Messing around in the Galapagos

The Galapagos are made up of many islands, but just four big ones.  Why did we choose to go to Isabela, the biggest of the islands?  We had read that on Isabela you can see everything here that you can see on the other islands.  Isabela has less people on it, about 1500 population. It is a quiet laid-back island with no city atmosphere, and has  the best anchorage apparently and the officials are supposedly a bit better to deal with.  Also we hope to avoid the ARC rally here..

     The anchorage is fairly peaceful, you don't have tour boats roaring through it constantly.  There are tour boats around but they are off to the side because of the nature of the anchorage, and you seldom get them through the anchorage, just the small boats come through  occasionally, depending on the tide height.  Isabela island is about 60 miles long and sits right on the Equator and our anchorage is at the South end of island or about 40 miles South of equator.

    The first thing we did here was explore the small town about a 15 minute walk from our dinghy dock.  The dinghy dock behind the large main dock often has sea lions on it, and on the way in if the tide is down you can see blue footed boobies and the occasional Penguin.  Also you may see a manta ray or a turtle as well on the way in.  The path from dinghy dock has lots of the black iguana's along it, some up to 3ft long.

    A couple days later we took a taxi for $10 up the coastal road to its end at the 'wall of tears' built by prisoners.   Here there is a short steep hike up to the top of a hill for a great view.  Then we walked the 7 km back to town, there was a number of short side excursions off the road you could take to different beaches and lagoons and see birds.  We also saw lots of large land tortoises along the way.  We were nice and tired when we got back, party because of the heat and mostly because our legs had again got out of shape after 11days at sea.  It is nice and cool near the water but inland it is very hot.

 

      A couple days later after we were feeling a bit fitter, we booked a hike up a volcano.  The hike costs $30 dollars each which includes the 45 min ride up and a tiny lunch.  It is a 16km round trip hike that takes you up along the slopes of the volcano to to some fantastic views of the huge crater and then the trail takes you along long lava tubes and caverns created by the molten lava.  The volcano area is often socked it and gets more rain, so our views were sporadic as the clouds came and went.  We had a bit of light rain off and on and it was fairly cool out.  We also saw some steam vents that are hot if you put your hands in them.  The included lunch was nothing much, recommend you bring some of your own food and water.  It was interesting talking to some of the land tourists on the hike, some from Equador, Italy, Austria and one Canadian girl. 

   Another day I replaced some of the rusty galvanized turnbuckles on our rigging. I had bought some replacements for $18.00 each just before we left Panama.

 

      Today we did the "tunnels" snorkelling trip for $70  each.  It is a 45 minute hi-speed boat ride up the coast to an area where the volcanic lava had flowed into the sea and there is many arches, tunnels  and channels that our boat  could work its way up.  Then the boat tied up to a rock and we walked around on the arches and rock.  We could see lots of large turtles and fish swimming in the channels.  All very impressive. Then we went to a couple of different snorkelling places. Some people who could dive down saw seahorses. Lunch again was a laugh, one apple and one tetra pack of juice was lunch. People were not too happy, we had brought some of our own food so were okay.  

    There is no apparent culture on island, it is just a tourist place.  Not much money spent on place, the roads are still mostly unpaved and dusty.   There is now 18 ARC boats here from the world rally.  They came in a few days ago and have plugged up the anchorage and overwhelmed the place, so much for our peace and quiet.  We thought they were just going to the other 2 islands which was one of the reasons we came here.

     One day we were rowing in to shore and there was some surf curling in the shallow waters of low tide.  We watched a sea lion body surfing.   He would swim around and surf the wave, then go around and out and do it again and again. I guess they like to have fun to.

      We rented a couple of nice bikes for $2.00 a hour and did the trip up to the weeping wall again for some scenic exercise.  Came back hot and sweaty. 

   We will probably stay here another 6 to 8 days, that is until near the end of February and then head off to the Marquesas 3000 miles away.

 

INFO

 

-JC organized a water delivery to the dock for the 3 yachts now here. We bought 25 gallons for $1.50 every 5 gallons. There is a huge tank on back of a pickup truck with a hose.

 

-There is some garbage cans near dinghy dock that we use. Mention this because I read on one of the sites you have to keep all your garbage on boat.

 

-You can also have diesel delivered to dock. JC said he could get it for $4

 a gallon.

 

-There is always a few sea lions on the dinghy dock, but we have never seen them get in the dinghies.  They do get on some of the small boats that never move. One yacht with a swim platform at stern would have a sea lion there occasionally.  The sea lions here are very small.  The sea lions we have back home are 3 times the size of the ones here.

