the video, even though that too doesn’t really do the experience justice.
As I play with the young sea lions a dead corpse of a baby sea lion washes up on shore, a reminder that with life comes death, though even it can’t spoil my mood. Some local kids come over intrigued by my go pro, they smile as I explain it to them and then head out onto the sharp rocks in bare feet. looking for a place to jump into the ocean. I offer my snorkel and they take it and use it gratefully.
I head back from playa Mann after some long hours spent living with the colonies of sea lions. There I grab some lunch and then wait to meet up with Steph, a Canadian girl I first met in Medellin. We meet up outside the hostel and both use some wifi when low and behold Sean the Irish guy from Medellin and Salento walks by. Between the three of us we bring in a few more members to the group, two Canadian Chris’ , A frenchman named Will, and an Australian couple Paul and Maddie. Later on we meet Andy, also from Ireland and this makes up our group for the next two days, my last two full ones on the Galapagos, and they’re damn good ones, though you’ll have to wait at least another day to read about them.
For now though one more little tidbit to end the day. Together most of us ended up back at Playa Mann, playing with the sea lions and watching the sun go down as the pelicans, skilled fisherman they are, plummet into the ever darkening sea. Some pictures to end off.
