Galapagos!

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A trip to the Galapagos Islands was always one of the big drawcards for Jen and I choosing to travel in South America. Renowned for world-class wildlife viewing, their variety of animals and of course as the origin of Darwin's theory of evolution the Galapagos Islands were always going to be an exciting destination for us science nerds!

We arrived on the islands by plane from Quito, with the first visions of the islands showing them to be remarkably dry - almost barren; while the first animals we saw were a few sneaky finches feeding on crumbs in the airport. Soon we were on a bus towards Puerto Ayorra, learning along the way that for around 9 months of the year the lowlands recieve very little to no rain which leads to the dominant tree species (frankensense) dropping its leaves and creating a fairly bleak looking landscape. And here we were expecting luscious tropical forests! Soon we were aboard the picturesque ANGELIQUE, a 100+ year old sailing ship supposedly once used by pirates! Unfortunately the sails have since been removed, with the ship running only on motor. But still, it had much more character than the more expensive cruise ships. We also met our amazingly knowledgable and super friendly guide Fatima.

For the next 8 days we traveled from island to island, stopping in for walks through designated visitor sites and jumping into the ocean for a whole lot of snorkeling. Each of the volcanic islands provided a unique experience, with different assemblages of animals to look out for - partly as a result of the different landforms and resources present on each island, but also due to the differing influence of numerous ocean currents in different parts of the island archipelago. That's right folks, this is island biogeography in action!!! The other important factor for wildlife viewing is that up until the 16th Century there was no human habitation on the islands. The result is that most animals have no desire to flee when humans approach (and didn't the 18th Century whalers, sealers and pirates take advantage of this!).

So now to the animals, well the ones with interesting stories anyway:

With no large mammals native to the islands (although introduced goats, cats and dogs are now a problem) the giants of the land are giant land tortoises. In fact the word Galapagos actually means tortoise in Spanish! These guys and girls are massive and can live for well over 100 years. There were at least 14 different varieties throughout the islands - some with saddle shaped shells to allow eating from trees on some islands and other types with normal shells where groundcover is plentiful for feeding. Unfortunately 3 of these have become extinct (exploited for thier meat and oil in the early years of human habitation) while Lonesome George is the last remaining individual of another type.

A little less gigantic were the ever friendly marine turtles, who were always happy to let us accompany them for a swim around the rocky reefs. At several sandy beach sites we also saw their tracks, and signs of their nests in the sand dunes.

The most conspicuous animal as we arrived by dinghy at any given site were the ever lazing and ever-noisy sea lions. Often a large male would be seen patrolling the beach, whilst others were content to lay about in the sun, with young (and not so young) pups searching out their mum for a feed. Ocassionally a sea lion or two would come up to us whilst snorkelling, either giving you an initial fear of 'eeek, is that a shark?' or just deciding to check us out literally face-to-face. Such a treat! They are so much more graceful and less smelly in the water than on land. At Genevesa Island (the northernmost that we visited) we were also lucky enough to see a few fur seals as well, which are much rarer in the Galapagos.

And sometime whilst snorkeling it actually was sharks gliding into view. We were able to swim up close to black-tip reef sharks (i.e. small fry in the shark world) at several of the sites. We spied a couple of them having a snooze on the ocean bed at one site, and admired their graceful and powerful movement at others. There were also countless stings rays and manta rays to swim over and of course an assortment of colourful fish, dominated by the 'surgeon' variety at the sites we visited.

Marine iguanas exist only on the Galapagos Islands. These bizarre creatures actually spend most of their time on land, warming up on the black volcanic rocks until they have enough energy to take a dip into the ocean, have a nibble on the sea grass and kelp and then swim back up onto the rocks before getting too cold. One of the best snorkeling moments was witnessing a couple of these guys swim by (propelled only by their tail) and stop for a feast of the green stuff! There are also land iguanas which feed on cacti and the like, with most individuals showing remarkable shades of yellow and orange. In the smaller size class there were heaps of little lava lizards always happy to pose for the camera.