    There are lots of fly's here during the day on the boat, but they don't bite and they disappear at night.  The small town surprisingly has no paved roads and occasionally you have a dust cloud around you when a truck goes by.  At least there is not a lot of traffic.  Not sure what they do with all $100 park fee they collect from every single tourist  who comes to the Galapagos, you see little sign of it being spent here. 

     After you stop thinking about how you have been robbed of $700 (twice as much as the next most expensive place in the world) for the right to stay for a meagre 20 days, you see that the island is a nice quiet pleasant place to stay. Though it's certainly not in the league of places like Reunion and Rodrigues islands or a number of other places we have visited.

 

-  The grocery stores have a lot more produce that we had been lead to believe, and it comes and goes.  The canned goods selection is very poor, a few canned veggies and few other things.  No baked beans!  Also all expensive.  Though occasionally you are surprised by some lower prices.  Where we sometimes do internet I get a juice for a $1.

 

 

Very dry in the lowlands. Lots of these Prickly Pear Cactus trees around.

There were a lot of sea turtles in the Los Tuneles area.

Snorkeling with a sea lion

The tourist shot.

We took a boat trip to Los Tuneles. First it was an exhilarating ride in through the surf zone and then we maneuvered amongst the lava rocks. Erosion has left many tunnels and arches.

Saw lots of these tortoises in the wild on one of our hikes. There is also a breeding center here where you can observe turtles of all ages.

Crabs here are very colourful. Too pretty to eat.

Marine iguanas are everywhere along the beaches and waterfront. Occasionally we even saw them swimming.

Favorite T-shirt slogan seems to be " I love boobies"

Penguin and booby share a rock.There is a penguin colony right here in the anchorage.

Old vent hole called Darwin's toilet seat by our guide. You could feel the heat when you put your hand inside.

We walked down into Volcan Chico amongst sinkholes.

We did a 16 km hike into the volcanos. The crater/smokehole of Sierra Negra is huge.

After a passage we are always hoping to find fresh veggies and fruit. We tagged along with some Swedish cruisers to Silvio's farm in the highlands. He walked us through his garden picking whatever we asked for. Great way to do your veggie shopping.

Sea lions are usually occupying the dinghy dock and some of the local boats. So far they have been polite to us visitors and stayed out of our dinghy.

We had company for a little while on the passage. This red-footed booby stayed just long enough to give itself a thorough cleaning..

Arriving in the Galapagos Islands - Isabela Island

   By 06:45am we had dropped our mooring line and were under way for the Galapagos islands about 1000 miles to the West.  Panama city slowly receded on the horizon as we sailed in a  light Northly breeze.   We decided to spent one night in the Las Perlas islands about 35 miles from Panama city.  The wind soon died and we ended up motoring for a few hours, but by lunch the wind was back and we had a good sail the rest of the way. 

   We anchored of the Isla Contadora and had a pleasant night.  Early the next morning, on Jan 31,  we were off and motored for awhile until the wind filled in.  We had to be careful not to burn all our fuel as we had a long way to go. This passage is known for it's light winds and some people use all their fuel getting in.  

    The wind slowly increased during the day and we were soon sailing at 5 knots.  We saw a humpback whale in the late afternoon a 1/4 mile of our stern.  As dark came the wind increased in strength and we soon had a reef in our main, so much for light winds.  The wind dropped down to 18 to 20 knots by morning.  For being so close to the equator it is very cold, we had to wear our wind breakers and pile jackets during the night.  The cold water of the Humboldt current is keeping the air cool

   We talked to Mojombo on the HF radio each morning and with Baraka who was still back in Panama.  For 3 days we had good sailing in brisk North winds. We passed Malpelo Island  70 miles to the east. This is a small rock owned by Columbia.  

      This afternoon saw lots of ships, must be crossing a shipping lane.  We had seen few ships up to now.  By midnight the wind had died and we started the engine and motored well into next day and then sailed at 2 to 3 knots. It went like this for another day, light wind sailing or motoring.  Also had a head wind for awhile.  We had a big squall come over us, no wind but rained for 4 or 5 hours.

   Our engine blower died and I took a half hour to replace it with a spare I had. Feb 5 we got some good sailing though we were hard on the wind to make our course  That was it for motoring, we got good wind pretty much the rest of the way. We could barely make our course, but each day it got easier as the wind got around to east a bit more.  Some times the wind got quite strong and we would put a reef in the main.  Last night had a booby bird sit on our bow pulpit all night.  We have a knot to knot and a half of current with us.

    With about 75 miles to go we realized that we were short by only a couple of hours to make it that night to our destination. So we had to slow the boat down  to get there the next day as this is not a good place to try going into at night.  We drifted by Isla Santa Fe for a look see to kill some time. Then wanted to cruise by Academy bay on Santa Cruz island for a look-see, but it was dark by the time we went by in the very light wind.

