The Wildlife & Wonders of the Galapagos Islands - Week 1

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Where to start? It´s been a while between entries for a few reasons:

1) We were in the Galapagos Islands on a cruise boat for 8 days so (blissfully) no internet there and well

2) For the other week we have been just cruising the islands, diving, snorkelling and along the way I have managed to spend a lot of time in the bano/loo with a dodgy stomach bug.

So, there´s a bit to recount, therefore prepare yourselves for some really long, long-winded reading in your sneaky lunch hour....

Let me just start with AMAZING, AMAZING and AMAZING! The Galapagos Islands were more than I could have ever dreamed. The wildlife we literally came face to face with was unsurpassable and the islands themselves so different and unique in their own way.

Our journey didn´t start too great though. Our flight from Quito to the Galapagos was delayed for 4 hours and after a stopover in Guayaquil (about half hour flying south of Quito) we took off again but had to return after 45 minutes due to "technical difficulties" a term I don´t really appreciate hearing mid air. After a couple of hours of sitting on the un-airconditioned plane and watching the repair man with his screwdriver on the wing of the plane the Captain finally declared in his broken English "Plane okay now" so we left for the second time until some pax started shouting "Gasolina! Gasolina!" and demanded to be let off the plane. You can probably imagine how frayed our nerves were as Stacey and I had about 3 minutes to discuss whether to risk it and keep going with the crew and about a third of the pax or whether we might very well end up on Air Crash Investiagtors. Sorry Mum but we decided to stay on board. Good choice in the end cos we made it no worries and in the process made some very nice friends (including a whole class of 12 year old Ecuadorian school kids) as everyone bonded in the tense atmosphere and we were pretty much allowed to do whatever we wanted when we got up in the air.

Finally we made it to Isla Santa Cruz and after missing the first day, but arriving in time for cocktail hour, we boarded our cruise boat, the wonderfully named "Guantanamera" (and yes, we sang the song for 8 days straight and then some, well the 3 words that we know). 16 pax, 7 crew and a fantastic nature guide. The real Galapagos dream and adventure had begun.

There are 12 main volcanic islands that make up the Galapagos Achipelago (I can´t actually ever say that word) and 12 or so smaller ones as well as heaps of little teeny tiny bits and pieces. On our 8 day cruise we had the fortune to visit many of the main ones including: Plazas, Santa Fe, Espanola, Floreana, Santa Cruz, Rabida, Bartolome and Genovesa.

If you ask me for a favourite I can´t begin to choose as each was so different in wildlife, look, atmosphere and wonder. Each day we would have land excursions and snorkelling excursions with our guide so some of the highlights of each island include:

South Plazas & Santa Fe - Being the first one we visited (Plazas) there may have been little squeals of delight when we got off the dingy (zodiac/tender/little boat) to a true sea lion welcome, bright red crabs on the black rocks and (my favourite) very large land iguanas. These things look like mini dinosaurs, black ones and bright yellow ones. They are so cool especially when they saunter on by to feed on the cactus. More excitement as we spotted our first "blue footed boobies" the famous sea birds with bright blue feet (they´re my favourite too) and the pretty nacza boobies, brown pelicans, Galapagos gulls, doves, mockingbirds and one or two of the 13 varieties of Darwin´s finches by which he was inspired to develop his famous "Theory of Evolution". Actually Darwin only spent 5 weeks in the Galapagos in 1835 and most of his inspiration for his controversial theory came from dog breeders in England but his name is synonomous with the "Enchanted Islands" as they are aptly known.

Espanola - Oh my! Pure white sandy beach, turquoise warm waters and hundreds of friendly sea lions to play with us in the shallows. This is one of the most mindblowing things about the Galapagos...none of the animals, sea and land, are afraid of humans. They let you come so close (though you´re required to keep a distance of 2m - unless the sea lion happens to bite your snorkel fin which of course you can´t help and you are secretly thrilled and freaked out by at the same time and you might accidentally squeal under water). Even the sea birds don´t fly away and here we saw big, beautiful nesting waved albatross sometimes right on the pathway. They had only just returned to the island from their annual migration. We saw more boobies and a pair of Galapagos hawks. The boobies are hillarious when they are hunting, they circle the ocean then dive bomb like torpedos head first, full pelt into the water then pop up like little sitting ducks a few seconds later with a full belly.

Those of you that know my fear of birds will be wondering how I survived walking so closely amongst the winged seabirds each day and I must say I did awesome, exceptionally well, really proud of myself with only a little agitation and anxiety until it all went to guano on the last day and I completely lost it, taking my coolness factor with me (more details later). Here we also saw cool marine iguanas in camo patterns of red, green and black sunning themselves on the sand and rocks and the well known Aussie term "flat out like a lizard drinking" kept coming to mind (not that I have ever actually said that phrase).