The birdlife on the Galapagos is amazing. When on land we were never far from one of the several varieties of finches with their various sized beaks (including the vampire finch which really does suck blood!) which helped Darwin theorise evolution. Male 'great' and 'magnificent' frigatebirds amazed us with their courting displays (see photos), or whilst feeding - the frigates don't like to get their wings wet so instead steal the catch from other seabirds like the tropic birds.

We had to be careful not to tread on swallow tailed gulls (they were everywhere on the ground!), and were lucky to spot some of their very rare relatives the dark lava gulls. Mockingbirds were always coming up to us, curiously searching through our bags or towels for water, there was the occassional albatross or two trying to take off from the clifftops, some galapagos doves, various types of hawks and a little migratory wader that goes by the name of wilsons phalarope. There were also several flamingos, including a young one which had us all madly clicking our cameras as it tried to catch fish and fly (both unsuccessfully!) just metres in front of us - so picturesque!

But without doubt the most loved birds of the Galapagos Islands are the Boobies!!, of which there are three species. We saw blue footed boobies on most of the islands. They put on fantastic shows diving at great speed into the water to catch fish. I was lucky enough to witness one such dive from underwater whilst snorkelling. We also saw one male doing a very clumsy looking courting dance where he raises one bright blue foot at a time, followed by the other! A bit like the hokey pokey really..

It was well worth the bumpy overnight voyage to the northern island Genevesa to see the main colony of red footed boobies in the Galapagos. Either white (dominant gene) or brown (recessive) in colour, with sky blue beaks and of course bright red feed, these birds were absolutely gorgeous. On many occassions I was caught declaring 'what a beautiful pair of boobies!'.

Without the coloured feet, Nasca boobies are often overlooked, but these guys are the real freaks of the booby world. Usually born in pairs (i.e. two eggs), each of the siblings will try to kill the other so as to get the limited food resources on offer and survive. Whilst this sounds crazy enough, it gets much darker... If one of the eggs is taken (e.g eaten or abandoned) then the single offspring will grow up as per usual, but then be possessed by the desire to kill another chick. They go about doing this by offering toys (usually sticks or twigs) to an unattended chick to befriend them. If a parent doesn't return in time, then a series of pecks to the head may kill the poor unsuspecting chick... We actually saw a few of the luckier chicks which had been saved in time, with cuts and blood on their head... Heavy stuff... But on a lighter note, every shop in town had at least one type of 'I love boobies' t-shirt or hat for sale!


After the tour on the Angelique we spent another week exploring by ourselves. On Santa Cruz we spent a few days lazing about in the main town of Puerto Ayorra and took a walk out to the beautiful Bahia Tortuga (Turtle Bay) where we saw lots of marine iguanas but no turtles. We then took a bumpy speed boat ride across to San Cristobal. Highlights here were having a whole bay to ourselves to snorkel, save for the pesky, aggressive male sea lion who wouldn't let us get out of the water where we wanted so instead we had the waves crash us up onto some rocks elswhere. But it was ok as this same sea lion then put on quite the courting show right in front of us as we dried off. He was courting a female sea lion, not us - just in case there was any ambiguity... We also spent hours watching turtles and sea lions frolic in the waters at a remote beach, and also right in front of the town esplanade during nightly strolls.

After a couple of days of persuading, Jen finally agreed to come on a bike ride from town (sea level) to the only freshwater lake of the islands, perched some 700m higher, 20-odd kms away. It turned out to be a bit ambitious on my part, with Jen letting me know exactly that before we had even left the hilly streets on the outskirts of town! For the next 3-4 hours we alternated between riding (in the less steep parts) and walking our bikes towards the lake, hoping at each bend that it was just around the corner. To add insult to injury the lake wasn't even that impressive! However seeing the change from dry lowland into the misty and luscious highland vegetation made it all worthwhile - didnt it Jen!? The ride back was definitely more enjoyable, altough it was all over in less than 30 minutes!

