Before this adventure, Señor Hans had never been on a boat for more than 24 hours ... but after 7 times that, you may call me Señor "Salty Seadog" now ... The "Friendship" was the name of the boat: 7 crew and 16 passengers, comprised of an interesting and fun mix of British, Israeli, Korean, Japanese, American and Dutch. Daily life on board was strict and tough; everyday was more or less the same:
- (Sometimes, at 6 in the morning) landing before breakfast on island to check out cool animals
- Breakfast
- Visit island (wet or dry landing) to check out cool animals and sunbathe/snorkel on tropical beach
- Back-On-Board for lunch
- Visit (other) island (wet or dry landing) to check out cool animals and sunbathe/snorkel on tropical beach
- Back-On-Board for snacks
- Lounging on the upper deck in the setting sun
- Dinner
- Free time
- Sleep
And after 8 days of this ... I could have gone for another 8 days easily :-D
Every island was different: White, red, brown and black sandy beaches, rocky beaches, lava beaches. All of them were surprisingly dry.
Some had trees, others bushes or just a cactus here or there. The water was crystal clear and soothingly cool, as the sun was pretty hot (not surprisingly, being smack-bang on the equator). And then there were the animals... I have never seen a weirder bunch together. Some of them were very specific to the particular island ("Is Endemic", our trusted guide Luis would say in his broken English). Sometimes, other islands had slightly different versions of the same animal, but distinct nonetheless. What all of them had in common though was the striking tameness ... they didn´t care less if a dozen cameras were shoved into their faces, and many animals were actually posing for the shots! The islands were never inhabited until colonial times and it seems that 450 years of human presence is not enough to put sufficient scare into them. Reading Darwin´s diary though, it is clear that they were even tamer in the past. Darwin visited the Galápagos in the 1830s and he comments as well on the even greater tameness before his time.
Birds were the most visible of all.
Big black frigate birds would fly with us from island to island (sometimes up to 8 hours apart) over the boat. Pelicans were everywhere diving for fish. Blue-footed boobies, red-footed boobies, masked boobies, unique seagulls, flamingos, waved albatrosses, carnivorous little mockingbirds, finches, and I´m sure I am leaving out a few. We saw them flying, fighting, dancing/courting, sitting on their eggs, playing with their young, and of course mating. Long legs are practicle for the flamingo when walking across shallow lakes, but if you want to take a girly from behind, they can be quite in the way ...
The most peculiar animals were the Iguanas. Almost all islands had them, but they were all a bit different.
First there were the marine iguanas, the dark ones that swam like doggies. The land iguanas were more varied. Every island seemed to have it´s own colour. Where marine and land versions lived together they could actually get offspring, a non-swimming "mule" iguana that cannot reproduce. The Iguanas would mainly sit on rocks, looking about rather arrogantly. Sometimes they would spit snot out of their noses, but regrettably they were not very good marksmen. To me, they were like miniature dragons, very "reptiley".
The water life was good fun, and the snorkeling was amazing.
All sorts of colourful fishies abounded, from very small to almost half a meter long; one greenish type loved to swim around your legs when standing in the water. Two meter long "white tipped" sharks were lurking about the rocks. Gracious sea turtles seemed to be flying in slow motion across the sandy bays. At one beach we stood in the surf up to our knees in the water, and the waves would bring 1 meter wide stingrays to the shore and wash them back through our legs. One decided to sit down on my feet. It was very soft, but I screamed with giddyness that the others thought I was being stung by it.
But the most fun was to be had with the beach and rock lurkers ... fist-sized bright red crabs were scurrying to and fro. Small penguins were waiting on the rocks and would sometimes take a dive in the water to have a look at those strange fish with the big goggles and colourful webbed feet. One swam towards me, floated like a duck, and looked me in the eye from 5 centimeters distance ... but the best, the very very best were the Sea Lions.
They occupied almost all the beaches, lazing and dozing on the shore, sometimes slowly rolling around in the sand. Young pups suckling their moms; the "beach master", the big dominant male, swimming about checking out his harem and barking his presence. Walking up to them, they usally just opened their eyes and blinked at you with their puppy eyes. Sometimes they would grumpily get up and wobble to a quieter spot to continue their nappy.
But they were another kind in the water ... the older pups would be swimming about impatiently in the water, popping up their heads from time to time, challengingly looking you in the eye with their "what are you waiting for" look.
Señor Hans does not have to be challenged twice like that, but even in snorkel gear he was not close to being a match for them in the water. Astonishingly fast and gracious they would swim about, twirl around you, the clumsy human, smile at you and look into your eyes with a twinkle. When twirling with them, they took up the challenge and glided even faster around you, the showoffs. They loved to float half a meter under the water surface for a moment, sometimes upside-down, look you in the eye, and then start swimming towards with great speed you only to veer away at the last moment.
The experience was like from another world, I felt so elated. And it was so unreal, I am still not convinced I didn´t dream it all ... But that is what the Galápagos is: another world, a dream world. For Señor Hans, it was the perfect final adventure ...
