Polar World

I woke up at 5:45am when the yacht started moving. I continued to lie in bed and tried to sleep but sleep would not come. As the yacht was swaying quite a bit, I started to feel a bit seasick. So I got out of bed, changed out of my pajamas and went up to the top deck. It was dark as the lights on the top deck were switched off. It was also quite chilly. I sat on one of the lounge chairs and enjoyed the peace and quiet. Apart from the rumble of the yacht’s engine, there was no other sound. It seemed as if the world at this moment was still asleep and I was the only one awake. I enjoyed this feeling of solitude.

Slowly, my eyes were able to make out the dark shapes of landmass, all misty and grayish-blue. The sky slowly brightened but I could not see the sun as it was hidden by the clouds. It looked like it would be a cloudy day. Then I caught the sight of birds flying far on the the horizon. I watched them for a while. When it was almost 7am, I went back to the cabin.

KKH woke up when I entered. While KKH was in the bathroom, the voice of Alex (cruise coordinator) was broadcast over the PA system. “Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. This is a wake up call. It is now 7am.” At 7:30am, we went down to the dining room for breakfast. In the dining room, Alex and another crew member was walking around and making sure that everything was alright. They acted as waiters, clearing our empty plates and asking us if we wanted coffee or tea. When they asked me if I wanted coffee or tea, I picked coffee with milk, figuring that I would give their coffee a try. Thankfully, it didn’t cause me any unpleasant side effects.

We were visiting Isla Rábida in the morning. Hernan told us that Rábida was closed for three months and just opened up recently for visitors. It was closed to conduct an experiment to eradicate the rats from the islands. The rats were not native to the Galapagos Islands and were brought to the islands by the early sailors. As the rats were destructive and competed with the native species for food, they had to be eradicated. For the experiment, remote-controlled helicopters or planes were used to drop rat poison all over the island. As the hawks on the island hunt the rats, all the hawks on Rábida were captured and taken to another island to stay for three months. After three months, when all the rats were dead, the hawks were released back to the island. Hernan said that if the experiment was successful, it would be implemented on the rest of the islands.

It was a wet landing, meaning that the dinghy would go as close to the beach as possible and then we got off from the dinghy into the water. The water reached up to my knees and the bottom part of my berms got wet. The sand on Rábida was red in color due to the high iron content.

On the beach, we saw a Galapagos hawk. It was a juvenile so it was curious about us but still remained a bit wary. It stayed on the beach, looking at us while we took photos of it.

Further inland where there were more bushes, we saw a vermilion flycatcher. It only stayed for a short while and quickly flew off.

We arrived at a saltwater lagoon but this time there were no flamingos in sight.

In a tree, we saw two Galapagos hawks. As we were taking photos of them, a third hawk landed in the same tree.

We were able to go quite close to the tree without scaring the hawks away. We tried to stay mostly to one side of the tree and not surround it so the hawks would not feel threatened.

It was an easy hike on Rábida as the ground was mostly flat and the trail was wide. There was no dense undergrowth with thorny bushes.

We walked up a slope and could see our yacht anchored nearby.

On the other side of the cliff were beautiful blue waters.

Then it was back to the beach for some free time. You could swim or snorkel or just walk along the beach. KKH snorkeled for a short while as the water was cold. I didn’t snorkel and walked along the beach instead. Sometimes I would walk in the water until it was deep enough to reach my knees. The water always felt cool no matter how hot the sun was. It wasn’t boring walking along the beach as there were so many things to see.

The juvenile Galapagos hawk was still roaming the beach. Now that there were less people taking photos, it was more relaxed and I managed to get a good photo of it.

I saw some lava lizards. They were small lizards and very wary of humans. It was hard to get close to one. I guess it was because they were preyed on by the Galapagos hawks so they tended to be more timid around larger animals. This is the male lava lizard.

The female lava lizard has a red throat.

There were holes along the beach which were crab burrows. The crabs were not the famous Sally Lightfoot crabs. I thought they looked like ghost crabs but I could not be sure. It took a long time for the crab to emerge from its burrow. I could not move at all as any slightest vibration would send it back into its burrow.

Soon one hour was up and it was time to head back to the yacht for lunch and some rest before the afternoon hike. A crew member was waiting with a hose to rinse off our sand covered feet and shoes. I did not have much appetite for lunch as I was starting to feel a bit seasick again. After lunch, I went up to the top deck to read my book and felt much better.

At 3pm, we went to Puerto Egas on Santiago Island. This time we were in the group with the other guide, Jorge. His English wasn’t as descriptive as Hernan but he was very jovial and sometimes cracked jokes. Even thought he knew our names, collectively KKH and I were called “Singapore!”

