So, real talk. I'm at the point in my life when I can pretty reliably expect to have to get up and pee at least once overnight. I've come to terms with that. But trying to do so on a small boat underway in the South Pacific is a very serious undertaking. We have a tiny little bathroom in our cabin no more than two steps away from my bed. Shouldn’t really be that difficult. But it’s pitch black. Not that I noticed, though, since if I opened my eyes, the strongly rocking ship instantly made me feel like I needed to barf. And that bathroom is WAY too small to handle any more than one body fluid at a time.
Needless to say, it wasn't my best night of sleep. But I was excited for Quinn to celebrate his birthday and see the custom decorations. Oh, and of course get to explore another Galapagos island. Española was our site for the day, and the white board that morning had a pretty packed schedule.
And yes, you'll notice that Ivan let me write Quinn a message that morning. It was happening. We were starting to crack his anti-kid vibes.
You'll also notice the hour of breakfast. This was no luxury cruise, and that was very much on purpose. There are a few ways to see the Galápagos Islands, and doing so by boat appealed more to us than hotel hopping. Obviously the boat in and of itself was an adventure worth the price of admission. But it also allowed us to see more in the 4 days we had there. Since the boat can travel between islands overnight, we were waking up and hitting the trail before the land-based groups were even having breakfast.
But even within the boat operators, there’s a ton of variability. Although that variability tends to range from the swanky and expensive to swankier and expensiver. But we found one of the few remaining family operations left on the islands. Even better, they’re still touring using the same boat they built themselves out of local wood some 20 years earlier. It lacked some of the modern amenities, but it more than made up for it in charm. Plus the cost was half of what the luxury trips go for. That's a win on its own, but the agent that helped us book the trip brought up a good point about that. The trips in our price range tended to attract families and an all around less-pretentious clientele. We witnessed that phenomenon in the rare instances we passed another group on the trail. It was clearly the first time every single one of those people had ever carried their own backpack. Whereas on our trip, we were accompanied by a Swiss family with early-teenage kids, a high school teacher and his wife from the Netherlands, and a Chinese ex-pat who moved to Ecuador to be closer to his kids who were going to college there. All very interesting people, and all great travel companions. Which is nice, because the boat was maybe 40 feet end to end, and our children are not known for their demure subtleties. It was good to be with a group who found that endearing.
That reminds me, the Chinese family was actually on our boat because the trip they were supposed to be on used an even smaller boat, and their group had horrendous sea sickness even before they set out. So as rough as our nights have been, I took solace knowing that it could have been way worse.
Ok. That's probably enough background. Off to Española. As you may have noticed on the board, we started our day with a dry landing. For pretty much every hike, the crew took us from our big boat to shore using little dinghies. Sometime they had to drop us a few feet offshore and we waded in, sometimes they could pull right up to a rocky pier. This was the latter, so we stepped right off the boats and stayed dry. We would have appreciated that at 7:30 am on any overcast day. But it was particularly nice this week, as the islands were experiencing an unseasonably cold current coming up from the south (where it was still mid-winter).
I'm not going to describe the beginning of our hike. I'm just going to show it to you first. You’ll see why in a minute.
This is Quinn. You know him. It's his birthday today. Happy birthday, Quinn.
Now look behind him at those lava rocks. With tails. And claws. And teeth. That part of the island was absolutely crawling with gigantic Hood Lava Lizards. It took a real effort to not step on them as we were hiking. They could easily span an entire section of trail, and they weren't going to move for us. This was their island.
The next portion of our hike was markedly more adorable. The giant albatross that also inhabited the island were just coming out of their mating season. We got to see a bit of their bizarre mating dance (are there any that aren't), but also got to see a bit of the end result.
Yep. That's a baby albatross under it's mama. As cute as you'd imagine.
Speaking of their mating dance, National GeoMimi got another awesome video of it. The cinematography is not what we've come to expect from her, but that's because of her tripod (me). I had to put her on my shoulders to get the shot, but couldn't help checking out all the other scenery around us. Hence the "Oh my gosh, Dad, stop moving" about halfway through.
We also saw some more blue footed boobies, and since each island has its own distinct climate and seasonal patterns, the mating cycle was a bit further along than on the last island. We saw several mamas brooding over their eggs, and even a few babies.
If you look closely at that second photo, you can see a baby that couldn't have been more than a few days old.
Once we got our fill of adorable avians, we headed back to the boat for a quick sail to the nearby Gardner Bay. We were going to spend the afternoon at a swimmable beach. Following our attempt to keep our kids from playing at the last (fire ant infested) beach, this was a welcome reprieve for all of us.
