Galapagos - Blogabond

A blue footed boobie posing for the papparizzi

In my last post, I said my expectations were unreasonably high for visiting the Galapagos. But there was nothing to worry about, there was no way I could have been let down. It's pretty hard to put an experience like that into words, but if I was going to sum it up, I'd say it was a real life wildlife documentary. No exaggeration.

I guess most of you know at least a bit about the Galapagos (if not, watch a documentary, now!). Yes, the animals have no fear of humans, especially away from the larger settlements. Yes, the whole place is crawling with life, you have to be careful not to step on any. Yes, you can get within a metre of the animals, sometimes a lot closer (altho you can't touch them). Yes, the impact of even the small amount of humans living there is obvious. Yes, there are too many people visiting the islands. Yes, I was lucky to go when I did, as the entrance fee is doubling, and the numbers are being restricted next year. Yes, Charles Darwin visited on the Beagle, and ate turtles. And tied marine iguanas to rocks to see how long they could hold their breath underwater (about an hour, for the record).

The Amigo, where I spent 8 days crusing around the islands

I spent most of my time on the islands on the "Amigo", a smaller boat with a capcity of 16 passengers. For the first few days it was full. I forked out for the full 8 day tour (which is really 6 + 2 half days), which was not cheap. The other passengers were a fairly deverse lot, but all interesting people. Each night, we'd motor to a new destination (which was usually rough enough to require sea sickness pills), and in the morning, have breakfast and jump in the dingy (or "panga") to do an excursion to one of the islands. Our guide "Pepe" was a local (quite rare, a lot of the people working there are acutally from the mainland), and explained a lot to us about the wildlife. Most of the excusions were packed with animals, and we'd spend a lot of time just observing their behavour.

A couple of blue footed boobies doing a mating dance.

The blue footed boobies were one of the most interesting to watch - they do a mating dance where they move their feet up and down, slowly and rhytmically, and then raise their wings in the air in unison (see photo). They also spend a long time preparing their nest, collecting the right sticks, etc - another important ritual for them. Besides their striking blue feet, they also hunt in a spectacular way, by dive-bombing into the water - straight down - from a good 10 meters high. They often do this in groups - it's awesome to watch. I never thought I could be so interested in an odd-looking bird!

A turtle comes up for air...

After the land excusions we'd often do some snorkelling. I was a little nervous the first time, as I hadn't done a lot of snorkelling, and our first go was a deep water one (directly from the panga) and with a strong current. But I jumped in, and it was amazing! Plenty of fish, good visibility, a bit cold but well worth it. As I left, a Sea Lion swam right up to me, and circled around me, looking right into my face as if it was expecting me to play with him.

Marine Iguana swiming in the surf... humans are not allowed to swim here, but Iguanas are very good swimmers

Another of my favourites are the marine iguanas - they're evolved from land iguanas, which arrived on the islands millions of years ago, but adapted to find food underwater (mainly algae). But they still look more or less like land creatures, and it's odd to see them swimming and diving, sometimes in strong surf.

It's especially cool when you get to see them while snorkelling. Not to mention the variety of fish, turtles, penguins, eagle rays and sharks. Well, I didn't get to see a shark personally while snorkelling (other people did), but at one point the ship's cook threw some food over the side, and a white tipped shark (a metre and a half in length) surfaced to snatch it. (By the way, the food on board was excellent).

A juvenile frigate bird gives us a show when trying to fly into a headwind, going no where. We took photos as he hovered above us.

A few other brief highlights: seeing frigate birds court (the males puffing up their red chest), seeing turtles mating in the middle of the sea (it takes several hours, and the female has to swim for both of them), being harrassed by mockingbirds for water on the beach, seeing the boat swarmed by frigate birds, pelicans and fish on a daily basis as they picked up our food scraps (not sure if that's a breach of park rules or not), and seeing day old baby sea lions.

A Galapagos penguin... they would swim with us when we were snorkelling

We also saw the world's second largest albatross. Apparently, New Zealand has the largest, the wandering albatross. Something I didn't know, much to the disgust of our guide. I was also ignorant of the fact that New Zealand has the smallest penguin (the Galapagos is the second smallest): the blue penguin. Remember these facts, and if you ever go, you can be sure to impress your guide.

Marine Iguanas hanging out

Actually, visiting the Galapagos made me realise how a lot of people must feel when they visit New Zealand - a once in a life time opportunity. The natural history of the two is fairly similar - humans only arrived in NZ 1000 years ago, so the wildlife must have been similar in a lot of ways, and some of the remnants of that are still around today. I guess it's true way they say about travel making it easier to appreciate where you come from.

About half way through the cruise, all the other passengers got off, as they were only doing 5 days, or finishing up their 8 day stint. The new arrivals were a Swiss family who were spending a year volunteering in Ecuador, a young Canadian couple, and a girl from Malaysia - Premala. Although the first group were really cool, I really clicked with the smaller group, and had a lot of fun.

At the end of the trip, the Canadians, Premala and me all got off in Puerto Ayora (the largest town in the Galapagos, about 12,000 population) rather than going straight to the airport, as was usual. I had a couple more days to fill in before flying back, and it was cool to hang out with them - a few days on a boat had turned us into best mates.

Tortises

The next day, the Candians flew to the mainland, Premala went diving (she got to see hammerheads!), and I took a trip up to the lava caves, a 1 km long tunnel. I had a somewhat confusing conversation with the guy in charge there, where I think he was asking if I wanted the electric lights turned off. I didn't know there even were any, and even if I did, why I would want them turned off - the whole thing was a bit beyond my Spanish. In the end, the lights stayed on - probably a good thing, as there were parts of the cave where the rocks had fallen off the roof and you had to clamber over them. Still, it was very cool.

Beautiful Beach, sheltered by mangroves

So, after 10 days in the Galapagos, I had to fly back to the mainland, where I'm attempting to adjust to "normal" travelling. It was a pretty amazing experience, one of the best places I've ever been. I'd love to go back one day - I only hope the conservation efforts are enough to preserve it. It's one of the last places in the world that can still be saved.

So I'm now in Guayaquil (which I'll blog about another day). I'm itching for some beach time, so planning to head into Peru shortly to find some.

Check out all the photos here: http://www.blogabond.com/Photos/PhotoBrowse.aspx?UserID=8478

written by

Sam_C on September 21, 2009 from Puerto Ayora, Ecuador

from the travel blog: Epic Detour

Send a Compliment

Sam, thanks so much that was fantastic! Look forward to the next installment!

written by Judy Phipps on September 27, 2009

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