It was another wet landing at the beach. This time the sand at the beach was black in color. I found it amazing that Isla Rábida and Santiago Island were next to each other and yet the sand on the beaches were so different.

We were allowed to snorkel first as the water would get too cold later on. I walked along the beach and some fellow passengers told me that a sea lion was sleeping on a rocky ledge. I wonder how it managed to get so high as the ledge was at my shoulder height. When I went near, it opened its eyes and peeked at me. Then obviously deciding that I was just a curious tourist and not a danger, it went back to sleep again.

A lot of Sally Lightfoot crabs were clinging on a rock. The matured ones were red in color while the young ones were as black as the rock they were on.

Jorge said they were named Lightfoot because they looked as if they were walking on tiptoes. Someone asked Jorge if Ecuadorians eat the crabs and Jorge replied that they don’t as the crabs were food for other animals in Galapagos. I didn’t notice it when I was there but the Sally Lightfoot crab’s eyes seemed pinkish!

There were also some marine iguanas lying on the beach. They didn’t seem to mind my presence even though I could be only 1m away from them. But I tried to respect their personal space so they would not feel disturbed.

Because the marine iguanas were so motionless and unafraid, they were perfect models for photos. Can you see the two tiny flies sitting on its head?

There was a pelican sitting on top of a rocky ledge. It was so still that a fellow passenger thought it was a piece of rock.

After an hour, it was time for the hike. The terrain of Santiago Island felt different from Isla Rábida. The rocks were arranged in flat layers and it looked as if someone had paved a road.

Jorge told us that people used to live on Santiago Island. There was a mining operation and the workers would live on the island. Now there were no longer people living on the island and what was left of their houses were just sticks stuck in the ground.

We walked along the coast and it was more obvious that the rocks were arranged in horizontal layers, one on top of the other. I was reminded of my geography lessons in secondary school. My geography teacher would love it here as there were so many real life examples of land formation that she was teaching us.

There groups of marine iguanas sunning themselves along the coast. It was the first time I saw so many marine iguanas together. Previously I had only seen a few at a time.

Jorge found an empty crab shell which he passed around. This was the shell left behind after a Sally Lightfoot crab molted. A young Sally Lightfoot crab may molt up to 100 times a year, while an adult Sally Lightfoot crab would not need to molt so often.

We saw quite a few birds along the coast too. This is the lava heron.

There were two oystercatchers sitting on the rocks near the water edge.

Not all birds stayed still. This little yellow bird kept hopping around and flew off after a few minutes. I think this could be the female yellow warbler.

There were also sea lions resting along the coast and we saw a few babies. The babies were a few months old and they were mostly alone as the mothers were out hunting. The babies would look at us sleepily and sometimes they would cry, like human babies. One of the rules was that we cannot touch any animal on the Galapagos islands. Jorge said that if we touched a baby sea lion, we would leave our scent on it. This would cause the mother sea lion to reject her baby when she returned as she could not recognize her baby by the smell.

I think these are the Galapagos mockingbirds. Young ones though.

I spotted a finch. There were 13-15 species of finches on the Galapagos islands. Each species had its own name but together they were called Darwin’s finches. Specimens of the finches were collected by Charles Darwin when he visited the islands but at that time, he had no clue to their significance. In fact he thought they were different species of birds as some of them looked quite different. Then John Gould, an ornithologist, examined the specimens and told Darwin that they were all finches. Upon hearing this, Darwin cried “Eureka!” and the beginnings of the idea of evolution was planted in his mind. Subsequently, the term Darwin’s finches was popularized by David Lack in 1947.

We soon came to another type of terrain which was formed from relatively young harden lava. I had to be careful while walking as the ground was uneven and there were cracks all over. Some of the larger cracks became pools and the water was calmer here.

We saw some sea lions swimming in the sheltered pool. The sea lions we kept seeing were the Galapagos sea lions. They were descended from the California sea lions but they were smaller in size than their California ancestors.

We also saw two sleeping Galapagos fur seals. They were smaller than the sea lions and unlike the sea lions which could be found on the beach, the fur seals preferred to rest on the rocky ledges. I think the fur seals were rarer than the sea lions as I only saw them at most twice while the sea lions seemed to be everywhere. Jorge said that we could differentiate them from their faces, as the fur seals looked a little like bears. Actually, fur seals were more like sea lions than true seals. So this was a case where an animal was named wrongly but the name stuck. I guess that’s why Hernan said there’s no seals, only sea lions in the Galapagos.

We were back on the yacht by 5:45pm. I stayed in the cabin until dinner time.

