THE GALAPAGOS

It seems to me when one travels for a while they begin to develop their own “style of traveling.” Some people study a place intensely beforehand. When they arrive, they point things out, complete with dates, authors, architects, artists and/or periods, with the excitement of knowing what something is and seeing it for the first time. I respect this, even envy it for its’ practicality and discipline. But my personal style is to arrive a blank slate. I consciously choose to study as little about where I’m going as possible. True or not, I feel my experience is more genuine when I encounter something with fewer preconceptions. When I leave and I’m on a plane or bus, I then like to immerse myself in literature and fact finding to help supplement and understand what I saw. Perhaps this style developed because I have a vivid and overly optimistic imagination and I’m subconsciously protecting myself from disappointment. Or perhaps it’s that I’m a tangible learner and don’t retain what I can’t touch and feel. Or, maybe, I’m just lazy. Nevertheless, it’s what works for me. And, in the Galapagos, I think my style is especially rewarded. No book can prepare you for the experience. Granted, the Galapagos is one of those places on earth in which it’s impossible not to have a good deal of preconceptions. Our imaginations conjour things for which our eyes have no reference. And our imaginations are given much to chew on in grade school. But, without review and in-depth study beforehand, it is startling how desolate it is on Isla Baltra, where we landed our plane. Later I learned that this is what most of the early people who landed in the Galapagos thought of it. And I experienced a little piece of what they must’ve felt discovering the islands for the first time (sin the panic of being stranded there). And that was the first in a series of visceral responses that, when linked together in context, made this trip one of the most unique and impressionable of my life.

We arrived with little more than luggage, a week and a battle plan for obtaining a last minute cruise deal that we could barely afford. Armed with directions from our Lonely Planet Guide, we took a bus to the end of Baltra and marveled at the turquoise water as we hopped on board a ferry to Isla Santa Cruz. They scuttled us from plane to bus to ferry back to bus with the efficiency of a well-oiled machine. Our vista gradually changed as we traveled across Santa Cruz, a “middle aged” and populated island, to Puerto Ayora from the dry desolation of Baltra to lush, damp and strange forests. I spotted a huge turtle walking down some farmer’s driveway! We found our hostel, dropped our bags and quickly proceeded to the recommended travel agency hoping to find and book a tour that began the following day. There was one boat with room available and it started and ended exactly when we wanted and it was a first class boat but with a big discount and it was really all just more than PERFECT! Sipping on overpriced mojitos that night while awaiting what was to come, we hoped our eight day cruise on board the “Yolita II” was as good as it sounded. Because the very action of booking this trip meant we would need to cut our “big adventure” short by two weeks and cancel our upcoming Spanish classes in Peru and Argentina. Goodbye Japan, the South Pacific and possible fluency and hello to The Galapagos Islands! I’ll digress about “choices in life, their consequences and what that says about you, your parents, your pets and your hair” at a later date.

Once on board, we found our ship to be that of a dream. Instead of the stacked bunk beds under deck that we’d imagined, we had a large room on the 2nd floor of the ship with a great view, a king size bed and regular size bath, larger than most in New York. Meals were three course. And they welcomed us with snacks after every outing, hot chocolate and cookies after scuba. Washington, our guide, posted our schedule for the day the night before. And pretty soon our attention span and mental capacity regressed to those of Kindergarteners. It was great to be in Kindergarten again. We took Dramamine that first day and avoided the fate of another family that could be heard wretching throughout the first night.

Each day we met a new island with it’s own unique blend of wildlife and vegetation or lack thereof. We began on the relatively young Island of "Rabida" which was a deep red, rocky, scorched and inhabited mainly by sea lions.



We did our first snorkel that morning in the middle of the open ocean just off some large rocky formation jutting out of the sea. It was my first time to snorkel in the open ocean and I kept looking around for sharks and then for everyone else and then for sharks again. My instincts for self-preservation are strong and overwhelmed my instincts for reason. With the waves pounding me closer to the rocks, gasping for air as my lungs gripped up from the cold, I was truly scared. Little did I know by the end of the trip I’d be swimming so close to reef sharks that their fins would brush my stomache.

Below are pictures, videos and highlights of the other islands we visited and things we saw:

“Chinese Hat Island”
(young island that looks like wet, hard lava w/ penguins (!) and marine iguanas….you could watch the marine iguanas eating algae on the rocks under water…this was a favorite island of mine for snorkeling….Bobby has footage of a sea lion chasing off a reef shark....Our first “wet landing” found us face to face with a newborn sea lion pup. OMG. Even Bobby began using words like “cute” and “monkey” and “cutelilmonkey” It was so cute that I was able to overlook the intense lingering odor I learned to expect near sea lion colonies that can only be the result of a diet of fish and a lacksedazical attitude about sewage. I mean really.)

chinese hat from Robert Kelly on Vimeo.

“Bartolome Island”
(desolate, rocky young island…the good ole U.S.A is responsible for the odd shape of the rock in the picture….they tested missles on this island back during WWII…)



Swimming with sea lions was my very favorite experience. They are so incredibly playful. If you free dive, then put your arms by your sides and spin, they spin around you. And if you just go under and look at them, they’ll swim right at you and duck out at the last minute. It’s thrilling.

Mangroves off of “Santa Cruz Island”
(Pelicans fishing, cranes, rays, sharks and lots of turtles…they mate here…the female will mate with multiple males over the course of hours…when she is exhausted, she hangs on to the mangrove roots and rests)



“North Seymor Island”
(Frigates....it takes the male about 30 minutes to inflate his red sack and hours to deflate it...frigates are really cool...they are the pirates of the air....their wings are huge and graceful and would be crushed if they dove into the ocean to fish...so they steal instead, Boobies....who fish quite efficiently, diving dramatically in large groups to overwhelm their prey...they look cute and funny on land but they are like arrows in the air.... and Sea Lions)



“Bachas Island”
(Flamingo lagoon)



“Santa Fe Island”
(Beautiful Island w/ crystal clear water and white sand beaches….lot’s of reef sharks hang around the rocky edges and our guide had us swim into a huge cluster of them….I didn’t know what was there until it was too late….Jesus may be able to walk on water but I found out I can lay on top of it {when a shark went underneath me and I felt his fin tickle my stomache}!!!)




“Espanola Island”
(Old and dieing island, home to the albatross)



“Floreana Island”
(Old island, Flamingos, snorkeling around “Devil’s Crown”....Miss scaredy pants sees 2 hammerheads swimming below…tried to show Bobby who was the one who actually wanted to see hammerheads but he missed them : ( ….barracuda, rays)



Soccer Game with the crew on "Post Card Island" (We won!)



Dolphins surround our boat on the way back to Puerta Ayora.



Needless to say, we had a fabulous time, saw amazing things and met wonderful people (shout out to our boat mates!). Seeing these islands and how they’ve moved along the tectonic plates over time from birth, to maturity, to death set my mind spinning in ways for which I’ve yet to find the right words. You’re literally able to touch the past, present and future at the same time. The world is an amazing place. And you realize just how much so at The Galapagos Islands.