Galapagos:
We had no real interest in Galapagos other than a short stopover, hopefully a surf and then stock up before we take on the massive 3200 mile Marquesas leg. So please take my comments below with a pinch of salt. A 6 pack of beer will be even better.
Undoubtedly the highlight was approaching Isla San Cristobal after 6 days at sea, cruising past the impressive Leon Dormido rocks which look like those rock gates in that fable of Jason the Argonaut... is it the gates of Hades? Two massive stone monoliths standing a few meters apart in the middle of the ocean. Then we caught that lovely Wahoo, followed by a sunset surf right next to our anchorage. It was a great ending to a tough crossing.
We spent 9 days in Wreck Bay which is on the south western tip of Isla San Cristobal. The town is about the size of Gansbaai, it has a naval base, an airstrip big enough for a small boeing, a few small hotels, few restaurants etc. There is no harbour, but there should be one as there is big number of small cruise ships, luxury type charter boats, sail boats, small powerboats etc operating out of the bay. To overcome the fact that there is no big dock (only a dingy dock), they use little speed boat taxis, long hoses for fuel carted to a seawall by small pick up trucks and so forth. Whilst we were there 3 or 4 medium size cargo ships came and went, off loading their cargo onto small barges from where it goes to a small jetty. What a mission! A diesel tanker ship also arrived, they backed this huge ship stern to the town, then used a loooooong hose to pump diesel into a few waiting tanker trucks. From there the trucks take it up to a fuel station up on the hill. All i can say is: BUILD A HARBOUR FOR FUCKS SAKE. The Ecuadorian navy also has two ships which they anchor in the bay.
We went on a day tour of the island, there is not much to see. If you grew up in some slum somewhere or spent too much time in an old age home you may find it breathtakingly beautiful. It looks like our west coast after a fire. Basically lots of fuckall, plenty black rocks and light green weeds. Our guide took his job seriously, pointing out the cemetery, power station, police barracks, avocado trees, guava trees and a whole host of other alien nonsense. Most of the vegetation on the islands is introduced. Also goats and other vermin. Like i say plenty of the plants looked exactly like weeds to me. There are interesting stories of all sorts of weird settlers like a group of German delinquents who had a go at a Survivor Galapagos in the 1930's. The islands are not what they were when Russel Crowe sailed here in Master and Commander. Since then the seals were clubbed to death, most of the tortoises eaten and farming commenced with mixed results. The local fishermen have also waged all sorts of 'wars' to protect their 'right to fish'. Everybody who came here basically fucked the place up like humans usually do. Until recently the Ecuadorians thought it would make a great holiday spot for their prison population. So by the time the penny dropped that they should maybe conserve the place it was basically too late.
During our tour we saw a couple of jaded tortoises shuffling around, apart from their long dildo heads they look just their teenage mutant ninja brothers. I was expecting them to rear up on their back legs at any moment, yanking out a samurai sword from somewhere and lobbing off a few white (witkop) tourist heads. But they just ignored us very slowly.
Alas, these days the Galapagos islands is a life support system for scuba wankers and geriatrics who flock to this government controlled sausage machine for 10 day mini cruise ship milk runs. This is what a holiday would have been like in the days of Mao and Stalin. But everyone looked like they were having a great time. Not long after the boeing lands the zodiacs start ferrying life-jacketed tourists packed like sardines to their cruise ships. Goretex, sun hats with side flaps, sunglasses like re-entry shields. Cameras flash. We wave.
San Cristobal is clearly just a jump off point for checking out all the other amazing islands. Cruisers like us cant go to the other islands unless you pay $100/person/day plus $100 for a guide/day plus plus. They obviously want you to join the sausage machine party. Fair enough, but not for us. Scuba is a big thing here, Andy says that the scuba dudes are the okes who get the chicks in the bars here. He pretended to be Andres Cousteau for a while but in the end he gave up.
We also got nailed by the corrupt local officials who screwed us when we bought fuel. They force you to buy it at a gringo cruiser rate which is 4 times more than what the locals pay. But that's a long story. Another crazy thing which started off as fun and 'interesting' was the sea lions which come sleep on the dingy and transom steps of shimmi at night. First of all they make an ungodly noise fighting and shagging, it sounds like an Eskimo whore house on pay day. Then on the second night i left the dingy in the water, the next morning it contained a big pile of sea lion kuk (shit). It smells like dog shit when the dog ate rotten fish. A very big dog. Not good. After that we declared war. Another bad incident happened when Chantal and I and the kids were ashore. Andy was paddling back to shimmi after a surf when he saw two local teenagers circle shimmi in a plastic canoe. They then peered into the port holes and then one of them boarded shimmi and went inside. We had left shimmi open. Thank fuck Andy was close, he started shouting, then the guy in the canoe started shouting at his mate, then they both started paddling away furiously. Andy eventually chased them down with the dingy. They had not taken anything. He let them go, they seemed younger than 13! If Andy was not around I shudder to think what they would have taken. Plenty cash etc.
One good thing was the surf. Most of the surf in the Galapagos is in and around Wreck Bay, we had a good sampling of a right hand point called Carola which was paddling distance form our anchorage as well as a heavy ledging left/right A-frame bomb wave called Loberia which we scored 2-3 times overhead. Very similar to 365 near the Factory. There are more lefts and rights in the area, Wreck Bay has a local crew of surfers, a small surf shop and a steady steam of foreign surfers coming through. Some of them take the short 'swell chase' flight over from Ecuador mainland when there is swell, especially a south swell which misses most of the north facing spots on Ecuador. Also around were some Brazilian surfer girls which Andy said where pleasant on the eye. The best way to surf around the island is to charter one of the scuba diving speedboats. All the captains know where all the waves are. There are no secret spots, but it hardly gets crowded.
The thing about the Galapagos wildlife is that one should not expect anything mind blowing from a visual perspective. Darwin's finches, day hunting owls, marine iguanas, giant tortoises, a few funky sharks, big schools of mantas... they can never hold a candle to even just the most low budget game drive in Africa. The Galapagos appeals more to the learned scholar. The evolutionary implications and the unique species will make his trip worthwhile. But for the rest of us plebs it is rather on the dull side. But bear in mind how uneducated my criticism actually is. On shimmi we make no bones about the fact that WE WANT TO SURF, DRINK BEER AND KILL-BARBECUE FISH. I have a natural inherent dislike for marine reserves. It just makes me wanna reach for my dynamite.
Soon to come: my analyses of the Marquesas. Don't hold your breath.
