We had been planning a trip the Galápagos for over 2 years and after various attempts to travel, I finally was able to take advantage of the opportunity to go and we arrived with a smile one our faces.
Sean and Maria Elena booked us on a nice 6 day cruise for the first part our journey. We were able to take in the sites and beauty of several of the islands and their flora and fauna.
After our cruise, we met Sean at the Penthouse and started our second part of the trip..........marlin fishing! I can remember being on the cruise and seeing large fish breach out of the water while we were on the sun deck taking in the sites, thinking to myself, was that a marlin? I could not wait to arrive at San Cristóbal and go hunt the elusive marlin!
On the first day of fishing, we went out to Rosa Blanca, which is about an hour and a half boat ride from the harbor. Soon after arriving we saw a free jumper, which got my adrenaline going. About 45 mins later, BAM! One of the rods goes off and a nice size striped marlin starts jumping. I could not believe it! I thought to myself, am I finally going to have opportunity to catch a marlin?
This fish put up an incredible fight and I was praying the whole time "please don't spit the hook, please!" After a good 15-20 minute fight, we landed and release a nice size striped marlin and I was incredibly happy and grateful.
We ended up losing another that same morning and releasing another good size stripy).
After lunch, we headed inshore for some wahoo and tuna action. There we faced some serious competition from one of Cristóbal’s sea-lions who followed us trying, and sometimes succeeding, in grabbing our catch before we could get it to the boat - Until he got chased off by a Galápagos shark.
Still we got us enough wahoo and yellowfin tuna for an excellent meal that evening.
Over the next 3 days, we split our time between inshore and offshore fishing, and snorkelled off Española island.
We caught numerous wahoo, yellowfin tuna, grouper, ...
...and 2 more marlin.
It was one of the best fishing trip I have ever had! I thank Sean and Marina Elena for being such gracious hosts and for providing us with excellent memories that will last us a lifetime!