I woke up around 0430 – initially I thought I was dreaming that I was on the ferry from Cremorne Point to Circular Quay when I woke myself up and realised I was actually on a boat in the Galapagos. Was very excited to know I still had a few hours to left to sleep. Was then woken up at 0630 with our wake up call and was pleasantly surprised by the lovely view of Santiago Island. Breakfast was at 0645 and from what I gather; I was the only one who had a great night sleep. Everyone else was complaining about the rocking motion and the noise of the engine. So I was either really tired, have a room in a great place or generally being on the water doesn’t bother me…I’m hoping its all three or at least the later so I will be prepared for the Antarctic. Breakfast was your usual full breakfast fair, but I just stuck to the scrambled eggs and toast. From breakfast we only had a few minutes to grab our stuff and head out to the pangas so we could be taken to Puerto Egas. We went for a 2hr walk and it was fantastic. The island itself is quite bare of vegetation, the beach has black sand and there was a lot of lava rocks. We saw Sea Lions, loads of Marine Iguanas and three Fur Seals. The rocks were just crawling with wildlife – literally.
We then headed back to the beach and went snorkelling for an hour. Unfortunately the water was really turbid but saw several Green Turtles, Sea Lions and lots of really pretty fish. I really enjoyed it despite the visibility. Everyone else seemed to complain that there wasn’t much to see. Thankfully wearing the wetsuits made the water temperature bearable. I was happy that I could remember how to snorkel as it has been so long since I have done it. And besides, compared to everyone else on this tour, it wasn’t hard to be better than everyone else.
So today I have been asked by about eight different people why I am on this tour. I think I have bought the ‘standard’ down for some of them. Everyone seems to know that I am a ranger, although I’ve only told about three people and they all know I live in Central Australia. I seem to be the topic of conversation, yet I’m not the only one here on my own, and I don’t think I am the youngest, but I think they all think I am younger than what I am. And they all keep asking me about my camera, even though half of them have the same camera. I think because I have it set on sequential mode they think I take photos professionally. All the boat crew know me by name, including the Captain and I have become the person who is used for all the examples – how to wear a snorkel, how to get on and off the pangas, acting like a volcano….you name it – if they need a demonstration, I am it. I have my room serviced more than anyone else (and I’m hoping it’s not because I am messy) and generally I am pretty much getting anything I want at the moment.
After snorkelling we headed back to the boat and had an hour to ourselves. Then it was lunch ‘Italian themed’. I had three servings! After lunch we had 2hrs so I headed up to the sun deck and downloaded my photos and took some more of the islands we were passing. Everyone else was either sunbaking or sleeping.
At 1500 we had a choice between a deep snorkel, a shallow snorkel or going to the beach on Bartolome Island. I chose the deep snorkel along with about 10 others. We were dropped off near Pinnacle Rock and just before we jumped in a couple of Penguins swam by. Again, the visibility of the water was fairly poor. We snorkelled from Pinnacle Rock around to the beach. There were lots of colourful fish and a few large Manta Rays. We saw some more penguins on some rocks – which was a weird sight because just behind them the vegetation were cactuses – not really the two things you would think you would see together. We got out at the beach wandered along and there were four sea lions at the end of the beach. We then reboarded the pangas, went back to the boat, changed clothes and then headed straight back out again to do a two hour walk up along a boardwalk to a lookout point. It would have been a great view any other time other than the time we were there. We were looking straight into the sun so you couldn’t really appreciate it as much for what it was. We watched sunset then headed back to the boat.
We had another briefing at 1930 to explain the geology of the Galapagos Islands and then dinner. Everyone seems to be forming into groups now and I don’t really fit in with anyone and don’t want to keep imposing on the South African couple, but I found a table to sit at. Basically the Brits have all formed a group, the Swiss another and then there are the South Africans, Aussies and a couple of Americans left who fit in where they can. The talk around the dinner table was politics (yawn), more questions as to how I heard about this tour and why am I on it, and I can’t remember the rest because I stopped listening to the conversations. I did find out however that the really old guy is 88 and basically deaf. We can’t work out who the woman is with him though because she looks about 30yrs younger than he and no one wants to ask if they are married or not.
Tonight for dinner I had smoked salmon, fish, potato bake and vegies followed by the best strawberries and cream I have ever eaten. After dinner we went out to the stern of the boat and did some Galapagos Island Shark spotting. I saw three sightings and can only assume that it was the same shark doing laps of the boat.
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