Galapagos Islands – September 2010:
Our trip: The company we used for our 10 day Galapagos Trip was called Intrepid. To get to the Galapagos Islands we had to fly from Quito via Guayquil. San Cristobel Island was our first stop and we stayed there for two nights. We almost missed our flight though because one of our group, Tim the Aussie, went out with our guide, Doris, for tequila and salsa the night before. She never made it to our hotel but turned up just in time at the airport with our plane tickets looking a bit disheveled! From that point onwards Tim was banned by our group from going out with the guides.
From San Cristobel Island we travelled via boat to Floreana Island where we stopped for some snorkeling and from there onwards to Isabela Island where we spend 3 nights. Santa Cruz was the next island, where we stayed for one night, before we finally headed back to San Cristobel via Santa Fe. Our activities included mountain biking, snorkeling with playful sea lions, hiking up the Sierra Negra volcano, walking through the lava tubes and visiting tortoise breeding centers. A few more activities included visiting the Darwin Research Centre, seeing the Wall of Tears and a quick visit to the Interpretation Centre. I’m however not going to dwell on these for long as the animals were really spectacular and definitely stole the spotlight…The animals:
Sea lions: The sea lions were really cool and we found them sleeping in the most random and unusual kind of places like shop doorways, sidewalks, stairways, on top of boats and pretty much anywhere else where you’d never expect to see them. They are a smelly and noisy crowd who seem to own the town – fearless of humans and they don’t even lift an eyebrow when you walk past them! The best part was swimming with them when we went snorkeling on our second day. The cubs were adorable and extremely playful and also very quick underwater. They would swim right up to you almost touching your mask and blow a bubble in your face before quickly darting away. I chased after one underwater but there was no way I was ever going to keep up as they are just too agile! Swimming with them was one of the best parts of the trip for me. We were however warned to stay clear of the large males as they are very territorial and can be aggressive. I had one barking at me while snorkeling and I had to quickly turn around to avoid a confrontation.
Tortoises: These giants were colossal and seemed out of proportion to any other tortoise I’ve ever seen - they were massive! Some live to over 150 years old and weigh up to 250kg plus! It was great seeing them graze like cattle in the grass fields or giving long yawns before closing their eyes for a snooze. The giant tortoises were almost extinct at one point due to people killing them over the years and it is good to know that their numbers these days are healthy again due to successful breeding programs on several of the islands. 
Iguanas: They were the “lazy lizards” who laid around on the black lava rock to soak up the sun. Because they are cold blooded they have to regulate their body temperatures by either lying in the sun or huddling together. This they did extremely well and we saw many large groups of iguanas piled on top of each other in a mixed array of legs, tails and bodies! A constant activity to show their affection for each other involved snorting sea salt over all their buddies while lying there soaking up the sun. When they eat the algae from the rocks in the sea, they also drink some of the salt water. They’ve got a special gland in their head which helps to get rid of the salt by expelling it through their noses in rapid squirts. A lot of the iguanas have white heads due to all the salt that has formed a crust! The other interesting thing about them is that some of them evolved to be a different colour depending on which island they were on. We always had to be careful not to step on them as we walked along as they were scattered all over! 
Frigate birds: These were the large bullies that would torment the poor boobies for their catch. They are massive birds with a large wingspan and are very good flyers due to their forked tail which they can swivel around like a rudder. The females are white and black where as the males are black with a red pouch which they inflate, especially in mating season, to try and impress the females. Sometimes the males would try and outdo each other and one of them would burst his pouch! This takes about a year to heal again and is a lesson learnt once. These birds were mostly flying and we saw them looking like prehistoric silhouettes up in the sky. We managed to see these birds up closer at the fish market in Santa Cruz where they were competing with the pelicans for scraps of fish.
Pelicans: One of the first pelicans we saw sat nearby on a rock while we were snorkeling. With an evil eye it stared us down as if saying “what you looking at punk?” They were also very big with long large beaks. We found it amusing watching them gulping down pretty much any part of a fish and you could make out the shape as it slid down its long neck. There were many of them at the fish market where they competed amongst each other, the frigate birds and lava gulls for scraps of fish. It was very funny watching the fisherman cut up fish while he got harassed by a mob of pelicans who eagerly and watchfully awaited scraps of fish, although many did steal pieces of fish when given the opportunity.
Marine Turtles: The marine turtles that we saw while snorkeling were also really big. We saw our first turtle while swimming with the sea lions. The turtle got mobbed by an entourage of snorkelers as well as pestered by a small sea lion who kept on playfully nipping its tail! In general they seemed very unphased by us as they slowly swam along looking at us with sleepy eyes. They would swim to the ocean floor where they would take a quick mouthful of seaweed before cruising along again. I could only compare them with chilled out people who smoke a lot of weed! 
The fish: There was a huge variety of colourful fish in all shapes and sizes. The smaller reef fish were especially colourful and some even looked like they were trying to impress their audience with donning yellow lipstick. At one point I dove down, held on to a rock and then got surrounded by a whole school of grey, black and yellow fish which swam past right in front of my mask! We also got to swim with sharks - Galapagos sharks, white-tipped reef sharks and stingrays. The seafood there was also very good and we saw some monster crayfish being sold at the fish market for next to nothing. Right accross from the fish market there is a small seafood restaurant which we tried out and they made some of the best sailfish steaks that I´ve even eaten! 
The crabs: The crabs (Sally lightfoot)decorated the rocks with bright orange, reds and blacks (this all depended on their age). They were extremely agile and could jump from rock to rock – apparently, when in danger, they can even run on the water for up to 4 seconds to reach the safety of another rock! I dubbed these the “orange acrobats” and I spent lots of time photographing them as they usually scurried away – they didn’t seems to like posing for photos. 
Kicker Rock is also worth mentioning as it is a large rock in the ocean with a crevasse straight through it. We snorkeled along this crevasse and were able to see Galapagos Sharks and large shoals of reef fish. I dove down to the bottom and estimate the depth to be around 10 meters. The rock itself is fairly large and is formed from volcanic ash.In summary: Our whole group had a great time and our guide, Ossie, was a really nice guy who was fun to be with. Not even some of our green faced crew complained when we had to get rescued after many hours at sea when our boat had engine problems!
The Galapagos Islands enchanted us all with its diverse and spectacular animals. We were all amazed by the fearlessness and size of these animals and I can definitely recommend a visit to these islands to anyone who loves animals and photography. A lot the money created by tourism goes forward in supporting the breeding centers and local families so even though it is very expensive it is all for a good cause. Note: I found Galapagos’ strong Catholic religion quite ironic and amusing especially since it is the birth place of Darwin’s theory of evolution!
Complete photo album:
No comments:
Post a Comment