First Impression of the Galapagos Islands – San Cristobal

When we approached the Galapagos after our seven day passage, we half expected pods of dolphins to circle us, groups of sea lions to playfully welcome us, hordes of sea turtles to pop up their heads as a “hello”, and flocks of birds to wave their wings as a greeting. That didn’t happen. Two birds tried to catch our fishing lure. I didn’t want to catch them, so I brought the line in. The abundance of wildlife would become prominent later. It took a peaceful two hours, before our first visitor appeared on our transom steps: a big sea lion, barely fitting in the space of a bottom step. The ongoing battle to try to keep these cute, fun and funny – but also noisy, smelly, dirty and sometimes aggressive - creatures off the boat would start right then and there…

There are sea lions everywhere in San Cristobal, one of the three islands we are allowed to visit with our boat, thanks to a two month autografo. They swim and play in the bay of Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, they come say “hi” alongside Irie, they hang out on the board walk ashore and they share the town’s benches with tourists – or the other way around. They are ever-present and amazing to watch, whether gliding through the water, awkwardly clambering the rocks or crowding the beaches. Sometimes - eyes closed - they just enjoy floating by or skimming Irie’s bottom, resulting in blue flippers and bellies. Chi chink, there goes another $30 of bottom paint!

When poking your head out, you might come eye to eye with a pelican, sitting on the bow or stern of the boat. From up close, they are big! When doing things on deck, you get startled by a sudden splash. Something falls out of the sky like a rocket and disappears under the water surface. Then – plop – there is a head and a body with wings and webbed (blue) feet: the blue-footed booby. It devours its little prey and pecks its feathers before flying off. Underneath Irie are multiple schools of fish: tiny ones around the rudders, bigger ones in the shade of the bridge deck and even bigger ones deeper down. One time while snorkeling, I observed a group of baby manta rays near a sea lion platform.

With our friends Bill and Caroline on SV Juffa, we explored one part of the island by foot. We read the signs in the Interpretation Center, walked the easy, paved trails to some viewpoints, to the rocky cove of Las Tijeretas (refreshing snorkel) and to Playa Punta Carola. There, we watched big, black iguanas, lazily walking about or bathing in the sun. Sea lions played in the surf or waggled over the beach. While snorkeling with tropical fish, we spotted a few sea lions in a flash and three giant turtles. These gentle creatures were feeding on the grassy rocks, being unaware of our presence. Camera all the way zoomed out, I was still not able to fit one of the giants in the screen. When the waves pushed us both back and forth, it was hard not to touch its massive shell. The experience was amazing.

Each time we return home by water taxi ($1 a person each way; the alternative is leaving your dinghy on the municipal beach, pulling it up high enough for the tides, and having sea lions trample all over it and claiming it), we never know how many sea lions we will find aboard. We have put fenders, jugs, and towels in place, to block the entrance to our decks and cockpit. Somehow, they manage to ignore it all and produce a slimy, hairy mess on the boat. When trying to chase them out of our home, we have to put up with their objections. When swimming past Irie’s stern, they look at us in disbelief… “Why are these comfy bottom steps blocked by all this crap?” When being told to leave the transom and bug someone else, they try to change your mind with the cutest expression on their whiskered faces.

We are learning a lot about these streamlined animals… They make lots of different noises: they snort, they bark, they cough, they hiss, they sneeze, they piss, they bleat (the first night, I thought there were sheep or goats ashore), they growl. They can push jerry cans out of the way and climb fenders. They can squeeze in between life lines or propel themselves over them. They like to lounge on cockpit cushions and can lay flat on the table without breaking it! Time will tell what other knowledge we will obtain.

Punta Carola

Playing sea lions off the beach at Punta Carola

One of the three big sea turtles at Playa Punta Carola

Playa Punta Carola

Blue-footed booby near Irie

Viewpoint at Las Tijeretas

Municipal beach in town, at night - it is full of sea lion activity!

Comfy on Irie's back step - their behavior reminds us of dogs, sometimes

Happy sea lion blissfully floating by the boat - their breathing reveals their presence

School of baby manta rays in the bay

Hanging out with sea lions on the beach at Punta Carola

Swimming with sea lions in the bay

Rolling in the sand, so much fun!

Am I cute or what?

Sea lion prevention on Irie: fenders, jerrycans, a cushion and a towel...

