We arrived in the Galapagos on the 20th and crossed the finish line at 8:30 am. What a treat to pull into an unfamiliar port in daylight but not really all that difficult if you’ve been motoring for four days. So as we arrived at Isla San Christobal we saw Kicker Rock for the first in the golden light of a new day. As we motored towards the finish line what amazed me was how green Isla San Chirstobal was. The second thing I thought was how much it reminded me of Maui minus the city of Lahaina and big hotels. Perhaps this is what Maui looked like some 500 years ago?
When we arrived and had anchored we couldn’t get off SKY until we went through a thorough an inspection. I’m not sure there is any place where more people come onto your boat to pass you through customs. There were 11 total counting the two policeman. They looked at our garbage, at our first aid kid, in our refrigerator and took pictures of everything including the hull of SVSKY below the water line. We were told by the 5 people in the dive boat, which brings the total number of inspectors to 16, they were impressed at how clean our bottom was. They don’t want any invasive species coming into the Galapagos so we had scrubbed the bottom before we left Panama and also had to have the boat fumigated. Once we cleared customs we all headed to shore.
The first thing you notice about Isla San Christobal is that there is no shortage of sea lions here. They’re on the rocks, they’re on the docks and they will jump right into you boat if it is unattended or left open One catamaran on the World ARC had a sea lion jump up on the trampoline which is quite a leap. They managed to shoo it off by clapping their hands but it came back and took up residence in a kayak that was tied off to the back of the boat before finally moving to the steps that run up the back of hulls. Luckily precautions had been taken in the way of well place fenders to keep him and any other sea lions from going any further onto the boat. I noticed that a couple of the local boats had strands of barbed wired running along the gunwales in an attempt to keep sea lions from entering those boats.
The second thing you notice in Isla San Christobal is that sea lions smell. Not just a little but a lot! We were talking to a woman from Kansas who had married a local man and she told us a story of when she and her husband traveled to visit her family in Kansas by car after flying into Texas. Along the way they passed a cattle confinement and he thought he was going to die. Clawing at the windows, gasping for air and wondering how anyone could live with that smell. Pretty much the way I’m feeling about sea lions.
The third thing you notice is that Charles Darwin is pretty much a mega rock star here in the Galapagos and totally eclipses the attention given to Simon Bolivar in Colombia. Not far from where the water taxis drop you off you’ll come across your first monument to Charles Darwin. Walk a block and a half and you’ll find a second monument to Charles Darwin. After another block and a half you’re pretty much at the end of town along the waterfront and you will come across a third monument to the intrepid explorer. I didn’t even bother to count how many businesses had Darwin, Beagle or Evolution in their name.
Sailing for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society
Chris Gourley
San Christobal