Other highlights:
- Both of us surviving several very bumpy stretches of ocean on the Angelique without being seasick. Then my stomach decided it didn't like the return to land on the final morning as i managed to vomit my way through the harbour and all through the giant tortoise enclosures at the Charles Darwin centre.. Perhaps the scent may have helped Lonesome George finally get his groove on!?! (Jeff 3 - Jen 2).

- We got engaged.

- Being on board Angelique for two 'welcome'-from-the-crew cocktails and one 'goodbye' cocktail. All amazingly strong and tasty! Thanks Juan Carlos!

- Convincing Jen that she wasn't allowed to take a baby sea lion home.





Ok ok, Susie would kill me if I didn't give more detail on the engagement, so here tis:

Over the past few months I had come up with the idea of proposing to Jen sometime in South America. With our trip to the Galapagos Islands being in the middle of our time on the 'continent', and indeed a halfway mark of our round-the-world travelling, it seemed like a good time and place. And also we were on a 100+yr old pirate ship! Back in Otavalo (see previous blog) I had dissuaded Jen from buying a ring that she quite liked, by saying 'thats really expensive' (which it definitely wasn't!) and umming and ahhing when she asked if I liked it. I then proceded to lose Jen at some nearby stalls, sneak back and buy the ring. Rather than diamonds or the like, this silver ring has an old Ecuadorian coin known as a 'Sucre' on it. Note that the man selling it wouldn't go for a lower price - trust me, I tried! It was later that i realised that i didn't have a box to put it in...

I was unsure about exactly when to pop the question. As nice as the boat was, it seemed a bit weird to go through when there was always 14 other people wandering about on-deck. But one afternoon after a great snorkel, the sun was setting as we sailed along and Jen gave me a lolly. 'Perfect!' i thought, so I ran and grabbed the ring, wrapped it up in the now empty lolly wrapper and returned. There in front of a few of the other members of the tour (though they were all oblivious), I asked the question, lolly in mouth!

Jen's initial response once she realised what I was in the process of asking was 'No way!'.. But thankfulñly this didn't deter me and she soon came around to an 'I'd Love to!!' And so there we were, engaged. We spent most of the next hour smiling and giggling like school girls out on the bow of the boat. We then used one of the crew welcome cocktails to announce to everyone else on board what had happened. This was done in English, while the Spanish speaking crew looked on somewhat confused. Jen was quick to rectify this yelling out above the excitement, 'Cansar! Cansar!' Now my Spanish isn't great, but I sensed that this wasn't quite right! Liz, an Ecuadorian onboard pointed out while laughing, 'no no...you mean Casar! Casar!'

'Casar' means 'to marry'.
'Cansar' means 'to get tired.' (quite fitting as the only married couple on board pointed out)
And for the record, I thought Jen had been saying that we were going to sing! 'We are?' I thought. ('Cantar' means 'to sing').

Over dinner we were treated to many well wishes from our fellow travellers, and the great story of how the married couple met - Swiss Peter had met Ecuadorian Liz years earlier whilst booking a previous trip to the Galapagos aboard none other than the Angelique!! It should be called the 'love boat'!

Until next time,
the newly tired
Jeff and Jen


p.s. Liz was also kind enough to let us know the value of the ring's Sucre coin back when they were in circulation... In good times you needed 2500 to buy one US dollar! And when hyperinflation brought about dollarisation in Ecuador that rate was more like 25,000 to 1!

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Photos

frigatebird courting part 1
two males fill up their red throat-sack-things in an attempt to lure a female hovering overhead

frigatebird courting part 2
the female picks the male with the biggest and brightest throat-sack-thing

frigatebird courting part 3
success! albeit short-lived..the female flew away about 5 seconds after the male got his wing over

post office bay, Floreana Island
started by 18th century whalers. you look through the letters for any that you can hand deliver, and leave your letters and postcards behind

a pair of lava gulls
this is one of the rarest species of gull in the world. apparently there are only around 400 pairs remaining. also act as important scavengers on the islands

persistent male (right) noisily courts a female sea lion
is it my fish breath???

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[Jen n Jeff]

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