Floreana - The first of all the Galapagos islands to be settled. We stepped ashore to leave footprints on the thick dark brown sand but it´s known as the "green beach" due to tiny pieces of green crystalised lava that reflect off the sun (it didn´t look green to me but, maybe the sun was in the wrong place). Bright fluro orangey-pink flamingos rimmed the lake.

We visited "Post Office Bay", the first post office set up by whalers hundreds of years ago and where today you can still place mail in the little wooden mailbox sticking in the sand and hope that one day it will be "hand delivered" to the addresse. I left a couple of postcards so will see if they arrive in a year or so and Stace and I took one addressed to someone in Hawthorn (about 20 mins from my place) and will pop it in their letter box on our return to Melbs. We also donned our head torches for a walk inside a lava cave where the water reached our thighs and was icy cold.

Santa Cruz - Finally it was time to see the giant land tortoises. Man are they giant! And old. And slow. And so cool. They´ve been around since the time of the dinosaurs and can live up to about 200 years. We said a big hello to “Lonesome George” the Galapagos´ most famous inhabitant as he is a 95 year old (give or take) tortoise and unfortunately he is the last of his kind. They have given him 2 girlfriends but the fussy old fella ain´t having any of it which of course tragically means his breed will die out altogether when he passes on :o( We oohed and aahed over his tiny grand nieces and nephews though and anxiously watched as one baby accidentally flipped onto his back and fought for ages to eventually right himself up.

Rabida - A deep dark red sandy beach greeted us here and I immediately thought of our "Red Centre" soil back home as well as of beautiful Cape Trib beach as the red sand had the same silver sparkles as there. Funny little orange beaked oyster catcher birds, sea lions and dramatic cliffs against a bright blue sky.

Bartolome - A glorious cruise through the crystal waters up North (where my sunnies flew off into the ocean never to be seen again except maybe on a sea lion) and we had the unsurpassed pleasure of snorkelling with penguins. The Galapagos Penguins are the second smallest in the world (after our Fairy Penguins in Victoria) and they´re so cute and little and funny as they dart after the fish right infront of your mask (yep, more squeals of delight). More birds here in a feeding frenzy: storm petrels, owls, boobies and frigate birds. Yep, there were thousands and thousands of birds. Birds everywhere. Birds, birds, birds. In fact, there were so many birds I took a photo of myself standing on the cliffs amidst (or pretty close to) their flapping craziness.

Genovesa - "Guantanamera" is one of only a few boats that will head all the way to this island and it is one of the reasons we wanted to go on this boat. Here we had the best, right in your face sightings of the big black frigate birds that have a large piece of bright red skin at their throat connected to their tongue and when they´re trying to pick up a lady frigate they inflate it to the size of a balloon, flap their wings and make a lot of noise. When they rest their beak on the red part it takes the shape of a love heart. So cool and weird and unusual.

We also saw our first red footed boobies that obviously have red feet and also bright blue beaks. The blue footed boobies were around too and all of the birds here were nesting so we had the rare priviledge of seeing cute little fluffy chicks. Unfotunately though the path was super close to the nests and this is where my little uncool freak out took place and I was so distressed I had to return to the beach and sit with the sea lions as I composed myself. In fairness, the others said they were a bit freaked out too as the birds got a bit restless with their babies so close to the obtrusive humans so I didn´t feel as bad then. Besides, I never tired of watching (and listening to) the sea lions.

During our snorkelling trips we saw so many amazing things in the water. Once again a few highlights:

Obviously the playful sea lions were so enchanting playing with us in the water, copying our movements and the little penguins darting right by us after their food. Also the colourful fish, sea stars, reddish-brown volcanic rocks and lava formations underwater, the sea turtles and the sting rays. I was in the lead one day and saw something massive coming towards us and I let out the hugest scream in my snorkel as I realised it was a giant manta ray (I, of course, intitally thought it was a shark coming to eat me so the scream was relief, excitement and a little bit of fear all together). I kept thinking of the shark joke I know:

You know why it´s called a shark don´t you? Because when you´re out there in the ocean and you see the notorious grey fin pop up nearby and the sound of cellos begins to play the Jaws theme song in your head, you don´t know whether to scream "shiiiiit!!!!" or ´faaaark!!!!" and it comes out "SHAAAARK!!!!"

I have already written so much and haven´t even mentioned the glorious blanket of stars we gazed upon from the boat each night. As we crossed the Equator enroute to Genovesa I could see the Big Dipper in the Northen Hemisphere and our beautiful Southern Cross in the Southern Hemisphere at the same time.

The food, the fun, the atmosphere, the amazement of it all. Too much to try and convey...hopefully it´s not too boring (there´s a lot of detail as Mum is printing these for my records too). And that was just week 1!

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Photos

Marine Iguana
"Flat out like a lizard drinking"

Stace & the Sea Lion
How much do I love my new underwater digital camera!