Santa Cruz
ECUADOR
Lord of the Galapagos I: Fellowship of the Tortoise
By AARON
Monday, September 29, 2008
Like two kids the night before Christmas, little sleep was accomplished throughout the night as Lyndi and I were high on excitement and anticipation for our trip to the Galapagos the next day. This was something that was discussed in passing from time to time while we were still in Texas, but actually going? Wow. The time had finally come, and we were psyched. Instead of doing one of the 4, 5 or 8 day cruises, we had decided to do the trip ourselves in hopes of saving some money. In addition, unless you do a live-aboard cruise (hella expensive), you can’t do any scuba diving, which was one of the main things we wanted to do.
The airplane ride from Guayaquil to the main island of Santa Cruz took about 1 1/2 hours, and we arrived on Baltra around 11am. Baltra is a small island just north of Santa Cruz where the airline companies land, from there you are taken on a transfer bus to the ferry that will take you to Santa Cruz. The first thing that struck us was how different the islands looked as opposed to what we had imagined in our big, beautiful heads. I had imagined a lush tropical atmosphere with green everywhere and sea lions that would greet us at the airport and give us leis as a welcoming gift, while blue-footed boobies perched on our shoulders.
Actually, the majority of Baltra is reminiscent of a desert, with cactus trees and dirt everywhere. Santa Cruz, being alot bigger, has a few more microclimates, yet it was still covered in giant cactus trees. At the airport we met a guy from Somerset, England named Beany who would be our companion for the next 16 days on the islands. No really, Beany. Actually it was Simon McBean, but he preferred his nickname because let’s face it- I won’t remember a Simon, but Beany will forever be etched into my memory. But I digress.
Upon arriving in Santa Cruz, we took the shuttle bus from the north side of the island all the way to the south to Puerto Ayora, the main town in Santa Cruz. Definitely the most advanced and busiest island out of the three major ones (Santa Cruz, Isabela, San Cristobal), it is dotted with restaurants, internet cafes, hostels, and goofy knick-knack shops where panama hat wearing tourists can get all the t-shirts and shot glasses their hearts desire. Suprisingly, the hostels on the Galapagos were not that expensive, as we landed one near the bay called Sir Francis Drake for only $10 per person. The room was spacious, with hot water and three beds for Lyndi, Beany and me. After getting settled in, it was time to explore and see some wildlife.
Each island in the Galapagos is inhabited with animals that have been isolated from the rest of the world since their formation millions of years ago. Located about 1,000km off the coast of Ecuador, the islands themselves are actually one huge volcanic system that formed a shelf above the ocean floor. The animals themselves enjoy a unique microclimate where 4 currents (Humboldt, Panama, Cromwell, South Equatorial current) converge on the islands, creating a thriving ecosystem for land and sea animals alike.
Probably the biggest staple in the Galapagos are the giant tortoises, which can live up to 150 years and reach weights in excess of 500lbs. They are actually responsible for the name “Galapagos”, named by the Spaniards because of their large saddleback shells that resemble the Spanish saddles put on horses, called galapagos. The Darwin Center is located on Santa Cruz and is one of the main research centers for the breeding and study of the giant tortoises, including their number one star – Lonesome George.
Lonesome George is the face of the Galapagos, and is a representation of the damaging effects humans can have on a delicate ecosystem. Brought from the northern island of Pinta, he is the last remaining Pinta Island Giant Tortoise in existence, due to the hunting and killing of these creatures on an island that once boasted over 250,000 of his kind. Now Lonesome George resides at the Darwin Research Station where efforts are being made to have him reproduce with 2 female giant tortoises from Isabela Island – the closest DNA match to the Pinta Tortoise. Regardless of the outcome, the offspring will only be 1/2 pure, so once George passes on, his race will cease to exist.
Lonesome George is a rock star. He is on t-shirts, statues are erected in honor of him, and he is on the emblem of the Galapagos, as a constant reminder of what can happen when we fail to develop a symbiotic relationship with our planet. Definitely on everyone’s list of “things to see in the Galapagos”, we headed out from our hotel and took the 3km walk to the research center to gaze upon the glory that is: Lonesome George.
Even on our first day, on our first walk, we saw marine iguanas sunning on the black volcanic rock, huge pelicans perched in mangrove trees, and even spotted a sea lion swimming in the bay. At the research center, we encountered hundreds of baby giant tortoises, no bigger than the ones you would see in a pet store, along with an area of female giant tortoises, followed by the 7 males in their own section. The males were probably the most fun, because you could go down into their area and sit right by them while they stretch their necks out to unbelievable lengths and look at you with their prehistoric faces. Used to numerous visitors each day, they were very friendly and not shy at all as one even came at me (very slowly, as only a tortoise can) and followed me wherever I sat. After playing with the male tortoises for a while, it was time to see Lonesome George, who of course, has his own pen (that you cannot go in) where he resides with his two women. We were ready, Lyndi had gotten her hair done, I was wearing my best tuxedo, and Beany brought his camera. Unfortunately, that day “Solitario Jorge” (Lonesome George), was “Escondito Jorge” (Hidden George) as we couldn’t see him among the shrubs and trees that made up his home. Oh well, we’re here for 16 days and we WILL see him.
