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Coral I - Galapagos Islands


Tikimark
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We booked our cruise through Adventure Life for June 4-8, 2008, the 4-day Wednesday-Sunday leg. Klein tours owns/operates the Coral I and Coral II but we couldn’t get the ‘standard room’ when we tried to book through them. Once you get to BaltraAirport, you’re essentially with Klein Tours anyway. The Corals travel together (rarely even within sight at sea), they have an earlier or later day schedule so rarely interact.

 

They have this down to a science. All of the tourists on the Aerogal flight to Baltra were on only 3 or 4 different boats. It seemed like most of us were on the Corals. So, they must break up the different ships to different arrival dates as there has to be 100 ships in the Galapagos! Klein had people there to guide you after going through the ‘pay $100 park fee, check your bags for fruit and pets’ stops. The airport is open on three sides and set up to corral you all from one side to the other. They were quick and efficient. Behind the airport is a shopping area that I never got to see (wish I had!)

 

Klein assigned us to a boat and gave us orange stickers to wear that said ‘Coral’. We rarely saw the Coral II passengers after this. After a very short wait, we were guided on to a bus that took us to the harbor about 10 minutes away. If you start on a different day, I think you have to ferry to Santa Cruz, bus 45 minutes to Puerto Ayora and get on the boat there. Ours was quick. Once at the port, we got off the bus and saw what apparently is a common sight; sea lions lounging on the benches there. Photo op! Marine iguanas and blue footed boobies were on the rocks, too. We were seeing the cool critters only a few minutes after arriving! They hand out life vests and we and our stuff all crowd on to a zodiac (panga) for the short trip to the boat. On the boat, the crew managed the large bags for us.

 

Tip #1 – bring at least two pair of shoes. They required you leave whatever shoes you arrived with on the back deck area of the boat, now and on every arrival. You’ll appreciate this later. Shoes you wear off the boat quickly get the island funk on them...a smell you’ll get to know and love. Seal and Boobie doo, mostly. They (and you) don’t want this tracked in to the boat. We got this tip a few days before leaving for Galapagos and quickly bought some closed-toe Tevas to supplement our normal Teva sandals. VERY good thing we did. All I took were these two pair of sandals and had no problems. Closed toe Tevas were great for hiking.

 

Once on board, the Klein rep did a short orientation. Ship time is the same as Quito (not the same as the islands!) Give him a credit card in the beginning and all bar charges are applied thereafter just by room number. We never touched money the whole time on board, until tip time at the end. There is a cool little safe in the room and we left everything in there for the duration. They give each passenger a 20oz. bottle of water, with the instruction that this is YOUR water bottle for the cruise. You can re-fill it at the bar or by a tap on the aft (Jacuzzi) section. We took them everywhere. Then the guides gave us a run-down of how our days would go: the crew announces wake-up at 7:00, breakfast at 7:30, on the panga by 8:30. Hike/snorkel for a few hours, then back to the boat. Lounge for an hour or two before lunch. Lounge for another hour or two, then on the panga again for the afternoon hike/snorkel. Back on board for a few hours of lounging. Before or after dinner (depending), the guides would give a 20-30 minute overview of what to expect the next day. Doing this in the lounge area was very crowded, so get there early! Dinners are at 7:30. After the obligatory life vest drill, the boat took off for the first destination. We had lunch during this trip.

 

Food. Breakfast is rather large, ‘American Style’ on one side with some egg dishes, bacon, sausage, etc. They would add pancakes or French toast here and there. A huge fruit bar / bread / pastry on the other side. This was a similar setup for lunch and dinner, the main meat-eater stuff on one side and veggies / desert on the other. Food was excellent and plenty (more than all of us could possibly eat.) I tried. The chef was awesome. Deserts were excellent. Some unique fruits. All fresh. You don’t get much in the way of guidance! We line up on time down the hallway to the dining room, then you are on your own. You grab a plate once you get in and choose a side. Since you chose THAT side, you then have to figure out how rude to be to but in front of others that chose the OTHER side. It wasn’t bad, we were all friendly, but day one was trying. You can sit where you like so we mixed it up every meal. They come around to ask if you want coffee. We had a rum-raisin ice cream on the last night that was the best ice cream I’ve ever had. I hate raisins, but it was rum-raisin without the raisins; you had to add them yourself. If I had known, I would be stealing away in the galley every night for a bit of ‘ole Rum (non) Raisin!

