Galapagos Islands — Isla Floreana
Wednesday, April 7th – We are off for a tour of Isla Floreana today. Javier again meets us to take us to the boat (only 20 minutes late — not bad). The boat is about the size of a small fishing vessel. There’s about 15 of us loaded aboard. 12 are with one Ecuadorian family group, and judging by the condition and age of the eldest, this will not be a very energetic tour, though we are supposed to be hiking up in the highlands of Floreana. The 13th is a single gal of undetermined age and nationality who is totally engrossed in a book as the crowd jostles for seats around her. Then there’s us. The First Mate has this sinking feeling welling up, and The Captain is acting none too pleased. Oh, dear. Well, off we go for one of the most bone-jarring rides we have ever experienced. Two hours of just sitting there absorbing a pounding. Unable to read, unable to talk, unable to do anything but endure as this little boat slams into wave after wave.
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Finally, we arrive at the concrete docks of Isla Floreana where we unload and stretch. Stiff and hurting, she is not feeling any better than the eldest members of our group look.
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Unbothered by our presence, a large Galapagos Lizard, claiming his section of the dock, takes her mind of her aching back.
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A Galapagos Pelican keeps is gaze on us, but he, too, appears unperturbed by our unloading on the dock.
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Next, we’re loaded onto a bus that really looks like someone’s idea of a joke, but it’s for real and judging by the number of such busses we see going to and fro the highlands, this is how they get the tour groups up there.
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We disembark at the trail head and saunter into the woods. It is quite pretty and refreshingly cool. We see more tortoises, but, unlike the well-cared for ones at the Charles Darwin Center, these are covered with mud and look kind of sick. No, we do not want our pictures taken with them.
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On the passage to the Galapagos, The First Mate had read a book entitled “Floreana”, the story of the Wittmer family from Germany who arrived on the island in 1932. They first set up home in a pirate cave while they were constructing their home. A much anticipated highlight of the trip for The First Mate is seeing this cave. What a shocking surprise it turns out to be! Cave? It is more like a shallow indent in the side of a hill. How could they have ever kept themselves and their belongings dry in the frequent rains up here? Margret Wittmer arrived here 3 months pregnant. How did they and that baby ever survive?
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The First Mate has followed The Captain on many an adventure and not always all that willingly, but could she have done this? No, she couldn’t, but she knows that she need never worry because this cave is nothing The Captain would call an adventure either.
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The tour includes lunch — over-cooked fish or chicken, canned veggies and some kind of ice cream for dessert. Yes, they have beer. Two cold ones, please. We sit next to the gal of undetermined age and nationality. It turns out she is about our age and from Copenhagen. When she finds out that our next stop is the Marquesas, she mentions that we must stop by the grave of her great-great-grandfather on Hiva Oa. We have a delightful lunch talking with the great-great-granddaughter of Paul Gauguin! Her whole family had been invited to the island for the commemoration of his death several years earlier, and she had some very interesting stories to tell.
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After lunch, we are herded back to the docks. A harbor seal has made itself comfortable on a panga. It is amazing how they can pull their bulky bodies up onto boats, rocks or any structure that catches their imagination as a place to roost. However did this one get up and on this boat without tipping it? She would have loved to see that.
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We are loaded back onto our cursed tour boat and taken to a delightful spot where we snorkel with a group of playful seals. In the water, these guys are truly graceful and sleek. Fast, too, as one upends her by swimming neatly between her legs. Completely caught by surprise, she can almost hear that seal laughing at her. The Captain sure was!
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We then motor around Devil’s Crown to see a variety of boobies and penguins. We do see some small Galapagos Penguins in the distance, but the boobies appear to have flown.
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The driver apparently motored too close, for the next thing we know the boat is being “pulled over” by the Park police. Papers and permits are requested. There seems to be a problem. Papers are not in order. Now what? Are we going to be marooned out here? Adrift, alone, illegal cargo so to speak. A great amount of incomprehensible jargon, head shakes and hand waving goes back and forth until finally, almost an hour later, we are cleared to motor on. The pilot turns seaward, and 2 bone-jarring hours later, we disembark back in Academy Bay. She did enjoy her visit to Floreana, but there was so much more she wanted to see on that island that this tour did not include. Two tours done, and both have not been at the level she desired. She is really wondering about these tours!
Back on Avante, Jim is feeling somewhat better. He tells us that some people motored over from a cruise boat, and a guy named Tom hopped aboard with a note for us. Tom? Why sure, Tom and Janet Schmitt, friends from Telluride, are down here now on a 7-day tour. Tom has signed on to be our next Crew Mate for the passage to the Marquesas. Tom’s note gives us the name of their cruise boat. They had stopped by on their way to the Charles Darwin Center and should be back on their boat around 5:30.
We shower and get ready to head out to dinner, but Jim decides to stay on board with a can of tuna. Tomorrow, we are heading to Isabela for 3 days, and he wants to be fully recovered for that. Thinking it would not be a good idea to tell him about what the 2 1/2 hour trip across is going to be like, we fully agree he should be recovered. Item of note: Our laundry is delivered!
Ready for dinner, we hail a water taxi and have it swing by the Schmitts’ small cruise boat to see them. We are invited aboard. Hugs are passed around. It’s great to see them. We coordinate our schedules planning to meet for dinner Sunday night when we are all back in Academy Bay. Their tour will be over, and they have rented a house on the bay for the four days before Janet flies back to the States and Tom joins us on Avante. When their dinner bell rings, we head off to town and have a wonderfully delicious sushi dinner at the Red Mangrove Inn.