For dinner, I did not have much appetite and took less than my usual amount. KKH had no appetite too but her lack of appetite started even before we flew off so it was not because she was seasick. But dessert looked so tempting that KKH told me that if we managed to finish both our dinners, let’s share dessert. Sadly by the time we finished the food on our plates, we were too full to think of eating any desserts.

We were flying to the Galapagos today. The pickup from the hotel was arranged by Adventure Life and scheduled for 6:05am. So we had to wake up really early. I woke up at 5:30am and by 6am we were downstairs with our luggage. We waited for a while and when there was still no sight of the pickup at 6:30am, KKH got the hotel reception to call our Ecuador Coordinator who then called the driver. Turned out that the flight was from Quito –> Guayaquil –> Galapagos and we were given the pickup time for Quito. The correct pickup time for Guayaquil should be after 7am instead.

So we had time to eat breakfast after all. Today I took a chocolate bun, some fried rice, pancake, ham, bacon and a fried banana. My favorite was the chocolate bun because chocolate for breakfast is always great. I wished there was more chocolate.

The pickup arrived just after we finished breakfast. We were driven to the airport where we were greeted by the staff from Klein Tours. They helped to check in our luggage and gave us our boarding pass. Then we were through the gate and soon onto the airplane. We were taking an Aerogal flight (short for Aerolineas Galapagos) to Galapagos. It was a short flight, around two hours or so. Halfway through the flight, the air stewards opened the hand luggage compartment and sprayed all the hand luggage, probably to kill any insects that had hitched a ride.

We landed at Baltra Airport on Baltra Island. It was a small airport consisted of several one storey buildings. There were no visitor sites on Baltra Island. It functioned primarily as an entry point for visiting the Galapagos Islands.

All of us had to walk on a blue mat after we got off the plane. I later learned that the mat contained some liquid with was supposed to kill off any seeds that were stuck to the bottom of our shoes. We paid USD 100 each at the customs for the national park entry fee. We were greeted by someone from the yacht after we passed through the customs. There was no need to collect our luggage as they had been had been tagged with a distinctive yellow tag by the Klein Tours staff at Guayaquil airport. So the crew from the yacht could recognize and collect them from the airport. We would see our luggage when they were delivered to our cabins. I hope it was a very nice service. It sure saved me the hassle of waiting for my luggage to be unloaded from the plane.

All of us who were joining the cruise got onto a bus which brought us to the pier. I thought it was a beautiful sight. Blue skies and blue sea, looking so clean and unpolluted.

Even while waiting at the pier for the dinghy to arrive, we were able to see some wildlife. There were black marine iguanas basking on the black rocks and a pelican was preening its feathers. There were also some sea lions under the pier, hiding from the hot sun.

Soon the dinghy arrived and all of us got into it. The dinghy brought us to the yacht, Coral I, where we would be staying for the next few days. The yacht had four floors. The bottom contained ten cabins. Above it was the main deck which had a lounge, dining room and two more cabins. It was also where we get off and on the yacht. Above it were six more cabins. Our cabin was on this deck – Cabin 18. The topmost deck was where all the lounge chairs were. Coral I could have a maximum of 36 passengers. Including us new arrivals, there were 29 passengers on the yacht.

First, all of us newcomers gathered in the lounge for a briefing. We were told not to flush used toilet papers down the toilet bowl and to dispose of them in the covered bin in the bathroom instead. We had to separate our trash into plastic, batteries and paper. Drinking water was provided at specific taps and we were advised not to drink from taps in our bathrooms. We were also briefed on the rules that we have to observed when we were on the islands. It was quite strict. We have to stay with the guide, we cannot stray from the trail, we cannot collect things from the islands, we cannot leave rubbish on the islands, we have to wash our shoes and make sure we did not carry any materials from one island to another. I was quite glad to hear the strict rules because it meant that the islands will be well preserved. Lastly, all of us were taught how to put on the life jacket found in our cabin closet.

I thought the cabin looked nice and cosy. All of us left our hiking shoes at the disembarking area and we were told that we could walked around the boat barefooted if we wanted to. KKH and I did. It was a nice feeling to be able to walk around barefoot. It made the yacht felt really like home. We could not lock the cabin doors when we were out because the cabin boy needed to go and clean up our cabin. I noticed that the bin for used toilet paper was emptied each time we were out, either during meal times or hikes.

There were some passengers who were already on the boat. They arrived on Sunday and would be leaving the coming Sunday. The rest of the passengers who arrived with us were staying for four nights so they would be leaving the coming Sunday too. KKH and I arrived on a Wednesday and we would be leaving the next Wednesday.

