Galapagos and Us

Our ship, the Galapagos Legend, had 84 passengers, close to its maximum of 90. It certainly was more comfortable and pleasant than the one we travelled on in our visit to the Greek Isles in 1997. Our room was very comfortable and quite spacious. The passengers were organised into groups for our guided visits to he islands which were would visit. Our group was the Dolphins.

On the afternoon of the first day, we travelled in a Zodiac (an inflatable dinghy) to North Seymour Island where we viewed some of the wild life in their natural conditions. It was truly amazing. So different from the Amazon where the lush vegetation and flowing creeks had been beautiful but where the wildlife, although plentiful, was small and quite difficult to find. On North Seymour, there was little vegetation except the leafless trees (as it was the dry season) and prickly cactus so we were struck by the desolate arid appearance of nature’s canvas. But this scarcity of vegetation, coupled with the fact that man has not been a foe of the animals on the island meant that there were able to be seen at close range everywhere. Sea Lions (different from seals in that they have small front feet instead of flippers, and also ears) were fighting, suckling their young or just basking in the sun right at our feet. We saw at close hand sea iguanas (black) and land iguanas (with golden heads and shoulders) and frigate birds, whose males had enormous red bags under their chins which they puffed up in order to demonstrate their masculinity to potential mates.

I must have been very engrossed in watching the mating rituals of theses birds as I stood for a long time watching and listening to the guides comments. When we moved on, so did I but when we returned to the beach, not going on, as I had expected, to see the blue footed boobies, I began to notice a change in the group. Jack seemed to be missing, and on further glance I couldn’t see Tony or Chris or Daryl or Lorraine either. I must have looked a bit perplexed because one the group asked me if I had lost someone. “I am not sure” I replied, “I am a Dolphin, are you?” Well they weren’t: they were Frigates, but they very kindly took me under their wing (no pun intended) until the Dolphins reappeared in the distance. This minor incident did not increase my standing in the group, although on our excursion the following day, I noticed an increased solicitude as to my whereabouts.

That night at diner, as we took a turn around the deck, we saw a shark, a pelican, a tortoise and sundry seals cavorting around us.

On the following day, we landed at Santa Cruz Island where we saw me iguanas, a flamingo (rare on the Galapagos), and wild goats, which are, like rats, cats and dogs, an introduced species and a scourge on the native life. In the afternoon after a long voyage, we donned snorkels and flippers on Floriana Island for our first venture into the 20 degree water. This was a great experience although we looked less than glamorous in our black swimming and flippers. We swam with a turtle and saw a lot of multicoloured fish. Xavier, our guide, assured us that the snorkelling scheduled for the last day was to be even better.

Wednesday saw us bound for Espanola Island where we saw at close hand many sea lions who were protecting their young and asserting themselves. They were in such profusion that they blocked our path on several occasions and we couldn’t keep to the rule of maintaining a distance of 7 feet. Adult females protecting their young g and males asserting their dominance present a formidable obstacle.

After being separated from the group of Day 1, I had my first opportunity to see blue footed boobies, nesting on eggs by the side of the path, sleeping and performing mating rituals right before our eyes. AS well another variety of water iguanas (red and black) covered the rocks in some places, soaking up the sun in order to get moving. They are exothermic, meaning their body temperature varies with the environment. We also saw a huge albatross flying above and a baby one sitting on the ground.

This island gave us the most interesting experience so far: it was truly stunning to walk amongst these animals and to see their total disregard of us.

In the afternoon, we set off for San Cristobal Island, one of the three which are inhabited. This trip combined more walking and … some shopping. We visited a centre which was working on protecting the giant Galapagos turtles and saw babies and some of the big ones which can grow to an age of 200 years. One type of turtle is called the saddle turtle and this gives the islands their name because Galapagos apparently means saddle in Spanish.

On the morning of the final day, Jack, Daryl, Sharon and I joined the second snorkelling expedition, although the others felt the time frame made it a bit difficult. This time it was deep water snorkelling and a much better experience than the first time although we saw only many varieties of fish. I had not realised what a magical world it is under the ocean.

