We took a "ferry" from San Cristobal to Santa Cruz on Friday morning. "Ferry" because it seemed more like a modified fishing boat with bench seating for 20 people and three outboards totaling 400hp so that we could make 22kts, but didn't seem terribly sound, as though the whole thing could fall apart if we hit the right wave the wrong way. Fortunately the seas were fairly smooth so the almost two hour trip was deafening, but otherwise uneventful.
In Santa Cruz we met Pati, a friend of a friend and a naturalist, originally from Switzerland, but who has now lived in the Galapagos for 15yrs. We had a great chat for a couple hours and agreed to meet again for dinner.
Our tour started with walk to the Charles Darwin Research Center where we saw several varieties of giant tortoises. They really are huge and can easily live to be 175-200 years old. They aren't fully grown until they reach 75-100 years! The tortoises were hunted by humans in the 18th and 19th centuries which led to the extinction of several species and endangered all of the others. At the center learned of the impressive results of their breeding program which has repatriated over 2,000 tortoises back to their respective islands (each island has it's own species); assuring that the remaining species will survive. The late afternoon was left for a walk back to the boat, through a gauntlet of tourist shops that reminded us of Sausalito. That evening we had a great dinner with Pati in local restaurant and lots of good conversation that further educated us about the Galapagos and Ecuador. The boat departed at 3am for North Seymour Island and we arrived just before breakfast.
The first activity was a hike around a portion of North Seymour island. The animals have no fear of humans so Fay was in heaven as we encountered swallow tail gulls, marine iguanas, frigate birds (in full mating ritual), and the coveted blue footed boobies (also performing their mating ritual). We also saw herons and some frigate bird chicks. For me it was mostly a hot and humid walk, but for Fay it was a "once in a lifetime" opportunity to be so close to these animals. The next activity was snorkeling. The visibility was not great, but we saw some new fish including king angel fish, spanish hog fish, some really large parrot fish and a couple of new species we couldn't immediately identify.
While we had lunch and a nap, the boat moved to Bartolome island which is referred to as a moonscape due to the relatively recent (in geological terms) volcanic activity and almost total absence of vegetation. We went snorkeling again, and the fish were similar to the morning, but this time there were also penguins! They dove into the water near us and then swam around, darting in and out, chasing some small fish and generally ignoring us. In fact in it's haste to chase fish one of them actually ran into Fay's mask, bounced off and continued on with seemingly no concern. They were literally close enough to touch. The Galapagos penguins are apparently the smallest species of penguin, but fascinating none the less. A sea lion also dove into the water and swam past us, but didn't return. Then add sally lightfoot crabs crawling at the edge of the water on the rocks above us, and who's appearance and color scheme could not even have been conceived by Pixar, and it was a great snorkeling trip.
Then the day was capped off with a hike to the top of 300' hill which gave us a sweeping view of the island and the adjacent islands as the sun was setting while thunderheads and rain showers dotted the horizon and a pod of dolphins were visible swimming in the ocean. That night the boat moved to Genovesa island and dolphins cut back and forth in our bow wave, entirely encased in a glowing white shell of phosphorescence. Pretty spectacular!
Today started with another morning hike across the island to see Nazca boobies, red footed boobies, short eared owls and more frigate birds. The Nazca boobies and frigate birds were actively propagating the species as we saw them performing mating rituals, tending eggs and raising chicks, all at a distance of no more than 5-10'. More birding activity in two hours than Fay normally sees in two months.
The late morning was another snorkeling trip. This time we saw several species of puffer fish and some fairly large moorish idols while Fay also got a quick view of a hammerhead shark. When you see a moorish idol in a fish tank it's quite small, these were probably 8" - 10" across. After lunch it was more snorkeling and this time the highlight was a brief but exquisite view of a large school of golden cowrays. These rays have about a 2' wingspan and with their diamond shaped bodies swimming in formation they look like an air show display of stealth bombers.
This afternoon and tonight we're motoring to San Cristobal. We'll return to New Morning tomorrow and then assess the anchorage. If it's reasonably calm, we'll stay a few more days and go diving at Kicker Rock. If it's still rough and rolling we'll probably move on to Isabella fairly soon
We have literally a thousand pictures to go through and we'll post the best ones when we get enough bandwidth to upload them.