After taking what may very well be this year's holiday card photo (act surprised when you get it), Aimee and I used the opportunity to chat with our guide, Ivan. We could tell that he was warming up to our kids, and I wanted to seal the deal.
We learned that, contrary to what I presumed when we first met him, he does have kids. Five of them, in fact. His wife kept wanting to try for a girl, and 5 tries later decided to throw in the towel. But Ivan clearly has a lot of pride in his kids. All of them are now grown professionals, with the exception of his youngest, who is still in school to become a marine biologist. As you can imagine, becoming one of the naturalists for such an important site is a common aspiration for kids who grow up here.
Ivan's plan was to work for another few years and then retire once his youngest is done with school. He reminisced about the changes he has seen over the years. The most visible were the significantly decreased animal counts brought on by climate change. But he was happy with the islands' increased protections over the past couple of decades. The Ecuadorean government has taken big steps to solidify the national park status. They’ve also had lots of international support, given how much the entire world has learned from this area. To that point, the parks have a very strict prohibition on touching animals. After some very harmful interactions between children and animals in the past, the park instituted an outright ban on any visitors under 12 years old until just recently. Years of declining tourism throughout the pandemic were exacerbated further by how the drug violence has been portrayed internationally. So to keep the local community solvent and prevent the type of ecological degradation that can often follow rapid descents into poverty, the regional government decided to start allowing children again with the hopes of attracting more families. Mission accomplished.
We were completely unaware of all of this. In fact, it only came up when we asked Ivan how often he has kids on his trips. He said flatly, "Never." He's been doing this continuously for thirty years, and our kids were the first he had ever brought to the islands. We were clearly shocked to hear that. He recounted several stories from other trips that resulted in both animals and children being seriously harmed (with more than a few deaths in both parties). That clearly explains the trepidation Ivan showed when we first arrived. He had noticeably warmed to our kids over the last few days, but it was still nice to have him explicitly say that he enjoyed having them on the trip. He described them as, "bien tranquillo" (nice and calm). I don't know if I'd use that term as a universal description of them, but I would agree that they really nailed the concept of keeping the park wild and protected.
To illustrate that point perfectly, the kids had a very charming interaction with one of the more curious sea lions on the island. As we were talking to Ivan, the kids’ new friend took a wide pass to check out smaller humans than it had likely ever seen before.
Then it came a little closer.
And then it finally just came right on shore.
It definitely seemed like it wanted to play with our kids.
Our kids know that not only are we not supposed to touch the animals, but we also shouldn't let them touch us. So on more than one occasion, the kids had to run away when the sea lion wanted to join their sand castle making.
Although they eventually found a happy equilibrium.
By then of the afternoon, our kids were ready to join the sea lions' pack, and the feeling appeared mutual.
It was legitimately difficult to tell which species of children was more sad about us having to head back to the boat. But once we got there, the kids were happy to warm up with a cup of tea.
As you can tell from the beach photos above, it was a bit overcast. Coupled with the cold current, that led to a pretty chilly afternoon. It also led to a pretty choppy trip to our next and final stop, San Cristobal. To be honest, it would have been a miserable journey if we didn't have the most amazing distraction from our sea sickness.
Through our closed eyes in the ship's dining area, we heard Ivan call our kids over to show them something.
It took a minute to see what they were talking about, but then we saw the dolphin that was swimming alongside our boat! And then the other!
And then the rest of the pack!
That sight alone would have been the kind of thing we'd talk about for years. But then they started to breach and play right in front of us!
The kids then immediately told us, "Thanks so much, Mom and Dad! This is an amazing experience and we are going to show our appreciation by being kind to each other all the time and getting ready for school next year without any whining or drama." Or at least that's how I interpreted the expressions on their faces.
It definitely seemed like we were heading that way. The kids were super adorable as we sailed into port.
Or maybe is was just delirium from too much sun that week.
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Either way, I wasn't going to complain. The night became even more delightful as the sun went down and we looked up to see the Southern Cross together. Or as the kids called it, the "Southern Kite." Not a bad description.
But the icing on the cake was literally icing on the cake. To all of our surprise, the crew made a birthday cake for Quinn after dinner. And it was presented by none other than Ivan, the kids' new BFF. We did it.
It was an absolutely lovely day, and I was grateful that all four of us are now likely old enough to actually have some permanent memories of it.
Happy birthday, Quinn.
