Today is the start of our Galapagos Islands exploration! We woke up early due to the 2 hour time difference in the Galapagos. Here it is daylight for 12 hours a day since we are at the equator. The sun starts showing through around 5:40am each morning. Unfortunately, it is still rainy and foggy at Pikaia lodge.
We headed up to the lobby at 7am where coffee and cookies were provided prior to heading to the Yacht.
It would be a 30 minute drive back to the boat docks. Once we arrived, we hopped on the tender and made our way out to sea where the Yacht, the Pikaia I, was anchored waiting for us.
Once on the boat, we were shown to state room 7 where we could drop our stuff off before heading down to breakfast. We were not really sure what to expect having breakfast on a Yacht, but it turned out amazing.
As we had breakfast, the Yacht cruised to our first island destination, South Plaza. We were told we could expect to see Sea Lions and Iguanas here. As the Yacht cruised to the Island, numerous Frigate birds glided along with us.
The Yacht dropped anchor and we hopped aboard the tender once again to head into land. This would be a “dry” landing. This means the tender could pull up against rock formations that acted as steps and a walk way. Five minutes on the tender and we were then standing on South Plaza Island.
We immediately saw Sea Lions on the rocks along with a bunch of crabs. There was even a new born Sea Lion pup with mom exploring the rocks. We took some photos and moved further into the Island. Norman, the property manager had explained The Galapagos has strict rules for visitors. Pikaia Lodge has to get permits to visit each Island. These permits are time restrictive. For example, we would have 1.5 hours on South Plaza to explore. As we start our exploration, another group of people will be finishing theirs and leaving the Island. This structure ensures there is never any overcrowding at one particular place. We were very surprised how few people we saw throughout the trip.
We walked a couple hundred feet and heard a Swallow-tailed Gull making lots of noise.
All of a sudden a Sea Lion came climbing up the hill and right past me. I had to switch cameras to a wide angle since it got so close. Here are some great pictures of the encounter.
We walked around the edge of the island and learned that almost every Cactus tree has a land Iguana underneath it. Iguanas are territorial and tend to claim areas for themselves and protect their surrounding territory.
As we climbed up the hill, the colors of the local plants were vibrant reds and oranges.
We crested the hilltop and were staring at a shear cliff drop. On the edge sat some very brave Sea Lions getting some sun.
Dozens of Wedge-tailed Shearwater birds nest in the cliff side and we were constantly seeing them wizzing by us. Small fast birds are hard to get good pictures of, but I managed a couple of keepers.
And just like that, our time was up. We headed back to the Yacht for lunch and would begin our journey to Santa Fe Island, with the Frigates above us!
Lunch was ready for us when we returned. It consisted of Plantains and Cheese, White Fish, Pork, Quinoa, and mixed Vegetables. Our dessert was some form of a streusel cake and fruit. Everything was very well prepared.
Our next post will detail our arrival at Santa Fe and the Sea Lions. Spoiler Alert, we got to snorkel with them!
Adam Woods