  Feb 10  we drifted in a 1.5 knot current and almost no wind all night and arrived at port Villamil on Isablea about 8:30 am. We followed the chart and then some marker buoys into the anchorage where there was three other yachts. and lots of tour boats.  11 days to the Galapagos, not too bad.  Anchorage on Isablea is almost 100 miles farther on than the anchorage on the first island of San Cristobal, so another day of sailing.

       We called up JC on the VHF and we met him on shore by the dinghy dock and he made arrangements for us.  A couple hours later 5 people plus him showed up at our boat to do the paper work and take a large amount of money of us. More than any other country in world.  The grand total when done is $680 for a boat our size.  

   The anchorage here is nice and scenic.  It is quiet and laid back here on the island.  Not many cars, and lots of people using bicycles. JC was good source of info to find everything, can call him on radio anytime for info.

   Our second day here we did a trip up to a local farm of several acres. With a truck load of cruisers (6people) it is $5 dollars each for the ride and you can walk through the farm and pick out the fresh from the ground vegetables you want. Very nice!  We got onions, tomatoes, pineapple, broccoli, cabbage though they were not very good right now.  Also several other veggies available.  

INFO

-Isla Contadora  anchored in 50ft at 08 37.22N   79 02.18W

-Note: leaving Panama we had got a zarpe from the port captain and she  gave us some forms to take to immigration.  We talked to immigration guy and he wanted copies of everything all over again including visa's which we did not have. To get Visa's is another 100 dollars each and a long day into town and back. We just wanted to leave the country, so since we had our zarpe, we decided to just leave. That we did, just left the next morning. There is no checking on anything here they just want money.  Another yacht we know wanted a fumigation certificate for the Galapagoes. So the officals gave him one for 100 dollars, they did not fumigate his boat or even come check it for bugs, they just want money. They charge for everything.  Our zarpe cost $40. 

- Our passage strategy  from Panama was to stay east of 80 degrees in the stronger North winds forecast and ride them down past Malpelo island. These winds we saw on the grib files every day before we left.  Then curve around and try to get South as far as possible for a better angle when we got to the south winds.   When we got to the South winds, we were hard on the wind to make our coarse to Galapagos. The only slow bit, where we motored, was after the North winds died and until we got to the Steady south winds. As we got closer to the Galapagos the South winds started to get a bit of east in them making it easier to lay a course.  Of course this could all be different for someone else, we just planned by what we saw on the gribs and they definitely underreport the wind speed.

       Note, we talked to a yacht that got in a week ahead of us but passed Malpelo island further East than we did, so closer to Columbian coast.  One night they said there was several boat around them and it looked like there were transferring drugs from boat to boat, no lights, but could see in the moon light.  And the next day a panga came up to them with masked people and looked suspicious, they checked the yacht out and were given some beer and they left.  

-Getting into final anchorage at port Vilamil is a bit tricky if poor visibility.  Here is our waypoints off our track. 

1. 00 58.63S   90 58.85W 

2. 00 58.057S   90 58.860W now near 1st green buoy

3. 00 58.033S   90 58.280W This should take you between Red and Green buoys

4. 00 57.928S   90 58.011W  Up to here water all over 35 feet deep, now gets shallow, 8 to 12 feet near low tide. Could anchor out near this Waypoint ok by big tour boats. But all the yachts went inside to the shallow area, (3 yachts here plus us) not a lot of room in here.

5. Anchored at 00 57.894S   90 57.724W in 9 feet near low tide.  Inner anchorage good for 6 or 7 boats  then you squeeze in.  12 ARC boats came in a 8 days later and cluttered things up making the place loosing the laid back feel.

 -  Call JC on VHF 67 and he will do all customs clearance and anything else you want. Has perfect english.  He charged us $200 dollars for agent fee (included in the $680 total fees)  We asked another yacht what he charged them before he came out and he charged them $200 dollars as well. And same grand total. A 42 foot yacht checked in here as well and paid less than $700.  Yacht on San Cristobal seem to be paying $1000.   The fee lists are all different too, like they just make it up.  Don't bother getting a fumigation certificate in Panama, waste of money.

-The anchorage here is a bit rolly at times from swell that sneaks in. But not too bad. The dinghy dock is just behind the larger dock with local boats tied to it.

-There is a number of small grocery stores with a bit of produce and limited canned goods and usual junk food.  Fresh veggies available at farm, (see writeup above)  later we notice that if you visit stores every day, things come and go, We got 2 nice cabbages one day and lots of carrots and onions in store.  Usually lots of apples.