Whow! I do not know where to start. I have just returned to Puerto Ayora a couple of hours ago after having spent the last seven nights aboard the the Spondylus, the yacht on which I have been traveling the archipelago.
What an extraordinary journey! The wildlife - most of which is endemic - is almost entirely tame. You literally have to take care not to step on iguanas, birds, and sea lions ashore... It is truly amazing how close you get and how good you can observe. But all this is even topped by the marine wildlife! Ever dreamt about snorkeling with tropical fish, sting rays, sharks, turtles, penguins, or sea lions? Did just do that every day! Incredible underwater visibility made the snorkel trips overwhelmingly fascinating.
The first sharks we saw were some small reef sharks circling the ship already in the harbour. Once we even saw a biggish bull shark, about two to three meters long, right next to the ship. Snorkeling we encountered reef sharks in several occasions. It was also great snorkeling amidst half a dozen big turtles grazing on sea weed and observing them "flying" through the water. They did not care much about us and I had several around me at only arms length away! The penguins herabouts are relatively rare (the Galapagos Islands have their own endemic sub-species, of course), but I saw a few. Heaps of colourful fish were quite amazing, although full-blown coral reefs are missing in the Galapagos archipelago. But snorkeling around and in an extinct volcano forming a rocky island (Devil's Crown) partly under water is a more than impressive compensation for that!
The highlight, however, for me was playing with the sea lions! They are such agile and able swimmers. And they are very keen and playful at times. The first time I saw some under water - on the first snorkel excursion - a female and its kid would play around, chasing each other and occasionally jumping out of the water. I was just a couple of meters away... Then they took an interest in me. Having the bigger one, the mum, looking at me with big black eyes from only abut 30cm before my face was truly exhilarating. It would then dart towards me and almost touch my snorkel mask! And it did this several times... I would try to keep up with them swimming around and watching them making incredibly quick turns and darting all along and underneath me, continously watching me. Somewhat later they nicked a flipper from one of the kids who was also on the tour and swam away constantly playing with it. I had the pleasure to chase after them and make them give back the flipper... They would actually let me take it - watching me with big eyes again. I was glad, however, they did not decide to defend "their" toy. At an other occasion I was surrounded by six or seven sea lions racing around me for a while at often much less than half a meter distance, an absolutely incredible experience.
Traveling on the boat was great luxury. I had my own cabin with double bed and bathroom, so plenty of space. The motor yacht had a huge sun deck with comfortable sofas, so the lush evenings and lazy traveling times aboard the ship turned out to be a great time to listen to music, to have a glass of wine, and watch the ubiquitous Frigate birds silently glide just a few meters above the ship in the air. Initially we were fifteen people (besides the eight crew), an Irish couple I had already met in Puerto Ayora, and a group of ten kids from Baltimore together with two of their teachers. A really great group! After five days the two Irish left the boat and us remaining passengers had the yacht to ourselves.
I trust my
pictures will tell more than my humble attempts to describe this special place on earth with words! I just wish I had had a underwater camera...
