The Galapagos Islands - Santa Fe and Garrapatero Beach

We were picked up at 8am and dropped off at the port in Puerto Ayora. David was waiting for us. After a short wait, we hopped onto Queen Karen (kaa-ren) to begin the best journey of our entire itinerary.

The Boat Ride:

Santa Fe is an hour from Santa Cruz. On a clear day, you can actually see it right across. The day was not clear. It was cloudy, and windy. The waters – very very choppy. It was good for the first 15 mins. And after that , it was the kind of ride that would have had my mom chanting The Hanuman Chalisa. I don’t think my hands were free at any point. It actually hurt a bit since I was gripping my seat really hard. The swells were so strong that I thought the boat would just be gulped. Manisha was sitting right across from me and I could see swells rising to a few meters over her head. Moments later, they would pass right under. I suppose theres a reason why they say you’d rather be in the water during a tsunami. There were times when the boat would be on a crest and the Captain would have to switch the engine off to prevent a brief take-off. Some on the boat got sea sick and some kept saying “awesome”. I was very quiet. Just being. In retrospect, it was fun. I would do it again. I have incredible faith in the nice foam-like life jackets – not the one that I have to blow air into. I’ve seen balloons burst.

Santa Fe:

For a long time I kept hearing “we’re almost there”. When we actually did get there, we started sailing along a steep ridge and David started rattling off something about rocks, birds and sea lions. After a 30 second recovery , we re-focused our eyes and Voila! - We saw rocks, birds and sea lions.



Fish in the water:
The water around the rocks was extremely clear. With the sun just beginning to appear ( our good luck!) it was glistening. We found pelicans in the water and some yellow patches floating on the surface. I thought they were petals being carried by the current until david pointed out to the very same spot and said "yellow fish". i couldn't wait to snorkel!

The Swallow Tailed Gull:

Its most notable feature is it’s hooked bill. This is the only equatorial “gull” and is near-endemic to the Galapagos. It spends most of its time flying over open ocean, only to stop on rocky cliffs for mating or briefly resting. We were quite lucky we got to see one! From what I hear, it’s the only nocturnal sea bird.


Blue Footed Boobie:

This is by far the most interesting bird on the Galapagos Islands. For those of you wondering why it’s called that, The name “booby” comes from the Spanish term bobo, which means "Stupid". "Stupid", because the Blue-footed Booby is clumsy on the land. I find the name very fitting, not because it’s clumsy on land, but because of it’s eyes – especially when they are looking right at you! It has these giant eyeballs right in the middle of it’s white irises and they just don’t move. So it almost always wears this “really surprised” look. It’s as if the bird just doesn’t understand what you’re saying and is just gaping back at you.
Their Feet: The colour ranges from a pale turquoise to a deep aquamarine. Males and younger birds have lighter feet than females do.

The artistic side:They have this incredibly cute mating ritual ! It includes an especially elaborate and exaggerated foot raising routine. We weren’t lucky to catch that, so I’m sharing a video posted which i loved!

Click for Mating Dance

Frigate Bird:

I mentioned Frigate birds in my previous entry (journey to bartolome) – when we saw them soaring in the skies along with our boat. We saw one nesting on the rocks today. The shape of its beak was quite apparent.

Galapagos Dove:

It’s one of the most attractive birds I saw! It’s reddish brown in colour, with streak of black & white, red feet and bright blue eyes. It’s a smaller than a pigeon and larger than a sparrow. Their most staple food – cactus pulp! Here is an interesting nugget about it: The Galapagos Dove is endemic to the islands and is found in the more arid parts of the main islands. A process of evolution on Genovesa Island has softened the spines of cactus plants and thereby allowed the Galapagos dove access to pollinate the flowers. This has occurred due to the lack of bees that would normally perform this function.

Nazca Boobie:

This is one of the Blue-Footed Boobies cousins, but looks nothing like it. For starts, it looks a bit more intelligent and extremely clean! The white is so brilliant, Tide could consider requesting them to endorse. It's a nice feeling when you can get birds to look in your direction. We managed one such shot.


The Bay:

After observing all of these birds we continued sailing and right around the bend we saw what looked like a very welcoming bay. Brilliant blue, calm & super clear waters. What more could we ask for. On the rocks along the bay and the little beach right ahead we could see sea lions.

Sea Lions:
Watching sea lions was a treat. Unlike the giant and sloppy ones on Pier 39, these were small, active and very entertaining to watch. Here are some sea-lion-moments.
Peacefully existing with crabs, Scratching its nose, Cuddling, Yoga, Nursing  & Swimming right under our boat

Yes, one of them swam right under our boat and moments later we saw a giant ray! David chose this precise moment to say “This is where we disembark to snorkel” - #$%%!!!

We all jumped off hoping a sea lion wouldn’t collide with us and that we don’t land right on top of one of the rays.

And that’s when the magic began…..

It was the most spectacular snorkeling experience of my life. I am quite positive I cannot articulate it. Even if I did, it’s not the same thing. I do have a whole bunch of videos that I am yet to crop and upload ( Thanks David, for swimming right down to the ocean floor and along with some of these wonderful creatures and getting these videos for me – I will cherish them for the rest of my life!) Here are some of the highlights that I am hoping to illustrate with videos by the end of this week!

1. Swimming along with Rays – they are so beautiful to watch as they rise up. I think they look so beautiful because of the illusion of weightlessness and because they do it so slowly and gradually that you can soak it all in at your own pace.

2. Giant ray on the ocean floor ( buried in the sand) with a lot of fish swimming around it in circles

3. Marina Iguana Feeding – It’s amazing how these repulsive looking lizards can suddenly become the most graceful and nimble creatures in the water!

4. Scorpion Fish – I couldn’t even spot this properly while I snorkeled. I had to get back on the boat and watch the video to fully comprehend which part of the rock the camouflaged “scorpion fish” was

5. Giant school of sardines. I think there we millions – or perhaps billions. From a distance I thought it was a rock. When David swam right into the school to get a video shot of it, they would form a cavity – a kind of cone around him and just swim around in circles. To watch it from the top gave all of us a high!

Lunch
After what seemed like hours we were back on the boat and headed towards a beautiful lagoon surrounded by mangroves, where we had lunch. Rice with broccoli, carrots and a block of cheese.

Garrapatero Beach:
Right opposite the lagoon, a few minutes by boat was garrapatero beach. There are 3 reasons why this place was brilliant.
1. Interesting campsite : right under the mangroves, with a BBQ grill. It’s a great place to stay at night to be able to watch the green sea turtles lay eggs just meters away.
2. Flamingo Feeding Lagoon : The most brilliant pink I have seen. We saw 3 of them and it was quite a sight. Some of them had their heads in the water for a really long time! It was thrilling to get a shot of two of them criss-crossing and one with a reflection that made it look like a tripod.
3. The super gradual beach – fro non-swimmers like me, that’s a blessing.

We spend a substantial portion of the afternoon splashing around here.

On our way back home we drove past some caves that the waves crashed into.

One more highlight : seeing the National Geographic Islander on our way back. What a fun job the guys on that ship have!

It was the best day by far. On our way back, strolling down the main street in Puerto ayora, we caught up with Javier and couldn’t stop talking about how great the day was. Sigh!