Advertisement
Published: October 3rd 2011
Saturday 1st October
The week has flown and boy are we pleased to be back on dry land! We had quite a few choppy afternoons and nights and as a result I felt better laying on my back in my cabin.
The days were fabulous though and its on this that we will focus :-)
Our first day we boarded the Millenium Catamaran. Samuel picked us up at the airport and then took us back to the boat in zodiac. We had a nice little cabin with twin beds and a small balcony. I do mean small as only one plastic chair fits on it and if you sit on the chair you cant see over the top.
We've met a great bunch of people and they have already been on board for 6 nights. John and Renata from England are a great couple and John cant wait to tell us how wonderful our trip is going to be. They have had an amazing trip so far.
Leah and Rachelle are from Canada and having finished Uni they are on a 6 mth trip around SA. Ronnie and his Dad are chain smokers from Germany. LOL
Our first
North Seymour Isl
Sea Lion and Land Iguanalanding after lunch is to North Seymour Island. Never in our wildest dreams did we imagine seeing as much as we did of the birds and other animals there. I dont think any other day after this quite matched this one. The Frigate birds and Blue Footed Boobies are magnificent and they allow us to approach them without flinching. I think that was the best part of the trip.
The magnificent frigate bird, a large black bird with a long wingspan, and a hooked beak, is extremely fast and has excellent vision. Frigatebirds are known for the large red pouch on their necks. During mating season the males thrown back their heads, inflate the pouch
(sometimes to the size of a soccer ball), and shake trying to capture the attention of female frigates. Just a typical male really :-)
Boobies and frigates share an interesting relationship. Sharing the same nesting area on North Seymour blue-footed boobies nest on the ground making their nests from the twigs of the palo santos trees, while the magnificent frigate bird nests just above them in the
saltbushes.
Blue-footed boobies are great at fishing. Hunting off-shore, the boobies dive from mid air into the
sea in order to catch fish. Successful, they return to the island with their prize to feed their young. Frigatebirds named for the warships once used by pirates are the pirates of Galapagos birds. In contrast to the booby, frigates are poor fishers. Their bodies produce very little oil for their wings and they are not waterproof. Unable to spend
time in the water fishing they must rely on food stolen from other birds to feed themselves and their young.
When a booby or red-billed tropicbird returns from a
successful fishing trip the frigatebird will swoop down and molest the bird until it drops its catch. The frigate then plucks the food from the air, feeding itself and its young from the stolen loot. Frigatebirds on North Seymour rely on the fishing success of the blue-footed booby for their survival.
So you all learned something again! Dont you love it??? LOL
The second morning saw us land on Bartolome Isl. We climbed to the top of the mountain, which really wasnt a big deal. Our guide isnt in too good a shape so we had lots of breaks lol. There are a few little peguins swimming about with
a couple of seals at the shore but
they are so fast its hard to keep track of them. After returning back to the boat we finally change for some snorkelling around Pinnacle Rock before lunch.
The water is bloody freezing but the fish and the lava rock formations below the surface of the water are a sight to behold, and the visibility is brilliant! On our way back to the shore, Shane and I are joined by 2 sea lions. They roll about us playing with each other without a care in the world. I almost lose my breath I am so in awe. This goes on for around 5 minutes when I Hear Antoinette yelling to me, "Theres a shark down there! Theres a big shark!!!" Needless to say I start heading for shore as fast as my little flippers will take me!!. Apparently its just a reef shark and they dont hunt until after 5!! Gee, thats a relief!
Sullivan Bay was our afternoon landing. We land on a white coral sand beach and begin our walk over lava that flowed less than 100 years ago. This is the perfect place to see and feel the
North seymour Island
Blue footed Boobie and chick volcanic origin of Galapagos.
The walk across the lava is amazing! This stuff looks like it solidified yesterday. Most of what we see here is pahoehoe (a Hawaiian term) or ropey lava, and some of it looks just like rope. The other type of lava found in Galapagos is aa. This is the stuff that will rip your shoes or boots apart when you walk on it - it really can be that sharp! There are a couple of Aussie Boys from Frankston on this trip too. Really good value. Sixto and the boys have run back from the rest of the group so that Jimmy and Nick can strip off and have a photo taken against the stark darkness of the lava. It the funniest thing! They dont get caught and its the funniest photo! How very Frankston of them !!
