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Galapagos at Last! 
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And now, at last, Galapagos. I assume most of you will have some idea of the significance of the Galapagos Islands, but let me just tell you that they are a small archipelago that straddles the equator some 600 miles west of the coast of Ecuador. They have the most highly protected, most studied and most written about ecosystem of anywhere on the planet. The first of these pieces of writing was a little essay entitled "The Origin of Species" by one Charles Darwin. Most of the islands have no human habitation, but the capital Port Ayora on Santa Cruz has about 11,000 full time residents. Only 800 visitors are allowed on the islands at any one time, and the fee for everyone entering the Galapagos National Park is $100. Most people sign up with a recognized tour company and cruise around on a ship with an official guide, visiting the islands one by one over the course of a week or ten days. There is no unsupervised access to most of the islands, so stringent is the level of protection that the world scientific community has imposed through the Ecuadorian government. The source of this powerful influence is economic: America and other countries are lavishing resources on the islands because of their unique scientific interest and Ecuador does not wish to do anything that might turn off the tap. It's an arrangement that works to everyone's advantage. Also on Santa Cruz is the Charles Darwin Research Station, one of the world's most prestigious scientific field stations, where research workers and volunteers from every nation come to study and take part in conservation work. The eventual aim of the station is to restore the ecology of Galapagos as closely as possible to what it was before the arrival of humans and to use it as a laboratory for the continued study of evolution and environmental change. What follows is mostly Jean's account from e-mails that we sent to our friends, and also ourselves, at regular intervals when we were within reach of an Internet Cafe. |
 Our ship the Samba |
The trip on the boat which was called the Samba was absolutely fabulous. A totally memorable holiday and packed with new things all the time. Everything that people say about the Galapagos is true. It is a Garden of Eden where animals do not see humans as enemies. You can walk up to birds, sea lions, tortoises, iguanas and practically any living thing without its running away. We have played in the sea with sealions and followed sea turtles only inches away when snorkelling. Our boat took 12 passengers and had 5 crew plus the guide (all Ecuadorian). There was the Captain, the cook, the mechanic, the waiter/purser and the driver of the panga (small dinghy for landing), plus a guide who spoke excellent English and was very knowledgeable. | |
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We found the
guide, Franklin a very fine and enthusiastic environmentalist who obviously loved his job. His dedication to the conservation of the island wildlife was absolute, all that he seemed to live for. The rest of the crew were very jolly and got on well with each other. The black cook played the guitar and sang and gave us a show on the last night. Apparently he was religious and it was all hymns that he was singing, though you wouldn't have thought so by the rhythm. Others played the maracas and various kitchen utensils. Although friendly enough the cook seemed to avoid conversation during the course of the cruise. We wondered if he might have been a creationist who had ended up in the wrong job.
 Left to right: Johnny the engineer, (?) the chef, Raoul the purser/waiter, Arturo the panga captain The ship was lovely, with six lower cabins, a dining room with a big wooden table and an interior lined entirely with wooden pannelling. It was made in the 1960s but was in spotless condition. The Captain was very house proud and wouldn't let us wear shoes inside, and made sure we got all the sand off us with a hose before we went to our cabins.There was an upper deck with a sitting area and a front deck where you could lie about and/or hang out your washing. We had a two-berth cabin with bunks and drawer storage under them, and an en suite toilet and shower. It was all a bit cramped and it was easier to dress, etc. one at a time. However, this was not really a problem. |
 Chris, Katherine , Kimberley, Peter Standing; Arturo, Johnny |
 Debbie, Yvonne, Mick, David, Jean, Monica |  Monica, Yvonne, Katherine , Chris, Bryan |
 Kimberley, my alleged favourite. I hardly noticed her at all, really. |
Facing: Jean, Debbie, Mick, Kim, Backs: Peter, Franklin, Monica |  Monica, Kimberley, Yvonne and Debbie after swimming in lava tube |
The other passengers were: three other middle-aged English couples, Peter (66) from Leeds who was a retired Zoology lecturer and his wife Katherine who used to be in teacher training, a couple from Derby - Mick (61) a retired railway worker and his wife, Chris (55) who worked in a shop - they were keen bird watchers - then, Bryan, (55) a retired mobile phone salesman, and his wife, Pat (55), a teacher who still supply-teaches when they're not travelling. They are off for a lorry-trek round South America until next Feb. ending at the Rio Carnival, and previously they did a big trek around Africa - in fact I think they've been pretty much everywhere. |