We had lunch in the dining room. KKH and I sat with a father and daughter from New York. It was buffet style so we just took what we wanted. The selection wasn’t very big but the food was good. It was usually three types of salad/appetizers, two meat dishes, two or three vegetables and two desserts. Sometimes each of us would be given a bowl of soup too. It was pretty international kind of cooking so I didn’t take any photos. I learnt a few days later that the bread served on the boat was baked daily. So since then, I always made an effort to eat a piece of bread a day.

It was free time after lunch while the boat traveled to Santa Cruz. The top deck seemed to be everybody’s favorite place to laze around. Most of the lounge chairs were taken.

As we traveled towards Santa Cruz, we saw some birds following the boat. There were as many as eight birds at one time. They seldom flap their wings and just appeared to glide effortlessly in the wind. Sometimes one of them would fly close to the boat, at eye level.

We were told that these were frigate birds. The males were the ones with red pouches at the throat while the females had a white chest. They could not dive underwater like some birds as they do not have oil on their wings. So they had to snatch food from the surface of the water or snatch food from other birds. A fellow passenger called them “the pirates among the birds”.

At 4pm, we disembarked to go to Dragon Hill, which was on the northwest corner of Santa Cruz. It was a dry landing. The hike would take around two hours and was rated moderate. We left in two dinghies with a guide in each dinghy. Once we landed, we followed the guide from our dinghy and walked off. The group from the other dinghy walked off in the opposite direction but we met up again halfway along the trail.

The guide leading my group was called Hernan. He spoke English well and was passionate about protecting the wildlife. During the cruise, I heard him spoke a few times about how amazing and what a privilege it was to be so close to the animals. He also spoke a few times about the cruelty of the early sailors and people who visited the islands.

We started off by walking along the beach before we moved inland through the dense undergrowth.

One of the first things we saw were Sally Lightfoot crabs. It was hard to miss them as they were bright red and clinging onto the black rocks.

We also saw some iguanas resting in the vegetation near the beach. It was evening so I guess that had already finish feeding and were settling in for the night.

There was one that was already sleeping. Aww, so cute.

Hernan found a hermit crab and gathered all of us for a look. It was hiding in its shell but when Hernan breathed on it, it came out of the shell. KKH and I thought that it could be deal to the warmth from Hernan’s breath or the carbon dioxide. Hernan explained that the hermit crabs are scavengers and would search the beach for dead and decaying animals. The hermit crab had no shell of its own and had to search for abandoned shells as they grew bigger. Hernan explained that this was why we should not collect shells from the beach as we could be depriving a hermit crab of a home. At this moment, the hermit crab decided to give Hernan’s thumb a nip, causing him to drop it. I don’t think the hermit crab was hurt as it landed on sandy ground.

We moved further inland. The trail was narrow and overgrowth. We had to walk in a single file and be careful of thorny branches that grew over the trail. We had watched where we put our feet as the ground was uneven. Hernan said that in the early days, the land was barren and there were not many rules about touring the Galapagos Islands. Most of the plants that we were seeing now were brought to the islands by tourists who had seeds stuck to the underside of their shoes. This was why the rules were stricter now and there was the blue map at the airport to kill off the seeds.

Hernan showed us a seed pod which sounded like a rattle when we shook it.

Along the way, we saw several yellow land iguanas in the bushes. The land iguanas were bigger than their marine cousins. Then we came upon a huge male crawling in the middle of the trail and heading in our direction. Hernan told us to keep quiet and stood still so as not to frighten it. He also asked all of us to stand to one side of the trail so that the land iguana could pass. It crawled past Hernan slowly and then it stopped and stared at the red shoes of one of the passengers.

It stayed there for a long time. So in the end, we had to shuffled sideways around it as quietly as possible. For half of us, it was our first close encounter with the Galapagos wildlife. A lot of us went “That was so cool!” once we were far away enough from the land iguana to talk.

We saw a forest of holy stick trees. They were given that name because they produced a very nice smelling oil which was used to make incense. The trees were bare now because it was wintertime for them. Hernan explained that even though it did not feel like winter to us, the trees were used to a much higher temperature and humidity so this was like winter to them. Wow, the temperature was already like 28°C or 29°C, I could not imagine how much higher it had to be before the trees thought it was summer. Hernan poked one of the trees gently with a toothpick and immediately we saw oil flowing out. He let all of us dab some on our fingertips and smelled it. It had a very nice smell, like those perfumed incense. As the trees were full of oil, they were very flammable and this was why nobody was allowed to smoke on the islands.

As we walked on, we came to some brackish pools of water.

A lone flamingo was looking for food in one of the pools. The flamingos on the Galapagos Islands were descended from the Caribbean flamingos.

