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Published: April 21st 2008
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Blue Footed Booby
This is one of Galapagos' famous creaturesand there were a lot to see. It isn't known why they have blue feet but it definatelt makes them stand out. Unfortunately I have now left the Glapagos and am in, not so sunny, Quito. I had a fantastic time in the islands and just wish I could have stayed longer. I have done soooooooooooo much since I last wrote a blog and I am sure I will forget to write many things.
I ended up doing three days diving as I was very egar to see some hammer head sharks. I had an excellent couple of days and saw many white tipped reef sharks, turtles, rays and loads of tropical fish, but no hammerheads!! At the end of the dive day I was very tired and sat and watched volleyball competitions in the town centre as Volley is Ecuadors favourite sport and is played a lot and taken very seriously.
On the day my tour started I had to make my way back across the island to the airport where I was to meet my tour group. I did find a GAP group and we made our way to the boat, where I then found out I had joined the wrong group and that I was on completely the wrong boat!!! Oh well, I changed boats and meet
Land iguana
This is one of many land iguanas that I saw on the trip. It was very werid to see so many of them just lying around in the sun. my actual group. There was 11 of us on the boat for the first half of the tour and then 16 for the second half of the week. It was a very varied group but I think thats why it worked so well. There were some younger couple but also some uni professors and some very knowlegable bird and plant people. There were quite a few Brits, some Canadians and then some Aussies, they were a great group and I made some really good friends. I have learnt sooooooooo much while on this trip which was brilliant as I didnt know much about the islands before I had come, only the basics. We had a guide throughout the trip who was a marine biologist and grew up on the Galapagos and seemed to know the answer to everything to do with the islands.
We would have a breifing in the evening of the next days activities and also a brief lecture on a particular topic to do with the island. There would be a shore trip to one of the islands, which was straight after breakfast at about 7 (although a couple of days we left at 6 in
baby sea lion
ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh the morning!!) and then usually some snorkelling and then another trip after lunch aswell. The days were definately packed and by 9 at night we were usually in bed because we were that tired. The best part for me was the snorkeling and the fact we got to do so much. Each time we snorkled we would be in the water well over an hour and then some days we would snorkel twice in a day so I have done so much swimming on the trip which suited me perfectly. We saw many more white tipped reef sharks and couple of Galapagos sharks, turtles and more fish. Towards the end of the week we were sort of seeing the same marine animals so we spent lots of the time, diving and jumping of the ship, also, the guide used to be a free diver so he taught me a bit and I think the deepest I manged to get was about 13m which I was very pleased with!
The Galapagos is in its rainy season at the moment and there were a couple of extreme down pours but the rest of the time was brilliant sunshine. There was this
one day when we were on a hike on one of the islands and it was 36 degrees!!!! Boiling!!!! The wildlife is incredable in the islands and creates great photo opportunities!! I have learnt so much about the geology, the climate, and all the wildlife. The sheer amount of sealions, iguanas, and varities of birds was very cool. We also saw giant land Tortoises which is what the Glapagos is named after, in the wild.
There are a lot of tourists in the islands and it was very rare to be somewhere where there wasn't another group close by. A shame in some respects for us but the Islands are so well managed that the tourists areas in relation to the islands land mass are very small so preserving the majority without any human impact. Once you are on the islands there are specific pathways and it is strictly prohibitied to leave them. Only 3% of the galapagos aren't within the national park status so they are being very well maintained, although our guide told us that from next year they are significantly reduceing the amount of tourists entering the islands, so Im very pleased how well timed my
marine Iguanas
Here are some iguanas sun batheing on the sea edge. Because they are cold blooded animals they spend a lot of time heating up in the sun before they head into the sea to get some food. trip was. We saw different landscapes, different beaches and from island to island you could see how each had evolved differently and why.
On a couple of occassions I got up at 3-4 in the morning and went up to the roof of the ship and the stars were amazing. At that time the moon had gone and so it was very dark and you could see planets, the milkyway, the big dipper, scopio, arians belt, the southern star, shooting stars etc. I learnt so much about astrollogy aswell!!!!
On the last day during our morning shore excusion we were on the top of a cliff watching out for birds and we saw a hammerhead shark swimming around at the base of the cliff, I had moaned during the week that I hadnt seen one so everyone shouted at me HAMMERHEAD and I just caught a glimpse, but that was enough, it was very cool!!
living on the boat was amazing and we would sail at night to different islands. The cabins were very small and I was sharing with a Canadain lady but we didnt spend that much time in there so it was alright. In
Frigate bird
This is a very common bird in the Galapagos. this one is female but the males have red bills which balloon up during the mating season. they would fly round our boat as we were moving so we saw a lot. the evening we would have very long card games and a lot of Ecuadorian beer was drunk!!!!!
As you can probably tell I have a lot to say about this trip and so many pictures. If anyone whats to learn more about the islands just come and talk to me when I get back!!!!!
I'm in Quito till wednesday and then I fly down to Lima, Peru which will be very exciting. There is only a couple of weeks left now till I have to come home but I've still got a lot more to do and see.
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Camilla
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1 picture again??!!
Or are we on together again!!