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Saturday, March 24th - Heading To The Galapagos and the MV Evolution |
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Galapagos Islands March 23rd To April 1, 2007 |
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Quite a long and adventurous day for us!
We woke up to a wonderful breakfast buffet in the hotel. Then, after meeting some of our fellow shipmates and our principal guide, Boli (short for Bolivar), we made our way to the Guyaquil airport where we boarded our Icaro Air Boeing 737 for our flight to the Galapagos Islands. Kathie’s mom, her sister, and our friend John had been on an excursion into the Ecuadorian highlands and had boarded the plane in Quito, so they were waiting for us onboard the plane. The flight was about ninety minutes out to the island of San Cristobol in the Galapagos Islands and was quite smooth getting in. |
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The Evolution from the stern |
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Our lead naturalist, Bolivar (Boli) Sanchez |
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Exploring the Pacific off the main deck |
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We took a bus across town and boarded our zodiacs to be ferried out to our ship. We knew we were in for an adventure right away when we saw sea lions lounging around on the dock and more playing underneath the boats. The funniest part was a veritable colony of about twenty of them that was lounging on the decks of one of the boats we passed on the way to the MV Evolution. The Evolution absolutely oozes character. Although it had obviously been renovated, you definitely got the feeling that you were on a boat from the early twentieth century with the exposed woodwork – quite beautiful. After a brief welcome and orientation session on the boat and safety procedures, we headed to our cabins. We were quite fortunate to have the three cabins on the top deck, only steps away from a beautiful outdoor lounge area. |
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After a delicious lunch of fresh tuna, we headed for Kicker Rock. The two-hour cruise was absolutely heavenly! While most of the other passenger were enjoying the cruise on the front deck, the six of us were enjoying ourselves on the roof deck (see pictures below). I don’t know that you could have had a more enjoyable environment with beautiful skies, a gorgeous ocean, a lovely breeze, and fantastic place to relax. It sure did beat sitting at a desk over computer! |
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Kicker Rock (below) is literally hundreds of feet high with cliffs looming straight up out of the Pacific. This former volcano is now home to hundreds of ocean birds. The neatest to watch were the frigate birds. Since this is mating season, the males were doing all they could to attract the attention of the females. In the case of the frigate bird, it meant swelling up a huge sack on the front of their neck that looks like a very ripe strawberry and then doing the avian version of a Saturday Night Fever strut! With their sack blown out, you could see these birds from hundreds of yards away! |
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Our favorite haunt on the boat, the roof deck was just perfect for relaxing, enjoying a drink at the bar, or playing some cards. Our cabin was the first cabin down the right hand side of the picture in the middle. |
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We made our way in to a desolate beach along St. Christobel Island for our first real introduction to the wildlife. As we went in to the beach by dinghy (or panga as the locals called them), we could see dozens of sea lions sunning themselves on the rocks. Part of the lesson this afternoon was just how close we could safely get to them. Female sea lions weren’t much of a problem (unless their young were nearby), but the males could be quite dangerous, especially if you consider their 500 lb bulk! Fortunately they are also quite slow on land, so its easy to avoid them. This became important a few minutes later when a rogue male came just a little too close to another male’s harem, with our group between the two of them! |
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We spent about an hour getting an introduction to the island, seeing our first sea iguana (below right) and a number of blue-footed boobies making diving runs in an effort to grab some fish! The boobies are called that because they are so foolish-looking and clumsy as they walk on land. But when they get into the sky, they moved like a torpedo cutting through water. |
