San Cristobel, Galapagos

Our first port of call in the Galapagos was the island of San Cristobal.

As we put down our anchor, we were visited by a curious sea lion who came out to explore a new platform on which to sunbathe..the stern platform of the good ship Legend. Unfortunately for him, his personal hygiene, most notably his breath and poor toilet etiquette,  belied his charming demeanour  and we dispatched of him post haste.

"Requesting Permission to come aboard Skipper"

 Within minutes of his ignominious departure we  discovered that Wreck Bay is alive with sea lions. The town on the bay is home to 6 000 human inhabitants and 20 000 sea lions,  all competing for a comfortable spot in which to relax in-between fishing forays. The seals are winning.....

We were forced to herd them off our boat 24/7...the sea lions not the locals!

2 Star accommodation -despite the name.

The determined creatures have taken over the newly built sea front promenade and children's play area and  the  locals deter them from climbing onto their boats with barbed wire…so the white leather cushions in our  shady cockpit, sensibly accessed via a swim platform and a stainless steel ladder must have seemed like a 5 star retreat.

No room at the inn

Bigger and stronger locals fight back!

 Once our anchor was down and we had dealt with the seal lion reconnaissance parties, we were expected to wait on board for several hours before dealing with the most painful and complicated immigration procedures we have yet had to endure.

The militia of San Cristobal, men in big boots with guns, came aboard to 'welcome us to the Galapagos". They required 5 copies of every single document we possessed and charged us over $1000 for the pleasure of visiting their Archipelago for 2 weeks!

The Galapagos ecological balance is being carefully protected by these military fellows and the numerous photocopies of our documents seemed to prove their diligence. Somewhere on the islands however, there are massive warehouses filled with several rain forests worth of paper work..all being guarded by men in boots...or sea lions!

As a general rule, I would say that the officials in most of the countries that we have visited have obviously never met the PR people in these same countries. One group spends millions dreaming up posters and slogans to entice people to their destinations while the other group does their best to ruin the experience for the tourists once they get there with mindless bureaucracy and rude and unwelcoming officials.

In the Galapagos, the officials take the "treat 'em mean and keep 'em keen" philosophy to the extreme and once you have completed their strenuous formalities, yachts are free to anchor in very limited demarcated areas. From there you have to pay handsomely for tours on land or boat with official tour guides.

Finally ashore...hair awry after battling sea lions and officials.

Turn your back and they take over again!

Keeping an eye  the sea lions and officials for over a hundred years...nothing surprises him any more!

Al and I were however quite determined to make the most of the Galapagos on this trip. In 1987 we were given only 72 hours on the islands. We managed to stay for 5 days in the end but we were given enough of a taste of the unique wild life on the islands to encourage us to cough up for several tours on each of the islands

Small rays circling the boat in the evening..they feed on insects on the surface.

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The San Cristobal tours took us to volcano craters, giant tortoise sanctuaries and beaches covered with land and marine iguanas, marvellous birds and the ubiquitous sea lions. Our distaste for the officialdom began to fade as we began to appreciate the need for conservation of this environment and the sometimes extreme efforts of the authorities to protect their heritage.

Will refrain from beauty and the beast comments...know that someone out there will be rude!

Our favourite trip on San Cristobal took us drift snorkeling through a deep fissure between two volcanic outcrops alive with sharks turtles and eagle rays.

The sharks, harmless white tips and less  harmless Galapagos v
ersions of bull sharks were alarmingly curious and at any one time we were surrounded by 5 to10 sharks..some within a metre or two of our nervous fins.

An amazing experience but next time I might wear the pink floral swimsuit languishing in the aft cabin rather than the possibly more flattering but distinctly more seal like black Lycra number that seemed to attract more attention than I had in mind!

Al- happy to circle one of the harmless curious denizens of the deep.