I recently went on an adventure to the Galapagos islands with Hurtigruten, on MS Santa Cruz II. You can read all about it in my blogs.
Galapagos adventure – Mosquera Islet
Galapagos adventure – San Cristobel
Galapagos adventure – Santa Fe
Galapagos adventure – Santa Cruz
On our penultimate day we went for a panga ride round Eden islet. There are no landing spots there as there are cliffs up from the sea. We watched pelicans fishing as well as the frigate birds and brown noddies looking for food to take. A sea turtle poked its head out of the water.
There were a couple of young herons on the nest. You could just make out their long necks among the shrubs.
More deep-water snorkelling for my grandson while I went in the glass-bottomed boat. We had one of the naturalists on board so they were able to point out the various fish, sea cucumber, ray, sharks that we saw.
Our final landing was at North Seymour. There was a forest of leafless trees which are used to make incense. On our walk we came across lots of frigate birds on their nests, with the males puffing out their red chests.
There were also blue-footed boobies, several with fluffy white youngsters.
Their nests are just a spot on the ground surrounded by bird poop to designate their territory.
On our last day I looked out of the cabin window and there were tens of pelicans by the ship. We went on deck and could see them clearly, and in the water were several sharks. Frigate birds were flying around.
What a wonderful sight for the end of our Galapagos adventure!
Previous: Galapagos adventure – Espanola
The beginning: Galapagos adventure – Mosquera Islet
Our next island to visit was Espanola. It is an island with cliffs and boulders that we had to walk over. We saw the Galapagos hawk and marine iguanas – these were redder in colour than the ones on the other islands. There were about a dozen lying together on a rock.
There were the usual sea lions on the beach. There was a young sea lion that was only a few hours old. The placenta was still lying near the mother.
Another young seal lion was very curious about us.
There were lots of mocking birds, and blue-footed boobies were on their nest. One pair of boobies had decided to have their nest on the footpath. We had to negotiate around them. They weren’t worried, just sat there and looked at us.
On this island was the Galapagos waved albatross. Espanola is the only island you will see them. They were paired up and preening each other.
There was a nest with a young albatross in it – it was half fluffy. It’s parents had gone to sea to find it food.
As we walked along the cliff, we could see a blowhole caused by the waves rushing into a hole in the rocks and being forced out through a hole upwards. The water came up a long way and made a rainbow each time.
There were many frigate birds flying around and lots of Nasca boobies.
Time for kayaking – the first time I had been. It was enjoyable until my grandson decided to rock the kayak.
More deep-water snorkelling for my grandson where he saw white-tipped reef sharks. It is said the Galapagos is the only place where someone shouts shark and everyone jumps in the water to look!
We ended the day on the beach in Gardner Bay. It was a long stretch of pure white sand – plus the usual sea lions. I went for a swim. Sea lions came and joined us.
Previous: Galapagos adventure – Santa Cruz
We next went to Puerto Ayora, the main commercial port on Isla Santa Cruz. We boarded a bus to take us to the Charles Darwin Research Centre. Among other research, is a program to breed giant tortoises. We saw lots of young ones that had hatched that year.
They are released when they are about five years old onto the island they originally came from. The program has been so successful that this year, 2023, is the last year they will need to breed tortoises from Santiago island as the species has recovered.
We then went on a 4/5 km bike ride on the public road. I had to push my bike up several of the hills but my grandson did them all easily. We ended at a local sugar cane mill.
They had a hand mill for crushing the sugar cane.
My grandson and another person had a go at turning the wheel to crush the sugar cane. The farmer has been growing and producing sugar from sugar cane for over forty years. He now has a mechanised method for crushing the cane which halves the production time.
The farmer then showed us the tin bath where he leaves the sugar to ferment for a few days before running it through a still to produce moonshine at about 55% proof.
He threw some of the liquor on the fire to show us its strength.
We all got to try the moonshine – it was a lot smoother than I expected. We bought a bottle to bring back with us.
The farmer also grows coffee and cocoa. He showed us how he prepares the coffee beans and also the cocoa.
We had lunch at a natural tortoise reserve in the highlands. The giant tortoises wander freely in their natural environment. The landowners have to keep spaces in their fences for the tortoises to get through if they want to – similar to our hedgehog tunnels in the UK. We saw about 30-40 giant tortoises wandering about, some as old as 100 and some youngsters of about 20.
We then stopped at a lava tube where a barn owl was roosting. The barn owl just sat there while we took photos and wandered past.
The lava tunnel was not very long but the steps at the far end had loads of spiders sitting in their webs. The guide walked ahead brushing them away so by the time I got there it was quite clear. My grandson who is rather tall had to bend down to stop him getting cobwebs and spiders in his hair.
Previous: Galapagos adventure – Santa Fe
The next day we made two stops at San Cristobel Island. The first stop was an early start with a walk at 6.30 in the morning. The ships are allocated dates and times when they can visit places to ensure the islands are not over visited.
Our walk was to find the red-footed booby which only lives on a couple of the islands. San Cristobel is one of the oldest islands in the Galapagos and our path was among the rocks.
We found several red-footed boobies including a fluffy white one on its nest in the bushes.
A pair of the red-footed boobies were sharing sticks on their nest.
There were some blue-footed boobies as well and a Nazca booby. There were several finches and more frigate birds flying around.
We came back to the ship for breakfast and collected our gear for deep-water snorkelling. We saw brightly coloured fish, a sea turtle, and a ray – sea lions swam around us.
We saw a goat on the cliff while we were snorkelling. Goats were introduced onto the islands by sailors, hoping they could use them as fresh food next time they visited. Unfortunately, they have now become a pest and there are regular culls of them.
In the afternoon we went to the Cerro Colorado Tortoise Reserve in the highlands of San Cristobel. The reserve is breeding giant tortoises and releasing them back into the wild onto the island they originally came from.
The population of giant tortoises was almost completely destroyed as the ships used to take tortoises for food. The tortoises would last for months on board without food or water so were easy to maintain. If the ship got into trouble, the tortoises were just jettisoned overboard. There are now 11 species of giant tortoise, down from the original 15, but their numbers are recovering due to the breeding program.
The sanctuary has tortoises wandering around in semi-captivity as well as those growing up. These tortoises were saddlebacks. They have long necks and when fighting each other, extend their necks and the longest neck is the winner!
We saw lots of yellow warblers.
A feral cat came near and the warblers flew to the tree tops making a huge noise. There was a mocking bird around but it was hard to see.
Previous: Galapagos adventure – Mosquera Islet
Nannie RaRa 