Beautiful Bonaire

A nice thing about being on the move is reaching new places and exploring them in every which way. When we left Los Aves, a slow downwind sail with the jib brought us to the south side of Bonaire. Once we pulled up the mainsail and rounded the corner to sail north for the last stretch, the wind came soaring over the salt flats, pushing us forward at 7-8 knots. We were flying and thoroughly enjoyed the last hour’s sail (now that was a sail!) to Kralendijk, Bonaire’s capital and only place to moor. Anchoring is prohibited in this eco-friendly island, so boats are obliged to pick up two (!) mooring lines - which was a bit confusing and unfitting for our size cat - and pay US$10 a night.

Together with Curaçao and Aruba, Bonaire is part of the ABC-islands, just north of Venezuela. It belonged to the Netherlands Antilles until recently, but became an integral part of the Dutch Kingdom (Queendom?)  on 10-10-10. The official currency now is the US Dollar and things have changed a lot for the residents, who speak Dutch, Papiamento, English and/or Spanish. Bonaire is most famous for its excellent diving, but there is much more to this little island than meets the eye or the fame. Almost every day during the high season at least one cruise ship docks at the big pier in the crystal clear water. When wanting to do some inland exploring, it’s better to wait for a day that dock is empty!

Mark and I don’t dive, but we like to snorkel and Bonaire is wonderful for that.You can just jump off your boat and swim to the sea wall ashore, while gazing at many colorful fish and the pretty coral head here and there.  Along the west coast, a multitude of dive sites are marked and parking is provided. Some of these sites are also suitable to snorkel and a free brochure explains what there is to see. For US$10 a year, you are free to explore Bonaire’s underwater world. Divers pay US$25.

One afternoon, Mark and I took the dinghy to Klein Bonaire, the small, scrubby island ½ mile west of the “mainland”, where the best beach is located. The pretty sandy stretch is called No Name Beach and the coral reef with the same name is worth checking out. It gets very busy on the weekends, but other days you are apt to find a free mooring ball to tie up your dinghy and swim to shore. More than one dinghy fits these floats. There’s also a “big” mooring for bigger boats. I was looking forward to taking a whole bunch of underwater pictures at this site, but unfortunately, my relatively new camera broke.

The highlight of our weeklong stay in Bonaire was the day we rented a scooter and drove around the island. Following the coastal road north, we passed a plethora of dive sites and meandered through low laying brush, cacti and rock formations. At the eye sore of the oil terminal, we turned inland to reach Gotomeer (Goto Lake), which looks very picturesque from the viewpoint above. We didn’t see any flamingos, but there were a few more chances later. The road brought us past Rincon, the second biggest town on the island and along many properties surrounded by cactus fences, a pretty and interesting concept.

Then we arrived at Washington-Slagbaai National Park. Cars and motorcycles are allowed to drive around the northern part of the island encompassed by the park, but scooters are not. Instead, we parked our little vehicle and walked the trail closest to the entrance. The desert-like scenery, very barren with prickly cacti, sharp black coral and rocky cliffs has a beauty of its own. The colors were provided by the wild green canaries, pink flamingos, blue sky and endless ocean. The walk was a bit tough with flipflops and the sun was extremely hot, but we both enjoyed to be “in the wild” for a bit, all by ourselves.

In the afternoon, we continued our tour, back through Rincon and the capital Kralendijk, southeast to Lac Bay, which is popular with windsurfers. We drove by wild donkeys and marches with more flamingos. After Lac Bay, we followed the rough east coast with the extensive salt flats to our left. More pink dots were visible and a short stop at the reconstructed slave huts made us realize that our living space on the boat is much bigger and luxurious than during those terrible days. At Pink Beach, which consists of old coral, we decided to go for a snorkel. We had to cut it very short, since we were running out of time. A short stop at the colorful salt pans and bright white salt mountains concluded our whirlwind tour of the island.

The mooring field in Bonaire is not very protected in anything else than wind with an eastern component and the coast of Columbia is getting more treacherous the later in the year we get there, so we decided to move on. And, that’s the bad thing about being on the move… you have to keep moving and leave the places you like before you actually want to! 

 Sailing from Los Aves to Bonaire at dawn. The moon is still up!