The rest of the day was spent flying to Quito and then on to Peru’s capital, Lima. It was only enlivened by the pack of cards I produced for our big school of Rickety Kate at Quito airport in the coffee shop.

Galapagos Wild Life 1

Crabs, Water iguana + foot, blue footed booby, albatross chick,turtle

Galapagos Wild Life 2

Sea iguana, mother seal and baby, land iguana, male frigate bird, flamingos

Quito

We arrived in Quito after a long trip from Madrid made considerably more comfortable by an upgrade to Business Class. The amount of attention lavished on travellers in this class is ridiculous. Still I am not complaining…

In Quito, which is very high in the mountains, altitude sickness is always a possibility and I did experience some shortness of breath. However on the following day we linked up with Tony and Chris who had flown in from Australia to join us for the organised tour part of our travels. We spent a quiet day looking around Quito and taking a cable car up to the top of a mountain. Unfortunately the three volcano tops visible from here were masked in cloud so we descended and had lunch in the centre of town.

However the next day we rose early and assembled in the lobby for our transfer to the Amazon. at 9.45. We left a little early with a guide who confirmed our name with Jack. When we arrived at the airport, he discovered that we were not the group he was seeking and in a great panic he set off again for the hotel to find his own group. It was good luck for us that he had been going to the airport and not somewhere else.

Off to the Amazon

The trip to Sacha lodge involved a half hour flight, a short trip in a very archaic bus, and almost three hours first in a motorised canoe on the Napo River, a tributary of the Amazon (up to three kilometres wide at some spots), a walk through the jungle and then a dugout canoe. This is the only means of access although now they have a helicopter. When we arrived, we settled in to our rooms, then met our naturalist guide for the stay, Diego, were issued with our gumboots and waterproof ponchos and, after dinner, set out on our first exploratory hike with Diego and Edison, our native guide.


Most of the employees at the lodge are local people who speak their own language and Spanish. The lodge aims to raise awareness of the local bio ecology and provides a lot of economic support to the local communities. The facilities are comfortable without being luxurious: we had a cabin with its own bathroom (no toilet paper to be thrown into the loo!) and the central meeting place of the lodge was a two story building where we ate and socialised. Jungle surrounded us.

Our first trek into the jungle set the tone for those to come. Clad in boots, long pants and a shirt and covered in high power insect repellent, we marched single file behind Edison and Diego who had the torch. They scanned the bushes for any signs of wildlife and upon finding any, Diego would point them out with uncontrolled glee. We were slightly overwhelmed by his enthusiasm. “Look” he would whisper triumphantly, “a horn-billed, red throated, woodpecker. Beautiful. I haven’t seen one of those for months! Wonderful! One of the most intelligent birds in the forest. Yes!” (I take licence with the terminology as the actual varieties we saw have all blended into one.} And he would flash his big happy smile at us. But that first night we saw no birds, only a selection of insects which barely rivalled the ones at home: snails, frogs, crickets, grasshoppers and millipedes

However I must admit my etymological sensibilities were heightened in one way. While we were standing watching a bug of some sort, I became aware of a strange uncomfortable feeling on my upper legs. As this developed, I started to complain and then found a colony of ants had found their way up my legs (I had not tucked my pants into my socks or boots). They climbed right up to my chest and arms, lodging in whatever folds they could find and biting the whole time. Diego suggested taking off my trousers and boots and shaking them off, but as this would have meant standing barefoot in the mud, naked from the waist down, I declined, opting rather for a combination of sticking my hand into my shirt and pulling the offending insects out and slapping vigorously on the less accessible regions. I must have pulled out at least 20 and annihilated by slapping another 40. Not a comfortable experience and one which diminished somewhat my appreciation of the millipedes, bugs, fungi and so forth that we encountered.