 

Tip #2: If you want a drink or wine with your meal, arrange for it BEFORE hand. We figured this out on day 2. I bought a bottle of wine from Galo (our bar tender) and he filled a pair of glasses for our ‘lounge until dinner’ time. He had the bottle in the dining room when dinner came around so we could finish it off. Nice.

 

Drinks. Mixed drinks were average reasonable, same with wine. Most wine (all?) was from Chile or Argentina. No problems. The boat apparently has a ‘drink of the day’ which we didn’t know about. When the afternoon pangas get back, they have snacks ready. If all goes well, I assume the bartender is supposed to have drinks ready as well. This didn’t always happen, or happened later ad-hoc. Only ‘crossing the equator night’ was it organized enough and announced. If I remember right, Pilsener beer was $2/bottle. Coffee was good. We asked for espresso twice, but only received it once. Not sure why, but I’m guessing it is because poor Galo was too busy attending to his million other tasks. They could have used one more crew member to help him out.

 

Excursions. Be prepared to walk you tail off. Sometimes in torturous sunshine. It was never really HOT, but the sun was brutal. We did have a pax get sick on a hike, a bit of sea-sick and hours in the hot sun. Note there is no possible way of getting medical services way out on the islands. There is NOTHING there and no ship’s doctor. Speaking of sea-sick, we had no problems but a good 80% of the pax had the patch or were taking motion sickness meds. If you have ever felt queasy, do it. The hikes are not difficult and are on relatively level ground. The biggest problem is looking everywhere for the cool critters and not looking for that cactus, or rock, or lizard. A common problem. Only on Bartolome’ did we have anyone else on the same island at the same time. No jet contrails overhead, no sign of human existence anywhere, no trash, no buildings, you are really OUT THERE! It could be another planet.

 

Snorkeling. We took shorty wetsuits (3mm) and our own snorkel and mask (no fins.) You can rent it on board ($30 or $40.) The ship provided towels. When you land on an island, you sometimes take your snorkel gear with you and leave it on the sandy beach. After hiking for hours, you don your gear and jump in the water. Easier said than done. There are no benches or even non-sandy spots. You get sand everywhere as you hop around on one foot getting your suit on. The reverse is nearly impossible. Expect to get sandy/dirty and be a bit uncomfortable. It is all worth it. Some snorkeling was EXCELLENT: Rabida and Bartholome’ were the best on our cruise (we later went to Floreana on our own, also excellent). Water clarity was off and on. We saw a few sea lions in the water and, the coup de gras, Penguins! We really wanted to see penguins in the water…we were sooooo lucky. They don’t have much of a schedule, and certainly didn’t heed our calls of ‘jump in, jump in’. We saw a lot on the rocks at Bartolme’ and finally saw some darting around and under us there just off Pinacle Rock. I took about 400 underwater shots and a dozen or so turned out good. Water temperature was the hairy edge of being too cold, so the suits made it tolerable for a couple hours and kept us from burning to a crisp. Well worth bringing. We snorkeled off Tortuga Bay on Santa Cruz without them and it was a bit cool (June). After a full day of hiking and swimming, good food, and more hiking and swimming, you are exhausted. Trust me.

 

Boat. The boat is clean and looks new enough. The temperature was always comfortable. Nothing was broken or in need of work or paint. The interior was always comfortable. The top deck was very nice to lounge on with four lounge chairs and lots of seating. The very front of the top deck could be re-configured to lounge or sit, which we later found out why as they had the Saturday night barbeque up there (an awesome night, by the way! One of our best.) Tip #3. The shower is the ‘push’type, which is like some public bathroom sinks. You push it and water runs for a few seconds. Not great for showering! However, day 2 I found out if you hold it for 15 seconds or so, the shower runs for a few minutes. Hello, wish someone told us. After you get hot water, it was nice. The worst thing about the entire boat was the smell from the marine toilets; think porta-potty. The smell is nauseating and very concentrated in the bathroom, so leave the door shut or your cabin will smell that way. Another problem was where to hang damp or wet clothes. Not a single hook anywhere. Nada.