Goodness! It's Kimberley again. How did that get there? | |
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There were four single women: two friends from Sweden: - Michelle (43) who was a journalist and very extrovert, and Yvonne (also 43) who works with computers. Then a Californian called Debbie (a young 48) who is a counsellor for couples who are splitting up, helping them to do what's best for the children (I think it's called mediation and the couples with children are obliged to do it). The other woman was Kimberley (only 22) and from Puerto Rico, a trainee lawyer who had just finished at Harvard Law School. She was our unofficial interpreter and David's favourite, of course, though I must say she was friendly and smiley. I'll just come in here and say that I can't deny liking Kim: I liked everything about her, her looks, her personality, her intelligence, her friendliness... I understand she has a boyfriend in Boston. I hope he appreciates what a lucky young man he is. Okay, back to Jean's account. Although everyone got on well enough with one another and related in twos and threes I don't think we really gelled as a group. This didn't matter a great deal, it just meant that the meals were sometimes rather silent, though that quietness was good when we were looking at animals. We had to get up very early for our guided tours and everyone was keen to do that and always on time. |
 Breakfast |
 Lunch |  Sunset on the deck |
 Dinner bell for a special occasion | The food was wonderful: breakfast was cereals, yoghurts, four or five types of fresh fruit, fruit juices, bread, cream cheese, butter and then something cooked, and always something different. Lunch and dinner were full cooked meals, sometimes with soup or at least two courses. The evening meal was usually some meat or fish dish, then four or five others - mixed vegetables, sometimes with cooked fruit in it, lovely salads, also with fruit, and a filler - rice, mashed potatoes or pasta. The pudding was always something really exotic and beautifully presented. There was always fresh fruit juice and as much coffee, tea and water as you wanted at any time. Mid morning and mid afternoon there were delicious little snacks and nibbles and more fruit drinks. | |
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(Note from David: I think I understand now why I was getting lower and lower in the water each time I went snorkelling.) |
The daily routine was roughly: Get up at 6am., breakfast at 6.30am, trip at 7.15am, back at 10am for nibbles, trip at 10.30am, lunch at 1pm then maybe a break while the ship moved on or maybe another trip, then back for more nibbles, another trip and dinner at 7pm followed by a talk from Franklin about the programme for the next day. We mostly went to bed pretty early and the ship did most of its sailing while we were asleep. |
 Franklin's evening talk | |
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Trips would either be an outing on the panga to look at life on an island (with a wet or dry landing) or a walk, or snorkelling, all with our guide and ourselves spotting fabulous things. The sea was pretty rough on the first day and after our first lunch several of us threw up fairly soon, including David and me. Unfortunately poor Mick also threw up over the side of the ship and his upper false teeth went with it, never to be seen again. He was the but of many jokes after that and couldn't eat the more chewy bits of our feasts, but was very good natured about it. The guide has assured him that if that part of the ocean should become dry land due to a volcanic upheaval in the near future, as has happened elsewhere in the islands, he will personally search for the missing teeth. I (David) discussed the possibility of a recovery based on precision scuba diving but unfortunately the incident had occurred in open ocean, many hundreds of meters deep. A mini sub would have been needed and I decided that the operation would be uneconomical. After that first night we took pills and weren't sick any more and after a couple more days didn't need to take pills at all. It was a nasty moment though, I thought: "I've spent all this money to puke up for a week". However, all was well. And so the adventure begins in earnest! The account in the pages that follow has been greatly edited down from Jean's original e-mails but will give you some flavour of what the days were like. We have also included only a fraction of the 400+ pictures that we brought back. As a matter of interest they were all taken on a Fuji FinePix 2600 Zoom, apart from a few underwater ones taken on the Sea & Sea MX10, few of which were good enough for inclusion here. We got through three 64 MB digital memory cards on this holiday.
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