On the following days, we rose early each day at about 5 in order to maximise the chances of seeing wildlife and embarked on another trek either at 4 pm or, after dinner, at 8.30. We went on a magical early morning canoe ride down Orchid Creek to the huge tower constructed around an ancient Kapok tree, from where we spent a very long time looking at birds through the telescope that out guides carried for us. Diego’s enthusiasm continued unabated. Another canoe trip, equally lovely down Anaconda Creek almost gave us the chance to see an anaconda in the flesh. Jack was sitting at the front of our canoe, testing Diego on his knowledge of classification of the species, while at the back poor Edison managed to spy an Anaconda below the surface. He was hissing, “Diego, anaconda” and desperately trying to paddle the boat back wards while Diego, distracted by Jack was blithely paddling forward. Ultimately both guides saw the very long snake and we saw the bubbles. But hey, nothing is predictable in the jungle. Our failure with the anaconda was compensated for a little by our visit to a gigantic nest of leaf cutter ants that climb high up a tree to cut off bits of leaf and bring them back to the enormous nest. Quite an amazing sight.

Another trek involved a canopy walk very high above the trees on a swinging narrow bridge (not for those with a fear of heights) and on our last day we went to see a parrot lick. This a clay wall to which parrots come everyday from up to 20 miles away to lick the special clay which purifies their systems of the toxins that build up from the plants they eat. We had to sit in a hide for quite some time before they came down but it was very interesting to see them mass on the clay to perform this task. And on the return journey, we went to a small lodge where the local Sharman, exorcised the evil from Chris who was deemed the most in need cleansing.

On our last night we went out on the lake in front of the lodge in a dugout canoe and were able to see close-up (almost within touching distance) the huge caiman which is one of many alligators living in the lake. I was a bit relieved I had not availed myself of the chance to swim there although I gather they don’t attack at day time and mostly eat fish.

I think Diego despaired of us after a while. He took our non-stop ribbing very well and after a day or so managed to join in. We didn’t always approach the jungle and its inhabitants with the deference he hoped for but he stayed in good spirits and even encouraged the singing (in theme of course) as we returned from each excursion. We managed to think of songs related to birds, to the river, to monkeys, to walking, and we belted them out cheerfully on every excursion. In short we had a bloody good time.

Jungle Scenes

Madrid

In Madrid again we had good accommodation for 3 nights in the centre of the city – a small room but clean and very well located. We’d bought a guide to Madrid (although I’d forgotten my Spanish phrasebook), and used it to develop an itinerary. On the first day we walked a long way, taking in the Thyssen-Bornemisza private art gallery which has a wonderful collection amassed by the T-B family over the 20th century. Miss Spain married rather wisely into this family and she then began her own collection. The family sold the collection to the State for a mere song - $350 million dollars – not enough to bail out any financial system. It’s a great collection spanning the entire art world from 1400 onwards – very eclectic. Jack devotedly perused every art work especially the early ones in the collection. I tried to forge ahead to the impressionists and post impressionists. By the time we left I was all art-museumed out.

However we took a break in the huge Parque del Retiro in the middle of Madrid, admiring the beautiful Crystal Palace (which made me think of Oscar and Lucinda and Oscar’s mad enterprise), and munching on a baguette in one of the cafes. Then another culture fix (but less extensive) in the Prado. This time we identified the most important works and rapidly trotted through the museum gazing at them in real tourist style. Two art galleries in one day is a bit much I think but they were in the same part of Madrid.

The next day we took the walking guide to the west though some lovely old parts of Madrid and then to the rather splendid Palaccio Real. We took the tour which was very interesting – it’s a state building used for official events – the king lives elsewhere. The armoury shows the very heavy protective armour worn by Spanish knights. I don’t know how those poor horses carried the weight. Jack was very keen to find El Cid’s sword which turned out to be quite small (although authentic). Things went a bit awry after that. We took a lot of wrong turns and saw a lot of nothing, arriving finally at 3.30 at the Museo Cerralbo which sadly closed at 3 pm.