 

The halls and stairs were very narrow. The bar was nice, although one pax complained loudly about the lack of Baileys. The crew was quiet and hardly seen. The bar-tender doubled as a cabin steward, waiter, bus boy and dishwasher, so wasn’t always available at the bar. He was the most visible crew member, other than the guides. The guides were good, all three of them unique in their own ways. The guides spoke English very well, the crew not so much. It did get a little rough at sea, so be warned! Tip #4. Make sure you have enough cash for the crew’s tip! If I remember right, they suggested $10/day per passenger for the crew and $5/day per passenger for the guides. The Jacuzzi on the aft deck isn’t really a Jacuzzi. It was never more than 1/3 full of (sea) water, never heated, and no one ever used it. Klein Tours, just remove it! The extra space is much needed now that the boat carries 36 passengers. BTW, 36 people (full up) was sometimes crowded on board, especially at panga time. Some areas just couldn’t be re-fitted for this many people, like the lounge and the aft deck. We never met or even saw the captain. Odd. The boat had two events: crossing the border party, complete with drinks and a certificate. The bridge was open to passengers to watch the GPS to to 0:00:00 (very crowded, but still cool.) The other event was barbeque on the top deck. On one at-sea trip, we came across a huge pod of dolphins. They steered the boat towards them and they all came running towards us. Incredible. We ran with them for a good half an hour as they surrounded us and took turns riding the bow wave. Awesome. Even some crew members we never saw came out to watch them. Two days they allowed us to swim off the back of the boat, which was cool as once we saw two sea turtles swimming by. Very few took advantage of this.

 

Pangas. Getting in and out of the zodiacs takes a little practice, but eventually gets easier. Before getting on, they hand out life vests (later, you have to dig them out of a bag yourself.) The vests were sometimes damp, and not terribly clean looking. Take your time! A few anxious passengers made the wet landing a full-body experience. ‘Wet’ just means you step out in to a foot or so of water. Not usually a problem. They hold around 12 passengers, one crew and one guide. Full up sometimes felt crowded. The tour of the mangroves would have been better with half as many.

 

Room #2. Our cabin was the cheapest, on the lowest deck all of the way forward. #1 and #2 are the only rooms with a solid almost-full size bed, the others all had twins (others were jealous of our cheap room!) The bed was comfortable on the inside side, but the side against the hull angled up for some odd reason. On a moving boat, you don’t need to feel like you have to hold yourself from sliding. Odd. This and the movement of the boat made it tough for one of us to sleep. These two ‘standard’ rooms have the largest bathrooms J, which we were surprised to find out. Noise wasn’t a problem except when the anchor was dropped. You FEEL every ring in the anchor chain going over the side as much as HEAR it. It woke me up at 3a.m. once, 5a.m. next, and then I slept right through it on the third and fourth day. It had a small port-hole and a patch of floor in front of the bed big enough for both of us to stand, but a third person standing there would be crowded. We had to take turns using the space to dress in. There is a small closet and a huge area under the bed to store your luggage. There is a TV but we never turned it on. Same with the lounge, it was never on. I’ve read of other boats having diesel fumes, but not this one.

 

Fellow passengers. About 50% were from the U.S. We had a newlywed couple from Italy, a pair of young girls fresh out of the Isreali Army (!), ex-pats now living in Columbia, at least one English couple, New Zealand, Germany, and a very nice couple from Quito that had never been to the Galapagos. All were good travelers.

 

We picked the Corals because of their itinerary. We wanted the best opportunity to see the most critters, especially penguins. If we had it to do over again, I would have taken the full seven day cruise. It was tough listening to the existing passengers rave about the islands and experiences we missed. Nice boat, nice people, great experience. We only regret not taking the longer tour. We intended to take day-trips out of Puerto Ayora after the cruise, which was NOT a good idea! Boats are too small and very uncomfortable. Stick with the cruise!

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