Getting to Galapagos was a mini-adventure in itself. They have all sorts of interesting additions to the standard airport procedure; for instance, before checking-in passengers are expected to buy a special $10 Galapagos ID card and have their bags scanned for alien lifeforms. Also, my on-line reservation from Italian travel broker BravoFly had apparently not registered on AeroGal´s system, so I had a bit of excitement waiting to see if I could actually get on the flight or not. It all worked out in the end, but took so much time that I missed the deadline for checking in my luggage, so had to take it all as carry-on. So much for the super-strict Galapagos baggage regulations.
After landing in Baltra, everyone had to buy a $100 pass to visit the National Park (even if you tell them you only want to drink beer in Puerto Ayora and couldn´t care less about the park), then take a combination of a bus, a ferry and a taxi to get to Puerto Ayora. My taxi driver was a great tour guide, having lived on Galapagos for 15 years, and knew a lot about the local animals, volcanoes, etc. Unfortunately my grattis tour was only available in Spanish, so I probably missed half of it, but managed to communicate back enough to let him know that yes, we also have cows in Finland, and no, they don´t all die in the winter even when it snows.
After getting to my hotel - a very nice little establishment, despite a name, "Red Booby"*, better suited for a strip club - I wondered down to the Charles Darwin research station. Puerto Ayorta is pretty compact, so it´s easy to get around on foot. The research station was fascinating, having a number of giant turtoises and yellow terrestrial iguanas in residence. They also raise young tortoises collected from various islands to grow up in controlled circumstances until they´re old enough to be deposited back to their indigenous environment. This is apparently necessary because humans have introduced some nasty pests, e.g., rats, that never used to exist on Galapagos but now threaten the cute baby turtles. Both the tortoises and iguanas were super chilled, completely unafraid of humans, but also pretty lethargic in the afternoon heat. Got a bunch of cool photos, which I´ll post when I have a slightly faster connection.
After the research station I wondered down to the nearby beach, and spotted dozens of crabs that were very tricky photo models - they tended to slink into cracks between the volcanic rocks when approached. Also saw three gray marine iguanas lazing on the rocks. They seemed mostly oblivious to human presence, but one of them managed to scare the living daylights out of me by suddenly spitting out. No idea if it´s venomous or not, but I decided to stay out of spitting distance.
Having survived the perils of la playa, I dropped by the dive center I had booked my week´s worth of boat and diving trips with. My plan was to just get fitted for the equipment I´d need on tomorrow´s dive, but instead I heard that my package included a guided "Highland tour". I had no idea what I was being offered, but it was free and I had nothing better to do for the afternoon, so I jumped on the opportunity. Good thing I did, too. My guide was a motorbike-riding Italian lady, who´d moved to Galapagos some 20 years ago to "find a quiet life", and knew everything there was to know about the local flora, fauna and geology.
We started off by driving to a private farm, where we spotted dozens of wild giant tortoises. Apparently the tortoises, who normally live closer to the coast, are attracted during the dry season by the grass farmers grow for their cattle, and make the trek to the highlands. The farmers used to kill them (to save the grass for the cows), but the government offered them a deal whereby they could market the tortoise-sighting as a tourist attraction and make a bit of money off the travel agencies. The tortoises stay alive, and everyone is happy. The wild tortoises were much more shy around people; when approached, they withdraw under their shell and start breathing heavily a la Darth Vader. They also like mud baths (to get rid of parasites) and laying in shallow pools of water.
We followed up the tortoise farm by checking out a lava tube (a hollow tunnel formed when the surface of flowing lava solidifies to form a crusty "ceiling") and looking at a couple of craters formed by collapsed volcanoes. Again, some great photo ops, but I´ll need more bandwidth to share the pics.
The tour concluded with some hints & tips on where to eat and drink around Puerto Ayora, and I finally got my SCUBA gear fitted for tomorrow. A quick pit-stop for lobster pasta at "The Rock", a bit of blogging, and off to bed to wait for tomorrow´s 6am wake up call for the diving trip. Did I mention I´m supposed to be on vacation?
* According to Wikipedia, a red-footed booby is actually a kind of bird: "The Red-footed Booby, Sula sula, is a large seabird of the gannet family, Sulidae. They are powerful and agile fliers, but they are clumsy in takeoffs and landings." So now we know.
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