Tired but hungry we shared a pizza near our hotel., the Petit Palace Londres (sic) which was near the Puerta del Sol with lots of great restaurants and tapas bars that filled up after 9 pm . The food was average but the atmosphere and the architecture was great. We couldn’t subscribe to the Spanish custom of having a very large lunch (because then we’d have to have wine and then we’d be too sleepy to keep up our frenetic devotion to see the sights) and then drinking the night away eating tapas to sustain us (because how would we get up the next morning?) However the locals obviously didn’t take our concerns to heart because, on the morning of of our departure , a strident chorous of happy folk singing Volare (Yes I know it’s an Italian song) woke me at 4 am..

In the restaurants where we had our evening meals, the atmosphere was great and we tried our pathetic Spanish (based on Jack’s three month course in Madrid about 30 years ago, and my dodgy Italian). We resolved to buy another Spanish book before we left for South America.

Saturday morning saw us on Madrid’s very large and cheap Metro en route for the airport. Having been awake since 4 am, I was looking forward to a big sleep on the plane. You can imagine how happy we were to be upgraded to Business Class for the 11 hour flight to Quito.

Bar and Restaurants in Madrid

A day in London

We had two nights and 1 day to spare after arriving in London from Croatia. We were staying at a hotel in London near St Mary’s hospital and Paddington Station (in well known Sussex gardens) We spent the day in a Laundromat (morning) and the afternoon at the British museum checking out the Elgin marbles (not the big round testicular objects I had always imagined). I think I got this idea from the tour guides in Athens years ago who were very resentful of Lord Elgin’s pillaging.

In the evening we went to see the The Lion King. We had good seats and were able to appreciate the wonderful staging and costuming and the energy of the performance. Nevertheless I don’t think it was my cup of tea. Not much of a story line and no memorable music. Still I know most people enjoy it very much and it is very successful so my opinion doesn’t count for much.

Thursday morning saw us on the move again on the Heathrow Express on our way to Madrid.

Leaving the EEC: Dubrovnik

Dubrovnik 2008

Dubrovnik is at first glance quite breathtaking. Despite the ravages of the 1991-5 war and the earlier onslaught of the 1667 earthquake, it has been preserved with an integrity that is not expected in this modern world. Its marble paved streets, the consistency of its medieval architecture with both Gothic and Renaissance elements prevailing make it special. As well commercial activities are contained within the walls of the buildings so that what is most noticeable are the buildings themselves, not the fact that it is a hairdresser’s, a butcher’s etc. How successful this is from the point of view of the marketer I am not sure, but for the visitor, it makes a pleasant change from most European towns of character which often bear more resemblance to a market place than to their historical origins. As Croatia’s tourist industry grows, I hope that it is not subsumed under the blanket of commercial promotion.

Since the war, apparently, it has aimed at high market tourism – it certainly isn’t cheap for the tourist and if the locals live there on an average salary of 500-700 euros per month, their lifestyles must be fairly simple. We stayed in 2 hotels, both in the La Pad area of Dubrovnik; there are lots of hotels and restaurants there and the beach, and astoundingly blue and clean water made it a great place for walks to balance the food (mainly seafood) we ate in restaurants.

We went into Dubrovnik three times, either walking or by taxi (although the bus was a cheap option too) and on three tours. In the country to the south (Montenegro), we visited its two walled cities of Budva (very crowded because Madonna had been performing there the night before) and Kotor. We also took a boat trip to three of the islands in the Elaphite archipelago, Sipan, Kolocep and Lopud and another bus/ferry combination to Korcula another walled town. So we got to see the scenery of the region and by the end of the trip, the beautiful preserved old towns, were becoming the norm. But we met some nice people on the trips and that sometimes had a greater influence on whether we enjoyed the day or the places themselves.

When you travel with a guided tour, it seems to me that you lose the spirit of independent travel and discovery. Forging links (albeit temporary ones) with the people you meet is an alternative benefit Tours are certainly efficient ways to see unknown parts of the world and language difficulties are minimised. But the excitement of overcoming barriers, language or otherwise, abates.

I guess it depends on individual preferences.

On to London, Madrid and then the grand tour to end all grand tours. Watch this space.

Dubrovnik