Galapagos Days: Coffee, Tortoises, Iguanas, and the Art of the Deal

Puerto Ayora, the town where we are located on Santa Cruz Island in the Galapagos archipelago, is quite small. The town is nestled around a medium-sized bay, reasonably sheltered from the winds on the southern part of the island, and it’s full of sailboats. Finding a spot to anchor is very difficult. Upon arrival, we were on the west side of the bay, but by order of immigration, we had to move inside some buoys because anchoring outside the buoys is not allowed. We moved to the east side of the bay. I have no idea how anyone else will anchor here because there is no room, and if a stronger wind hits, there will be chaos. It seems like no one is leaving the island; everyone is here enjoying it, and rightfully so.

One evening around 10 pm, while watching a movie on TV, we heard a terrible noise like a chain breaking something. Strange, I went outside and saw a blue sailboat almost glued to us, dropping anchor. Unbelievable! If I stretched out a bit and he reached out his hand, I could hand him dinner. I watched in disbelief; it was dark. A man came out and shouted, “Hi neighbor, how are you?” I just waved at him; I could see there was no help for it, and I went back inside. Damjan asked what was going on. I said, “Well, the neighbor thought he would tie up to us, but it seems he gave up and dropped anchor; it looks like he couldn’t find a rope.” He said, “Is he crazy? If the wind picks up, we’ll all crash and get tangled up.” I know, but there’s probably no chance of explaining anything to him now. Tomorrow will have to do because if he understood anything, he wouldn’t be doing what he’s doing.

The next day, I went on my regular tour: a walk around town, going for a coffee at the cafe halfway to the Charles Darwin Research Station, and finally, a visit to the station. If I do this a few more times, I think I could start working as a guide. I called a cab and got into the boat. A slightly older, blond man with a woman was sitting there. I greeted everyone and sat down. He said to me, “You’re from that catamaran?” I said yes. He offered his hand and said, “I’m Gabriel, and this is Angela.” We introduced ourselves, and then he told me how he was new and had only arrived last night. I said, “Are you the one with the blue sailboat?” He said, “Yes, yes, that’s me; we’re neighbors.” I said, “Great, nice to meet you. Maybe check your boat; it might be a little close.” He said that it looked like it was, that he was tired last night, but he would move it. Just then, we arrived at the island, and we each went our own way.

The only place with good internet was that cafe halfway to the Charles Darwin Research Station. I’m not a fan of coffee, nor do I understand it, but I needed internet. The internet here is a slightly better dial-up, and for those who have forgotten what that looks like, it’s a transfer speed of 5 kb per second max, but here there were moments of over 10 kb per second. I mostly just checked my emails. I also met the owner, a guy a little older than me. He has plantations on the islands, makes organic coffee; everything is his product, and he recommended a coffee according to his recipe. Since the soil is volcanic, with good wind and salt from the sea, he says it gives the coffee an unreal taste. He talked about it so much that I was sorry I didn’t know more about it all because he really seemed like a scientist. I bought some coffee he recommended for my friend Vlado, with great confidence that I hadn’t made a mistake.

This is the kind of cafe where a tourist comes once, on the way between the research station and the town, but since I was a regular customer, more or less, “Hey, I’ve been coming here for 4-5 days,” he decided to introduce himself because, as he says, “You must like the coffee since you come here every day.” I praised the coffee and said that the location was ideal because I like to walk, and there was internet. Which he also said, that for tourists, that’s a good selling point. “I know, that’s why I put it in.” I wanted to tell him to speed it up a bit, but I gave up. But he said that the only thing that works here is this 3G internet; everything else is really bad, as you can see. To which I said, “It’s not bad for me.”

In my walks, I started inquiring about diving with hammerhead sharks and tours to other islands. The prices were a disaster. Here, for $100, you literally get nothing. As I pass by those who offer tourist services, they ask me; everyone knows me; we almost greet each other on the street. I managed to convince one to lower the price from $100 to $80 for a trip to Isabela Island, which is also the largest island in the archipelago. Satisfied with the price I got, I said, “Okay, two tickets.” He asked me when I wanted to go. I said, “Maybe tomorrow, we can go in the morning and come back in the evening.” He said to me, “$320.” I was shocked and said, “Just two tickets, no children.” He said, “Yes, yes, one way is $80.” I said, “Who sells one-way tickets to tourists? That doesn’t exist anywhere.” He said to me, “Well, that’s how it is here. You have a boat at 10 am and back at 3 pm. You’ll be back before dark.”

I said, “Wait, wait, you mean I’m only there for 2 hours?” But the man politely corrected me, “No, no, 3 hours, sir.” I said, “That’s too expensive; I’ll go to the competition.” He said to me, “But it’s the same everywhere; it’s not like I didn’t know,” but I said, “No, no, I came to you because you seemed nice, but I was wrong. I’ll have to think of a new strategy.”

The Galapagos has 13 large and 6 smaller islands that make up the archipelago. Isabela, as I said, is the largest, and you can see the most things there. The idea of going to Isabela is the blue-footed booby and, of course, penguins. These are the northernmost penguins in the world. Needless to say, there are polar bears at the North Pole and penguins at the South Pole, and it can’t be the other way around. There are no more penguins above the Galapagos, except in these “prisons” that are also called zoos.

Penguins are generally the most populated on Fernandina Island, while the blue-footed booby can be seen if we move a little to the remote parts of the island and on Santa Cruz, but it’s there; it’s not as rare as penguins. Fernandina is located west, right next to Isabela because Isabela is shaped like an inverted L, or an L in the mirror, and right next to it is Fernandina, which is much smaller in area. I’ll have to inquire more about how it works there because, it seems, marketing is one thing, and sales are another.

The price of diving is no better; everyone keeps it at $200 for a day, some even offer a “launch package.” That price includes 2 dives; there are various locations, but we are exclusively interested in hammerhead sharks. The sea here is extremely rich in fish, and fishing is prohibited, so due to the abundance of food, it is possible to dive with these prehistoric behemoths without any major danger because they will not attack people because they are not hungry. In any case, the number of free days until the expiration of the Galapagos visa is running out, and we will have to decide soon where we should go.