Live long and prosper…..and find blue footed boobies

Having snorkelled Kicker rock we all landed at San Cristobel some were continuing on with the boat tour, some were heading back to the mainland and Spock(Garth) and I were staying put for one night. I was then venturing on to Isabella where I am now and Spock hadn’t fully made his mind up yet but was due to leave the next day. Either way I am sure they could just beam him up!

 

First challenge- find somewhere to stay, fortunately Spock had a lonely planet and we found a hostel – after a brief explanation of we are not married and required separate beds we were sharing a room. While I have shared rooms with people I have never even met I have yet to share a room with a Spock look-a-like who I have known for 4 days so far. for clarity I mean the older version of Spock and as he is now relatively old!

But, he has plenty of chat even if I didn’t. So we went in search of some blue footed boobies as so far we had only seen one or two from a far. 

After a couple of taxi rides to and from the same place we eventually set off walking from where we were originally. There was much confusion between tour guides and taxis on what we could walk to what we could catch a boat to and when!

Anyway we found the Interpretation Centre and read about  the history of the Galapagos islands their formation over a hot spot and the fact that they are moving at 5cm a year towards South America, the controversy of the Penal colony that was finally closed in 1959????, the disappearance of a Baroness the burst dreams of Norwegians promised a paradise and the plight of the animals.

Only two of the islands have freshwater on them all the others rely on water to be brought and so far what I have seen and what I proceeded to see on a 3 hour epic walk with Spock is a fairly inhospitable land.

Yes we carried on a trail determined to get to a beach and see some blue footed boobies. While Spock had cleverly eaten a large breakfast and therefore wasn’t bothered about missing lunch I however had had a yoghurt and at 1300 we set off and the Hangry monster was battling to come out in me. Not helped by rough lava rock terrain, no stick , minimal water and no knee brace, suffice to say when I finally plopped into the water 3 hours later climbing down some precarious rocks I was relieved of the cool down as every bone in my body ached. Particularly my collar bone after clinging on for dear life to a rock with my left arm to stop myself get smashed against some other rocks.

My sense oof humour could have failed me when we discovered that there were blue footed boobies within 10-15 minutes of the Interpretation centre had it not been for the quirky chattiness of Spock and the eventual tempering  of the Hangry monster with a chocolate milkshake.

I then went to a travel agent to see if they had managed to sort a flight to Isabella and was given a different option. A very rare one off chance to take a boat directly there leaving at 4am getting there at 7am and apparently I will be able to sleep on it. Deal done for considerably cheaper. After dinner with Spock and discussing his life and all the decisions he is going to make I went to bed while he panicked about his wallet and made an emergency trip back onto our boat (which fortunately hadn’t left!) to retrieve it.

At 0330 I was being collect, up I got and downstairs I went to be greeted by one of the old style elevator gates locked across the exit and my lift (not elevator – person giving me the boat ride) the other side! Interesting.  Cue much confusion as I tried to find an alternative way out…..a fire escape maybe? Nope.

Eventually I started knocking on the bedroom doors and a lady popped her head out and vaguely communicated to go all the way upstairs. Next I am on the roof looking down at the people who are giving me a lift thinking ‘am I meant to jump!’ Finally I knocked on some doors on the roof and a lady appeared who was able to let me leave the hostel.

I then went with the kind travel agent man who had given me this once in a lifetime opportunity to get directly to Isabella by boat and was deposited on  the dock with two new people who I couldn’t communicate with either and climbed aboard their 30 FT speedboat ( a day fishing boat not an overnight sleeper). We then hammered across the Pacific Ocean for 3 hours with me lying in the forepeak cabin often suspended in mid air as we bounced over the waves and really putting my sleeping skills and collar bone to the test.

The younger chap who I had at least managed to exchange names with (though I now forget) woke me up as we came into port, yes woke me up I had managed to fall asleep!

Isabella Island is the largest of the Galapagos islands and has a very small town and a very shallow bay for the boats to moor. A bay that is, as you might expect ,full of sea lions but I also saw my first Penguin and some beautiful altocumulus (though you can see that almost everywhere) .  For one dollar the taxi boat ashore required the engine to be kicked up to get over the shallows to get to the pontoon and then a vague inspection of my bag and a young lad called fransico or victor (that is what he pointed to on his windscreen) said he was a taxi and gave me a lift to my accommodation but never asked to be paid. All very strange so far

My accommodation was closed, turns out the staff member had walked out and not come to open up and provide breakfast for the rest of the residents- I however was fast asleep in the hammock outside and when I woke up was offered free breakfast for the inconvenience and shown to my hotel.

A large part of the day was clearly spent sleeping and resting which I think was probably a very good thing for the aching body especially as I am hiking up some volcano tomorrow. 

However I did manage to muster enough strength to go in hunt of very own Lonesome George. I found they weren’t so lonesome on this Island.

Lonesome George is sadly dead now and lived on an island I have yet to get to. But they have a breeding centre and land tortoises of all shapes and sizes just down the road here. 

There 500+ trtoises that live in the wild high up near a crater where the gas vent make good incubation temperature for their eggs and then there are a few that live near-ish the town here and slip south to get the warmer temperatures.

Just think Mum Dad if your tortoise gets this big you will need a bigger garden!!!