Galapagos - Ecuador

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Well this should have been a highlight of the cruise but ended up a real fizzer. Our travel agent had insisted that we would not be able to book shore excursions until we boarded the MV Discovery. On arrival, we were told that all the shore trips for Galapagos were sold out and they said we should see our travel agent when we got back and ask them why we had not been given an advance booking form. They did put us on a standby list and eventually we were given about the worst shore excursion that we had ever been on, the bit that spoilt it was one and a half hours at sea in a small very uncomfortable boat listening to the crew yelling at each other in Spanish. Anyway, this cruise had cost us about as much as a new Jaguar so we decided to make the best of it and here is what we managed to see on Galapagos. Most of these pictures we taken on a couple of half day tours that every passenger was given as part of the cruise.

We’ll start of with a picture of the cruise liner the MV Discovery, this small boat can hold around 700 passengers but a maximum of only 500 are allowed to visit Galapagos.












Our first views of San Cristobal Harbour, Galapagos





Welcome to Galapagos





Even a boat as small as this cannot get into San Cristobal Harbour so the lifeboats are used as shore tenders. It is good that both the crew and passengers get plenty of practice using them and that they are tested regularly. The negative side is that they have a constant smell of both diesel fuel and diesel fumes that are not very pleasant; they also leave a smell on your clothes.








Any cruise will only give you a sample of the places that you visit, most of the time this is sufficient but if you are serious about seeing more on Galapagos this might be a better way to do it. We do not have any details but we understand that you can visit most of the islands on the small boats, one carries 16 passengers, fully catered and you are accompanied by a qualified National Parks Guide.






Most of the coastline has these type of lava rocks, some are smooth but many are like pumice stone as I was to find out later.






I think these are crabs but they might be lobsters, our guide did not know, he was there to make sure that we did no harm.






Marine Iguanas







I was quite pleased with these couple of shots of a large bird entering the water but I’d like to get better ones in future.






We are now sailing close to Kicker Rock on our way to Isla Lobos











Kicker Rock is quite spectacular when viewed from the sea









A male and a female lizard of the same species.







We found this very interesting, it’s an Ant Lion trap and they are found all over the world. They dig a cone shaped hole in the sand, small insects, such as ants, fall in and are captured by the ant lion that hides beneath the sand at the bottom of the hole. They are the larvae of the lace wing moth.















We were very lucky to even see this bird and very privileged to have it pose for us. It is the very rare and endangered Lava Gull. The experts estimate that there are less than 150 pairs left. They do not breed in captivity and their food supply has been just about fished out.









Tessellated Volcanic Rocks.







OK, without Googling, what is the difference between a seal and a sea lion? Most of our guides thought they were the same. Well I had to cheat and use Google which tells me that Sea Lions have ears and can walk on their fins, Seals have no ears and can only waddle. There are many bigger differences but they are mainly internal.







Frigate Birds - these are a large bird, very common in this part of the world. We were told by many people that they are pirates that steal food from other birds usually by causing them to regurgitate it, often in flight. The reason for this behaviour is that they do not have oil glands that will protect their feathers from salt water so they are unable to fish for themselves. These birds are quite large and very active so they must need a fair bit of food but we never saw any of them eating anything at all.






Here we have some frigate birds flying over a fresh water lake. The guides told us that they use this lake to remove any salt from their feathers; we watched them for quite some time but did not see any of them entering the water.







Nine of us travelled for one and half hours in this small boat at high speed in fairly rough seas. We were glad to arrive at the destination because it was constantly banging into the waves. We could not understand why these small craft are called ‘pleasure boats’.








This Zodiac was used to bring us ashore.







Another example of lava rock, this formed the pathway from the beach.







Suppose this could be called a cactus tree.









This is a form of Spanish or Florida Moss that was probably introduced by man to the islands. It is an epiphyte rather than a true moss; it lives on the plant but makes its own food and does not rely on the tree for anything except a resting place.







Small coastal crater







Was very interested in the Paw Paw that seems to grow very well in the rich volcanic soil. We have them in our Australian garden but they do not grow even a fraction as well as this.







The Giant Tortoise, one of the main reasons for our visit.










There are about 24,000 Giant Tortoises on Galapagos and most of them have been given a serial number like the last one above.






Sometimes they are stressed and have a little scrap.







I’ve got a boat - finders keepers. Not sure what the law is on this, you may not touch or go nearer than two metres to any wild animal.







Mr & Mrs Lizard, evidentially the male protects the female during the egg laying.







A university building used by field studies students from the mainland.







This explains the present state of affairs. One of the early settlers, about 300 years ago, started a business selling tortoise meat to sailing ships, only took about 18 months to wipe out the tortoise population from one of the islands. One did survive, it is now the last of the species and is called “Lonely George”, it lives in the research station.







I went for a stroll over these rocks to take pictures of the marine iguanas feeding in the sea. At one point, I decided to do a double somersault with triple turn landing on my back. Red stuff was leaking out all over the place but after stopping that found that I’d lost my watch, it’s still there.









A couple of cooperative dragon flies, one resting the other in flight.

















A few Finches





This finch is on a poison apple tree. The Giant Tortoise can eat these but they would make a human very ill.




Incidentally Galapagos is on the Equator and when we were crossing it I got my PDA out because I thought I'd like to see the GPS displaying zero. It didn't, jumped from 000.042S to 000.027N, so there is no equator. Similar thing happened crossing the Greenwich line.

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