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Galapagos Islands |
A dozy puppy sea lion, woken up by our camera!
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05th May
We arrived yesterday in Baquerizo Moreno, San Cristobal main island of Galapagos.
When entering the bay we had a couple of sea lions jumping next to the boat,
we were so flattered. We didn't know that they are the main attraction of
the village and are everywhere by the hundreds. Swimming
amongst the boats, sun bathing on the beach and all around the pier .
There are lots of puppies as well. We tried to clear in, only able to do
Immigration. Tomorrow we will try to get a cruising permit
with the Port Captain, he is the one who can allow us to visit other islands and
determine the length of our stay. Apparently it works wanders to dress up
smartly and show your best Spanish, we will see if it works - hopefully he is in
a good mood tomorrow.
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Two males having a head to head over a female!
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06th May
So we went into the Port Captain's office and again we were told to
come back tomorrow. Then we took a trip around the island with an
official guide and driver. His name was Carlos and although he is from
mainland Ecuador, he has been living in this island for a while. First he
took us to Galapageira, which is the conservation centre for the giant tortoises.
Graham thought that Spielberg had his inspiration for the ET movie from
these creatures! These impressive animals live up to 150 years and weigh
up to 100 kg. They reach the adult life at 30 years old and from there on
the females lay 12 eggs a year, only 2 to 3 being successful. And the babies
are minute. Then he took us to a Finca, where fruits and veggies are
grown, we had the best fruit salad in the world, with ice cream. Finally
we went to a beach near Baquerizo to spot some iguanas. Quite ugly
animals... But very impressive how they camouflage themselves in between
the rocks. We almost walked over a few without realizing that they were
there. |
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Iguana
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7th May Judit's birthday!!!! Well we saw the captain of the port, we can stay
till Saturday but NOT visit any other islands. Spent hours watching the
sea lions on the beach. The males have a harem of 20 females, they can
weigh up to 200 kg and live up to 30 years. The sad part is that if humans
touch the puppies, these can be rejected by the mother and die of hunger.
So no stroking the pups even if they are so friendly and cute! We met a
couple, Ben is English and Rosangela is Brasilian. They have been cruising
for the last 3 years with their 2 kids. Same as us, they don't know were
they want to live, so to avoid this problem they keep on the move. |
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Charles Darwin statue
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8th May
Had Ben over in the morning for a chat. After the siesta we went into
town to book a dive for Friday. The water is very cold here, but if we are
lucky we will be able to see some Hammerhead sharks.
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"Pepe" the 300 yr old Tortoise
Diving with sea Lions |
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9th May As we said farewell to Ben and Rosangela in "Zazoo" and
watched them sail off ,we welcomed Pete and Felicity in "Nadezhda"
who arrived today. We all met up at the internet cafe with another couple
who arrived as well, Lil and Rob in "Mariah". Then Ivan, the
owner of the diving shop where we booked our dives was passing by in his
bike and saw the crowd, invited all us to take part of a film shoot for an
Ecuadorian program about the Galapagos. We had to pretend we were a group
of students having a dive debrief. At the end Graham was interviewed, Pete
fancied the chance of being a star and asked to also be interviewed, even
a bit to drunk to talk... Judit, on the other hand, was running away from the
cameras. Because she was the only one who spoke Spanish in the group,
was also interviewed. Then we went to see and feed Pepe, a very
special tortoise. 10th May We met up in the afternoon with Felicity
and Pete and hiked over to see the Charles Darwin statue. The route was
scenic over some nice rocky bays. It is very arid inland with lots of tiny
geckos and of course sea lions lying at the beach and rocks. We witnessed
a sad happening, a puppy sea lion rejected by an entire group of adult sea
lions... Before we got back to the boat, Fernando came to us. He act
as kind of an agent in this island selling diesel, tours at a very
expensive price. We always refused to us him due to his high prices and
also because he is very pushy. Well, he came threatening us that tomorrow
we will get the visit of the Port Captain as we are not using his services
and not recommending him to other yachties. Putting in a very
polite way on the web, we told him to get a life!!!!! At night we couldn't
sleep as we had sea lion pups playing around and under the boat. They were
under our cabin hitting the hull and using the sugar scoop as a diving
platform. |
Leon Dormido, dive site. This is where it is possible to
dive with hammerhead sharks, but it wasn't our lucky day... |
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11th May Diving day! Me
and G got picked up by the dive boat at 8.30 am. Before heading to the
main dive site, we had a check out dive, at Lobos island. Then we went to
Leon
Dormido. There are two vertical walls 140m deep and the dive was
through the gap. I had a 7mm wetsuit on,
very thick. Graham had a normal full body wetsuit. The water temperature was 13
degrees. There were very strong
currents which, were dangerous as they swept us against the walls, it wasn't
all fun. But
we saw a lot of eagle rays, a sting ray, turtles and lots of sea lions
joined our dive, playing with the air bubbles. Both of us were so cold
at the end of the dives that we refused to enter in the water again to snorkel
with the sea lions. Later that night we invited Fliss n Pete and Lil n Rob
over for a BBQ on our boat, as normal a lot of alcohol consumed! 12th
May We are leaving tomorrow to try to land at Isabella Island. We are
not supposed to go there but we have heard friends landed there and the
port captain is quite amicable. So today has been running around trying to
provision for the next 4 weeks.
13th May We went to checkout with the port captain and he told us
that we are definitely not allowed to visit any other island. He knew 2
boats did this last week and if we did we were in big trouble. As it was
Mother's Day here, everything was shut and we could not get our washing
back from the laundry. So the port captain allowed us to stay till midday
tomorrow. Nothing else to do but have another party with Pete n Fliss and
Rob n Lil also Renald from "Pitanga" joined in. !4th May Time
to leave to Marquesas our biggest passage yet, only 2993 miles to
go! We will leave in style with a send off in fog horns from Nadezhda
and Mariah, also playing AC/DC Thunderstruck loud!!! |
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A Pair of Eagle Rays
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Blue Footed Boobie
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