Getting going
We had to be at the travel agent at 0900 for our pickup for the cruise. We woke at 0700 and after packing and some muesli we got there by foot. We realised on the way there that the white pickup trucks around town were taxis! All this time we thought they belonged to NGOs or government conservation agencies, because of the official-looking logos!
Carlos the travel agent wasn’t his usual cheerful self. I guess he got his money already but perhaps he just had a late night. He said masks, fins and wetsuits weren’t included but available for hire. I reminded him that it was only wetsuits that weren’t included. We got the entire set from them, with only the wetsuits charged at USD5pp per day, making it USD25pp. As it turned out, the masks and fins were included on the boat later and they charge the same for the wetsuits. I guess Carlos made money on this by renting them to us, rather than having us get them on the boat. But he did have the inconvenience and risk of recovering them since we finish in a different port.
Our pickup truck taxi arrived at 0900 to take us to the boat, so we thought. Carlos told us at the last minute that we had to go to the airport to wait for the guide. That meant at the end of the taxi ride, we’d have to catch the ferry and then the bus to the airport to await the guide. No doubt, the guide would be waiting for other passengers arriving at different times.
As we crossed the central “highlands”, there was a drizzle but our luggage wasn’t wet when we arrived at the channel. I had already expected another surprise while thinking along the way. Sure enough, the driver asked for his payment of USD25 for the ride which was not included. We weren’t too upset as the bus would have cost a total of USD10 at USD5pp and it would have been less convenient and probably earlier.
There was a mad rush for the boat across the channel and then a queue for the short bus ride to the airport. We arrived there at 1020 and trouble locating the guide for our boat Millennium. We chatted with a French girl who had booked a last minute sailing cruise with her Aussie boyfriend who is prone to seasickness. She had been waiting there an hour before us. We realised later that they were on the tiniest possible sailing boat. Ooops!
After about an hour chatting and waiting, we found our guide Javier Picaza, originally from Madrid. It was another hour before we left the airport with an Israeli pair of mother and daughter. Leaving the airport wasn’t easy as we were reliant on the airline buses to take a detour to the cruise boat pier as opposed to the place where passengers transfer to Santa Cruz.
Onboard finally
Around 1330 we were finally taken to the Millennium by dinghy and were immediately welcomed and served lunch by our Cuban barman/waiter, Giovanni.
It didn’t take long for me to feel queasy and Kim wasn’t the best either. We tried to make ourselves better on the rooftop with the fresh air as we cruised to nearby Seymour Norte. As we headed out on a snorkelling trip by dinghy, I immediately felt better off the boat.
Snorkelling
The snorkel trip was good with a good variety of fish eg. moray, trumpet fish, trigger fish and the typical small reef fishes.
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- Snorkelling off Seymour Norte.
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- Snorkelling off Seymour Norte.
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- Snorkelling off Seymour Norte.
Back on board, it didn’t take long for me to feel queasy again. I threw up over the front of the boat; no fishes came up to take up my offering so the marine life can’t be that great! I did have an immediate sense of relief though.
Bird-watching hike
Around 1630 we dinghyed to Seymour Norte for a nature hike. There was a good show of bluefooted boobies, frigate birds (white chested female and red balloon chested males) and land iguanas. We learnt a lot from the guide, eg:
- frigate birds do not have much water-proofing on their feathers and can’t spend much time in the water.
- frigate birds can turn off half their brain to rest during long flights
- the blue colour feet of the bluefooted boobies comes from good nutrition when eating a lot of sardines.
- sea lions have larger flippers which they use to “walk” while seals have smaller flippers which aren’t usable for “walking”. Hence, sea lions can clap while seals can’t.
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- Pelican.
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- Our boat, the Millennium.
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- Sea lions.
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- Seymour Norte.
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- Frigate birds (female).
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- Frigate bird (juvenile).
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- Blue-footed booby.
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- Frigate birds.
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- Frigate bird (female).
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- Blue-footed booby (juvenile).
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- Blue-footed booby feeding the larger chick; the smaller one will probably die.
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- Blue-footed booby regurgitating to the larger chick; the smaller one will probably die.
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- Land iguana.
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- Female and male frigate birds (white and red balloon chest respectively).
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- Frigate birds.
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- Iguana carcass.
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- Pelican at sunset.
Back on board around sunset, we moved back to where we had started. Javier gave us a briefing for the next day’s activities before we had dinner on the back deck (as opposed to the inside dining room). In the darkness, we could see the stars in the sky. With lighting pointing into the water, the small Galapagos sharks could be seen every now and then in the water.