Dos what?!?

Wednesday September 3rd, 2014.

Santa Cruz Island and South Plaza Island, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador

Its 7am and we are waking up for the first (of two) yacht tours of the Galapagos! We are super excited and only have about 30 minutes to get ready and go wait outside for a large tour bus to come pick us up. At this point, we are both realizing that we really have nothing to wear. We had put extensive thought into packing for the Inca Trail portion of this vacation and no thought, whatsoever, into this part. I end up wearing jean shorts and a fleece (over my swimsuit) and Laura ends up in a turquoise muumuu, which she drunk-bought the night before.

We are ready – let’s do this!

We only have to wait a few minutes outside of our hotel for a large bus to come pick us up. The bus is empty; we are first on the pickup route. We sit with our noses pressed against the window while we get an impromptu island tour of hotels-that-are-nicer-than-ours. Soon we arrive at the dock on the opposite side of the island (this is the dock that where the big boats come in… different than the bay dock, which is next to our hotel). As we wait for our yacht-for-the-day to arrive Laura and I purchase some pretty bad coffee from the snack shop on the dock. Soon the yacht arrives and we have to take a little boat to board it (the water is not deep enough for it to come all the way in). We board the little speed boat, clutch our coffees tightly, and we are off!

The crowd on the boat is very international and we all sit quietly, hypnotized by the waves for the 2 hour trip to South Plazas Island.     

When we finally arrive, we are treated to a quick island tour half in Spanish and half in English. The guide goes through the Spanish explanations first (which we try to translate) and the English explanations second (which completely discredit our translations). Early in a Spanish explanation of the marine iguanas, Laura catches the phrase “dos penes”. She tells me that she thinks that means two penises, but we are sure that she misheard. Later, during the English explanation, we discover that she did not, in fact, mistranslate. The marine iguanas have evolved two penises, thus allowing them procreate with greater consistency. We cannot stop giggling.  

South Plaza Island is known for its marine iguanas, land iguanas, and crazy flora. The whole island is covered with red plants (later I learned they are called sesuvium) with intermittent large green cacti. The water is a deep blue and the view is amazing.  After a short hike (and a million pictures), we head back to the boat for lunch.

Lunch is pretty good, it consists of fish and veggies (an omelet with veggies for Laura). We take a quick boat ride to a famous snorkeling / dive site where we will see all sorts of little fish and go on a hunt for sharks. The Galapagos is known for its shark population and mainly consists of hammerheads and reef sharks, but there are many other kinds as well. We are going to an area that is known for white tipped reef sharks. Don’t worry, they are nice, our guide assures us.  

Immediately I am amazed by the very large schools of brightly colored fish, which are basically everywhere. Snorkeling in the Galapagos is like floating through a National Geographic magazine. I am happy with all the weird fish, but our guide eventually pulls me over to a group of rocks where he is frantically pointing his flashlight. He watches me with great anticipation until I finally recognize that I am staring at a shark and then he explodes with joy. Our guide is sooo happy, its contagious. He quickly swims off to find more tourists.

Eventually we all board the yacht and begin the trip back to Santa Cruz. We get back around 6pm and load onto the bus to head into town. From here we shower, change clothes, and have a little time to spare before dinner. We spend the evening shopping, drinking, and generally appreciating the beautiful weather and views. Puerto Aroya is really cute and since all of the boat/tour people leave around 5pm, it’s like we have the whole town to ourselves. After dinner and a few rum-based cocktails we head back to the hotel for another full 8 hours of sleep.

Tomorrow is Yacht Day #2.