After the hike, we returned back to the yacht. One of crew was waiting with a hose to wash our shoes once we got off the dinghy. There was still some time before dinner so KKH and I sat in our cabin. I loved the thought that the sea was right in front of the door. For the rest of the cruise, sometimes I would just sit by the door and looked out at the sea. We kept our cabin door opened as much as possible and only closed it when we were out or sleeping.

It was 6:30pm and the sun was setting. My first sunset on the sea!

There was a welcome cocktail for us newcomers before dinner. Each of us were given a red tinted drink which unfortunately tasted like cough syrup. KKH and I had tasted a similar cocktail before as we found the taste familiar but we could not recall the name. We sat with a couple from Australia during dinner. They had been on the cruise since Sunday so they had seen some of the things that we were going to see. After dinner, we gathered in the lounge for a briefing on the hikes for tomorrow.

KKH and I went to bed at around 10pm. We had to wake up early tomorrow.

We had breakfast at the hotel. The selection wasn’t big but it was enough for me. I don’t have a huge appetite in the mornings anyway. I tried a little bit of everything. I took some rice, pork stew, lentils, scrambled eggs, pineapple bread pudding and a pastry filled with minced nuts. Everything tasted quite nice. I wished I could take another helping of the pork stew as it was quite tasty. But I’m full already.

After breakfast, we left the hotel and walked to Parque Seminario which was home to many green iguanas. We saw many iguanas around the park, on the grass and pavement and trees. They were quite used to humans and were indifferent to our presence. They remained very still, basking in the sun and only moved when we got too close.

I read online that tourists could buy mango slices from vendors to feed the iguanas but I guess we were too early as I didn’t notice any vendors.

In the middle of the small park was a statue of Simón Bolívar who played a key role in liberating Latin America from Spanish rule. An iguana was dozing at the base of the statue which amused me very much.

After leaving the park, we continued eastwards, passing by Palacio Municipal where there was another statue of Simón Bolívar (I think).

We reached Malecón 2000 which was a 2.5km long boardwalk along the Guayas River. There were a lot of facilities along the boardwalk for the locals to enjoy, like playground, exercise corner, park and theater.

Along the boardwalk were colorful horse statues painted by local artists. They reminded me of the lion statues that Singaporean celebrities painted for one of the National Days. KKH had no recollection of it and they reminded her of the colorful bull statues instead.

We continued walking along Malecón 2000 until we reached the northern end. Opposite was Las Peñas, a historical neighborhood with narrow walkways and brightly-colored houses. People still lived in some of these 400-year-old houses while others have been converted to art galleries, shops and restaurants.

We had to climb a lot of steps to reach the top and needless to say, I felt quite tired by the end of it.

At the top was a tower and a church. We climbed up the narrow spiral staircase to the top of the tower to take a look. It was windy at the top of the tower and we had a good view of the city.

Lunch was at Poly Restaurant, a local eating house. Many locals and nearby office workers ate there. We were served by a cheerful waiter who handed us the menu. He tried his best to be helpful even though he spoke no English. KKH and I spent a long time deciphering the menu which was in Spanish. Luckily we brought along a Lonely Planet guidebook which listed the names of some food in Spanish.

Finally I ordered a mixed ceviche which was served cold. My mixed ceviche contained prawns and cockles cooked in lime juice. It was quite nice and tasted salty and sour. There were a lot of prawns and cockles.

The ceviche came with some mashed plantains. I still felt that plantains were bland and not very nice but I discovered that it helped to take a bite of the plantains when the sourness of the ceviche got to me.

After lunch we continued southwards and came to a convenience store which had large bottles of water on their shelves. We bought two bottles. I do not want to carry a heavy bottle of water around with me so we left them at the hotel.

Then we walked to Plaza Del Centenario which was a big square with a tall column in the center. At the top of the column was a female figure. There were a lot of people sitting in the park and it seemed to be a popular gathering place.

We continued on and came to a local market. It was a tall boxy building and four entrances, one on each side. Inside was dim with narrow, twisting passageways crammed with stalls. A lot of local produce was sold there, including chocolate in its raw form. I lost my bearings when we exited the building and we had to ask one of the policemen nearby for directions back to the hotel.

Dinner was at one of the hotel’s restaurant called 1822. It was a French restaurant with a Mexican decor. We were the only customers there that night. We were served bread with butter and chicken liver pate. The chicken liver pate was very nice and we ignored the butter.

I had mixed grill which consist of beef, pork ribs and chicken. I think Ecuadorians really knew how to grill meats as the beef and ribs were tasty. The chicken was not bad too but who bothers with chicken when there is steak? For those who wanted to know, yes, I ate all my veggies.