The next day the three of us headed to a tortoise reserve about a half hour north of town. This is land that has acres and acres of giant tortoises living in the wild, where you once again can roam among them and take a ton of pictures (as we did). From the small town, whose name escapes me (Santa Rosa?) it was a 3km walk to the reserve, but we were able to pick up some rides in the back of trucks as we weaved in and out of random tortoises walking along the dirt road. Once we were at the reserve, we hung out with hundreds of wild tortoises who were actually bigger than the males that we saw at the Darwin Research Center the day before. These guys, however, were not so used to humans, so everytime we got close, they would retract into their shells and make a loud “HISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS” sound. After many pictures with our hard shelled buddies, we headed back to town to look for a dive shop to set up a dive for the next day.
On our way back in town, we passed the fisherman’s dock where tons of frigate birds hovered over the boats as the men unloaded the fish onto land. Once on land, the fishery was covered in pelicans who sat and waited for the cut fish heads to be thrown their way. In addition to the pelicans was one lazy sea lion who we would soon discover sat amongst them everyday, front and center, waiting for his fish head as well.
We found a dive shop called Academy Dive, and booked a 2-tank dive to Gordon Rocks for the next day. Gordon Rocks is a rock edifice that juts out from the ocean off the northwest coast of Santa Cruz, and is well known for its frequent sighting of hammerhead sharks. Now I am not a big shark fan myself, but I believe we were slowly working our way up to this, from swimming with reef sharks in Australia, then nurse sharks in the Corn Islands, to hammerheads in the Galapagos. Surprisingly to both Lyndi and I, instead of being a bit hesitant, we were really excited.
Next morning we took a taxi to the north side of the island, where our dive boat was waiting. We were grouped with 3 other people, who had already dove Gordon Rocks 3 times before, and had seen hammerheads every time. Yes!
For our first dive, the current was pretty strong, which is good if you want to see sharks, because they like to swim against the current and gobble up the fish that can’t fight against it. It was also really cold, so we donned full scuba gear: booties, full-length wet suits, hoods, gloves – basically we looked like giant penguins. Unfortunately Lyndi had to surface a bit early, due to the cold waters and current contributing to using more air, and 5 minutes after she surfaced, a 9ft hammerhead swam directly underneath us no more than 10 feet below. Surprisingly, instead of screaming into my regulator like a little girl (as I had prepared myself to do), I tried to swim and get closer to it, but he apparently didn’t like being chased by a giant penguin so he darted off into the depths.
We took our lunch break and surface interval after the first dive in a little cove that is inhabited by sea lions. After lunch, we still had about 30 minutes to kill until our next dive, so I decided to snorkel near the rocks where the sea lions were. No one else, not even Lyndi, wanted to go with me because the water was so cold, but as soon as I entered the water, 10-12 curious sea lions waddled into the water and next thing I know I’m surrounded by the playful, extremely graceful animals. Luckily I had brought the underwater camera with me and got some great pictures of them as they would swim upside-down towards my mask, and then dart straight down and around me. Definitely one of the highlights of the trip, and this was only day 3!
Our next dive brought about a sort of panic for Lyndi because this was it for seeing hammerheads. Gordon Rocks did not disappoint this time, as we were passed by a school of hammerheads no less than 12 in number. It was a beautiful sight, and even more importantly, now we can both get those scuba dive stickers with a hammerhead on it to put on our cars.
I must also say that in addition to hammerheads, the underwater wildlife was unbelievable. We also saw tons of sea turtles, stingrays, huge schools of spotted eagle rays, angelfish, barracuda, and others. The entire ocean felt alive, but at times it was hard to appreciate it due to us constantly looking for sharks. At times I would catch myself thinking, “Hey, stupid sea turtles and eagle rays, get out of the way so I can see some hammerheads!” Shame on me.
The next day we headed back to the national park to get a permit to camp on one of the beaches: Playa Garrapatera. We had read a blog by a couple who had camped there and had a blast as they were woken up by sea lions, and cooked on the beach in complete solidarity. Unfortunately, the raving idiots that work at “Lonesome George Rentals” not only quoted us the wrong price for tent rental, they didn’t even have the right size tents that were quoted to us (we needed a 4 person for us and Beany, and the doubles were twice as much than what we were quoted). Downtrodden, we decided to drown our sorrows in some rum and cokes that night, which seemed to do the trick as we woke up with a new sense of purpose, and a new sense of direction, for today we would be heading to the island of Isabela.
Before heading to the island, we had about 5 hours to kill on Santa Cruz, so Lyndi and I headed to Tortuga Bay, which is a long stretch of beach that is frequented by numerous birds and passing marine iguanas. Deciding to stay on the “unswimmable” side of the beach proved successful as we practically had the whole beach to ourselves. For the next couple of hours we just laid around and took pictures of passing marine iguanas. Afterwards, we packed up and headed to our boat that would take us to Isabela.
