Anyway, the skipper hit the gas and off we went, pounding through the choppy seas. The naturalist guide assigned to our boat had better English than my guide from the day before, and he gave us the usual review of the rules and a brief itinerary for the day. After about 30 minutes of pounding along -- during which I read my book while many others turned various shades of green -- we arrived at Isla Lobos. For the next 30 minutes we drifted about 50 meters off shore, spotting blue footed boobies, iguana, sea lions, crabs, etc. Most of the group were considerate about sharing time in the open area, but there were -- as always -- a few who took the prime spots and never budged. Using my trusty Canon S2IS on full, 12x optical zoom -- and sometimes on higher power (lower quality) digital zoom -- I battled the effects of boat movement, distance and level of zoom to get some decent photos.
Not wanting what I had experienced so far to be the sum total of my Galapagos exploration, I took a tender into town and checked in with some private tour companies about options I might have for some more “independent” excursions. I’ll spare you the details and just say that logistics, length of time needed to go places and minimum passenger requirements pretty much shut me out. So, once again I visited with my sea lion friends on the town beach and headed back to the ship. On Saturday morning I thought about trying to round up some folks on the ship who might want to do something, but for the first time on The Voyage I wasn’t feeling too well. A scratchy throat and a stuffy nose -- clearly a result of being on a ship with hundreds of people -- convinced me to spend the day hanging out, napping, reading, etc.
On Sunday I felt better, but we only had a few hours before it would be time to set sail so I decided to bag the idea of arranging any more exploration and went into town, got online and did some iLife until it was time to leave the Galapagos. As you can no doubt tell, I was disappointed with my experience in the Islands. Had I especially selected this cruise with the Galapagos in mind, I would have been very dissatisfied -- as many folks on board who did just that were. By the way, I talked with a number of folks who were able to go on the “optional” (i.e. “good”) tours and the review was predominantly disappointing -- too much time in the boats, not enough time on location, too little information, too much hustle, etc. I don’t want to do any more ranting about the “Galapagos Gestalt” here in the Logbook -- though I may post a Musing or two -- so I will leave it all at that.
I have technically “been” to the Galapagos and I have learned a lot -- not so much about the islands or the wildlife, but about how I would “do” the islands another time. Namely, I would find a group of 6-10 people, charter a yacht or catamaran with an experienced captain/guide who has excellent English and good knowledge then do a week or so of island hopping. Other than that, I would consider a very, very small cruise ship that specializes in the Galapagos and check its itinerary carefully. Period. Just to bring you and the Logbook up to date, I will add that yesterday and today have been days at sea en route to a port call in northern Peru. I have spent much of the time struggling to write up these Logbook entries -- my first difficulties doing so on The Voyage -- and updating this website. I have also taken time to get my head straight after my Galapagos experience and am happy to report that I am back in the groove and ready for whatever is next on The Voyage of Macgellan!
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