The last 2 nights after dinner on the back of the boat have also been a nature show in themselves. There are half a dozen pelicans feeding on the jumping fish, seals playing, and sharks lurking below. We all watch this show until the crew turn the lights off on the back of the boat.
Day
3 and Sam has to go to the dentist so he left last night. He fell over on board on a particularly rough night at sea and broke a tooth, so we are joined today by Leonadas. He's a real character. He escorts us to Bachas Beach.
The sand at Las Bachas is made of decomposed coral, which makes it white and soft, and a favorite site for nesting sea turtles.
The Sally Lightfoot crabs are abundant on the lava rocks along the water's edge. These crabs will eat anything they can get their claws on. Leonadas says we may see Flamingo here!! And we did.
One!!! Where the hell are all the others??
The sea turtles had already abandoned their nests, so I dont get to see the sea turtles yet either. Time is running out.
The afernoon was spent on Cerro Dragon. Lots of Land Iguanas here and I'm told Flamingos.
And there was one! Yes, one!. To be honest, our first day was so brilliant that when you only see a few things, you cant help but be a little disappointed.
Day 4 and we head to South Plaza Island. The approach makes for a
North Seymour Isl
Blue Footed Boobie lavishly colorful sight! The turquoise waters of the channel contrast brilliantly with the white sand and black lava of the shoreline. The rocks have grown thick with green seaweed in places,
and speckled with bright orange “Sally light foot” crabs.
As we come across in the zodiacs, there are seals rolling around in the water and there are so many baby sea lions with their mothers on the rocks! They allow us to get so close to them its amazing. This is one of our better mornings watching them feed and swim and play.
Off to Santa Fe in the afternoon, and there is a promise of snorkelling later on. We all want to do it now though as we can see a family of spotted eagle rays in the water below us as well as sea turtles. But we must wait. On the way over to the island there are sharks in the shallow water that we have to wade through to get to the beach! Now I'm not to keen to get into the water and as soon as we get in as close as Miguel will take the boat, I am off through the water
and up the beach in a flash. Sam starts roaring with laughter as though its the funniest thing ever to be afraid of sharks LOL
This little beach is absolutely covered with sea lions and their cubs. You could watch them for hours but of course we cant. We have to go looking for more freaking land iguanas! Seriously I'm over them.
The boys have all found a snake and started stalking it. Oh its only a little snake they say. These things can be the most venomous of all snakes on the planet. We travel on a little further and I stop to take a picture of a really large land Iguana under a bush, so I've had to squat down really low to get a good pic. Its what you do right?
Suddenly, I feel something slide over my right foot and ankle!! I dont know whether to stay still or run! I jump upright to find Sixto running his sunglasses over my skin to scare me.
Everyone was killing themselves laughing. I was not! I may have uttered a profanity or two.
Shane says: Rude girl swearing at me. It was funny though. We get to
do some more snorkelling after the snake scare. Just after jumping in and swimming close to the island we come across a four foot reef shark. The boys and I take off after the shark, but he was way to quick to keep up with. I'm thinking if the sharks aren't eating the sea lions then they wont go after me. It has worked so far. We then find some sea turtles and swim with more sea lions. The sea lions are great fun. They swim fast at you, then quickly veer away about a foot from you.
Antoinette and I have been whale watching to no avail, but these frigate birds are amazing. There have been no less than 8 of them following us for over an hour, and they havent flapped their wings once!!
This is our last night on the boat and we have discovered the speed boat back to Puerto Ayora leaves at 7 the following morning so we are going to miss the morning program.
Honestly, that night was so rough I couldnt have cared less and everyone was in their cabins right after dinner.
So one more night in Puerto Ayora
before our flight to Quito, and some more ice cream at Galapagos Deli :-)
Advertisement
Tot: 0.145s; Tpl: 0.017s; cc: 13; qc: 53; dbt: 0.0885s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Mikel Indi
non-member comment
Hello Sharls and Shane Thanks for sharing your nice trip to Galapagos, me and my wife are also planning a vacation there very soon and we are now searching information about weather there, because it seems to be very rough on a boat or it just depends on the month of the year what do you think? May be you can give us an additional tip, Thank Mikel