The Galapagos Islands

March 22, 2012

I can’t believe I’m in the Galapagos Islands. I studied this place in sixth grade. We learned about the cool animals unique here but my teacher never said “Hey, some day you should go there.” She’d never been and she taught about the Galapagos like this was a fairytale place no normal person would go to. It was her way of thinking. In fact it’s a lot of folk’s way of thinking. But here I am with one of my best friends. Funny thing however, Sammy and I aren’t here for the amazing animals. We are here to catch marlin on the fly. That teacher never even told us about fly fishing for marlin!

We had a relaxing morning. Our flight didn’t leave Guayaquil for the Galapagos until 11:45 AM. That gave us time to chill around the hotel, suck some coffee and score a good breakfast. The airport scene went smooth as can be and we were on our way on time. It’s about 600 miles from the shores of Ecuador to the Islands, quite a bit further than I’d ever noticed on a map. That made it about a 2 hour flight which still put us at our hotel here on San Cristobal Island in the Galapagos before 2 PM with an afternoon to kill.

It’s hotter than hot here. I mean it is scorching! Despite the heat we were hungry as heck so we knocked back a pizza and a few beers from the roof bar at our hotel. From our view we watched plenty of action. Some was human but most involved the resident sea lions, turtles and neighborhood birds – many quite colorful.

After the late lunch we walked the streets of San Cristobal and it was immediately apparent the town belongs to the sea lions and not the people. What’s most amazing is that so far none of the animals of Ecuador are afraid of humans. I guess no one ever messes with them and that’s the way it should be.

Tomorrow will be our first day of chasing the marlin!

Jeff Currier Global Fly Fishing

Struggling with ineternet out here on the Galapagos.  Will catch up as I can!