Paddling the Far Side

February-March 2006

This is an article from WaveLength Magazine, available in print in North America and globally on the web.
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by Debbie Leach

Frigate bird.

None of the paddling or hiking I’d done in North America prepared me for the wonderland that awaited me in an isolated island group 1000 kilometers off the coast of Ecuador. Here sea lion pups enjoyed ‘porpoising’ along the rocky shoreline, keeping pace with our fleet of kayaks. When our flotilla headed back to our mothership, the posse reversed direction and followed us back. Just another day’s paddling in the Galapagos Islands.

I found the birds, reptiles and ubiquitous sea lions here to be incredibly tame and had to resist the temptation to reach out and touch them. One of my trip mates said the Galapagos was like one big ‘Far Side’ cartoon where the animals are watching and talking about us. Over 40 species of birds challenged my identification skills but the task was made easier with Michael Jackson’s book Galapagos: A Natural History, and by sighting some of the species which were native to my home waters in the Pacific Northwest such as storm petrel and oyster catchers.

Giant tortoise..

Kayaking options in the Galapagos are limited to day trips from resort areas and motherships. This was my first experience with sit-on-tops launched from a 27 meter mothership. We had enough doubles for everyone to paddle, and discovered our 3.6 meter craft were highly maneuverable. Our yellow, orange and turquoise boats edged close to the volcanic rocks to watch Galapagos penguins marching stiffly along, brown pelicans preening, and salt encrusted marine iguanas sunbathing.

Below us, young sea lions zoomed in to show us their underwater acrobatics. Around Genovesa we surfed our beamy boats around the rocks and into sea caves. We stealth-paddled through mangrove lined islets where other groups ventured only by Zodiac.

Our week-long tour visited eight islands. Each kaleidoscopic day was filled with intimate and magical experiences. We walked on designated trails, watching unselfconscious frigatebirds, wereobies and Albatross mating or nesting, slow-moving giant tortoise, gargoyle-like iguana and skittish red and turquoise Sally Lightfoot crabs. We snorkeled in the world of aquarium fish, swirling sea lions, marine iguana and white-tipped reef sharks.

These once-in-a-lifetime adventures were made possible by an accommodating crew, a knowledgeable Ecuadorian naturalist and our Canadian hosts, Dag Goering and Maria Coffey from www.hiddenplaces.net.

Our mothership anchored in the Galapagos.

© Debbie Leach is our Paddle Meals columnist (see page 28). Photos Kerrie Pain, Debbie Leach.