Gotomeer seen from the viewpoint

The "famous" Bonaire cactus fence
 

The barren landscape at Washington-Slagbaai National Park

A little bay in the national park

Blowhole in the national park

Wild donkeys along the road to Lac Bay

Wild flamingos along the road to Lac Bay

Pink salt flats and bright white salt mounts waiting to be transported

A Day of Exploring in Dominica

After spending some time in the picturesque and friendly town Bourg des Saintes in Guadeloupe’s southern islands, the “Grenada Armada” moved on to the underdog of the Caribbean, Dominica. SV Imagine only stopped for the night, but the crew of SV Alianna (minus Ali the cat) joined Mark, Darwin and me on a land tour of the interior.

A previous attempt to see the country by car that resulted in a day of mostly driving, had taught us to focus on the important sights first. From Portsmouth in the north, Mark drove us to the area inland from the capital Roseau, already an hour and a half away. Over crumbled “roads” without any sign posts, but with the help of a friendly local, we managed to enter Morne Trois Pitons National Park. Our first stop was Fresh Water Lake, a very serene (yep) lake surrounded by rainforest and cool air. Darwin loved the temperature and so did we. After a short walk through the greenery and a glance at the pipeline, we continued on.

Titou Gorge was our next challenge. Once again with the directions of helpful people after we parked, we reached a rocky river and walked along and over a wooden pipeline to a small fresh water pool. The water was ice cold, but we were in for a treat if we could endure it long enough. Mark, Darwin and I swam through the gorge and followed the icy river to the end (or the beginning?) where a waterfall prevented us from going further. We were surrounded by enormous walls, carved out by millions of years of water flow. On a rocky outcrop and in a separate small pool we could take a break and enjoy the incredible environment. The sun was just high enough to warm our bodies a bit while we took in the sight and the thundering noise. A “splash” caught our attention. A small lizard fell out of the sky and jumped back up the slippery wall. We wondered how many attempts he tried to reach the top of the gorge. The current pushed us back to the pool, where a divided river up in the rocks was made into a shower with slightly warmer water. Then, it was Rosy and Sim’s turn to explore the gorge. After the initial shock of the icy water, this place is most enjoyable and our favorite attraction in Dominica.

On the way back to the car, we marveled over the engineering of the pipelines (made out of wood!) that transport water to all parts of the region. A lot of the country’s electricity is also created by water. Fresh water is extremely abundant in Dominica with its 365 rivers and almost constant rainfall in the mountains. It is about the wettest place to visit by boat, but the rewards are plentiful: colorful rainbows, free water and fertile grounds. Everywhere you walk, you are likely to find fruit on the trees, from mangoes to oranges and coconuts. And calabash to make bowls.

For lunch, we found an attractive, cute, local restaurant in Wotton Waven, called Petit Paradis. The price of the food and drinks was very reasonable and the service friendly, until the ordered food was prepared and handed to us. At that point, the waitress (instigated by the owner without doubt) told us she was mistaken with the price. She meant to say US dollars instead of EC dollars, which more than doubled the cost. A game they play when they think they can get more money out of the “unaware” tourist. We didn’t “bite” and didn’t want the food anymore, but worked out a compromise. An incident like this is very unfortunate and changes the mood of the moment, that’s for sure. Our appreciation for Dominica dropped and now, we didn’t want that second drink anymore and I was not temped to buy their locally made rum either. The owner could have made more money, if she would have treated us with respect and like locals…

Our next stop was Trafalgar falls, where Sim and Rosy went for a walk, photographed the waterfalls and took a dip in hot water springs. Mark, Darwin and I waited in the parking lot and enjoyed the scenery of the jungle there. We visited the falls last year and wanted to save some money. On the way back to Roseau, we stopped near a side road to “hunt” for fruit. The reward: three oranges, a coconut, almost cocoa beans and breadfruit and two calabashes later on. Some places are better than others, like the shore side of our anchorage in Portsmouth, where mangoes and coconuts”litter” the ground.

The day was running out of hours quickly and after a short stop in Roseau, we drove back to Portsmouth after a 30 minute delay waiting for the Chinese road crew to blast part of a mountain. Mark dropped the car back off and as the sky turned black, I picked him up with the dinghy while our friends watched Darwin. A drink at Big Papa’s (another spot where tourist dollars are wanted) sealed a wonderful day of exploring. Dominica is a very interesting and beautiful country, but everything costs a lot of money and tourists are highly encouraged to hire guides, do tours and buy entry tickets and souvenirs, making it hard for the independent traveler on a budget. Renting a car and splitting the cost with some friends is in this case the best solution. Signs for sights are hard to find, but luckily there’s always a friendly face around to show you the way…