Blogs from Santa Cruz Island, Galápagos, Ecuador, South America - page 2

Santa Cruz (English Indefatigable) is the second largest of the Galápagos islands after Isabella, and contains the largest urban center, Puerto Ayora. During the night the crew had cruised the boat to Puerto Ayora for refueling in the early morning, and anchored near the fuel station. I walked to the stern of the boat in the early morning and immediately noticed that there was a lot of commotion with pelicans and other seabirds diving under the rear of the boat as it began to move toward the fuel station. It quickly became what can only be described as a feeding frenzy among the birds, who were soon joined by several small sharks and at least one larger (7-8 feet) Galápagos shark. I could only assume that many small fish had gathered under our boat during the ... read more

Arrived late afternoon to our final stop of the Galapagos; Santa Cruz...most folks start here, a lot of the cruises leave from this most populous island of the archipelago and it certainly has the most infrastructure of the islands we saw...a few things planned but with only two full days here and it being the end of the line we certainly wanted to squeeze in a little more relaxin'... Having already stopped here in transit to Isabela we had a bit of the lay of the land which was great...on our previous stop we managed to take in the Charles Darwin Research Station which was cool, although a large portion of it was under renovations so the museum was closed and the baby tortoises had been relocated which was a drag...a couple of pens of the ... read more

Today we went out on the boat again, this time to Santa Fe Island. It took us about an hour and a half to motor over to the island. I know I found it very hard to stay awake as the Altamar rolled gently from side to side as she motored along into a head wind. I don't think that I was the only one who had a little snooze on the way either! On our way were were treated to sightings of some turtles and a couple of sea lions. When we arrived at the island our boat was able to pull into the sheltered bay very close to the sea lion colony. We were ferried ashore again in the inflatable dinghy right onto the beach covered with lounging sea lions. Felipe pointed out the ... read more

My excitement as we flew into Santa Cruz Airport on the Galapagos Islands meant that I could barely stay in my seat. Visiting Galapagos was the culmination of childhood dreams fed by naturalists including David Attenborough. My mind was racing through hopes and wishes. Would I see the Giant Tortoises? The Blue Footed Boobies? What would I make of the landscape? I hoped against hope that I would not be disappointed. The flight landed then it was a bus ride, a ferry and another bus and we arrived in Puerto Ayora where within moments of arrival we saw blue footed boobies, frigate birds and pelicans (completely different to home pelicans) diving beak first into a bay where sea lions played. I was speechless. We wandered from tour agency to tour agency in search of the best ... read more

Elämää eläinten ehdoilla Näiden muutamien saareilla vietettyjen päivien aikana on käynyt täysin selväksi, että täällä elämä kulkee eläinten ja luonnon ehdoilla. Saaren alkuperäiset asukkaat määrävät täällä tahdin ja ihmisen on siihen sopeuduttava. Eläimet ovat etuoikeutettuja ja niiden toimia ja elämistä ei saa häiritä millään tavalla. Jos merileijona sattuu asettumaan ihmisille varatulle penkille, niin ihmisen on väistettävä. Vähän kuin Intian pyhät lehmät - täällä (lähes) kaikki eläimet ovat vastaavassa asemassa. Lähes siksi, että merestä kyllä pyydetään kalaa ja äyriäisiä joita syödään ja tarpeettomat eläimet poistetaan jopa kovallkain kädellä. Saarille on aikanaan tullut hylkeenpyytäjien ja ensimmäisten asukkaiden mukana vuohia ja aaseja. Nämä eivät kuulu saarten alkuperäiseen eläimistöön ja siksi ne muuttivat ekosysteemiä väärään suuntaan. Jotta vääränlainen kehitys... read more