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Published: August 29th 2010
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Although I love a snuggly pooch, I've never considered myself an extreme wildlife lover. So I was a little skeptical about the reported amazingness of the Galapagos animals. This skeptic is now a believer. Its true that the animals there don't seem to mind (or even notice) your presence. Large, cartoon-like birds build their nests in the middle of the trail and glance at you sideways when you walk by. Seals nurse on the beach and curious little ones actually scoot TOWARDS you. Giant piles of iguanas basking in the sun obstruct the path and don't even bother to flinch as you step over them. Even the turtles keep their heads out of their shells and seem to smile for photos. And the result is a unique feeling of community with beautiful and strange animals. So the rumors are true- the animals in the Galapagos rock.
There are lots of interesting animal factoids that I learned during the week. Lets start with my favorite creature- one of the mascots of the islas- the blue-footed booby. This bird honestly looks like he stepped out of the Sunday funny pages. With big blue feet and big blue bills, they seem
to stare you straight in the eye. They make a really eerie sounding whistling noise and are in constant courtship behavior. They "sky-point" by opening up their wide wings and aiming their beak upwards to prove how desirable they are to the lady-birds. We were lucky to see lots of baby boobys, too. Booby "nests" are interesting because there is no nest. The birds essentially make a circle out of their poop on a patch of flat ground. And within that circle is where they raise their young ones. If you don't believe me, check out the photos. Its real. As a person who has always been kind of indifferent to birds, I was mesmerized by these guys. Literally.
There were many other bird species with special traits and behaviors. Almost all of them were giant and amazing. The albatross was another favorite. But a real crowd-pleaser was the Galapagos penguin. PENGUIN. And I thought they only existed in Sea World and Antarctica- wrong. They were super entertaining- darting around at the speed of light. They were not bothered by snorklers and we would often see them whizzing by when we were in the water.
While we are on the topic of snorkeling, lets discuss it a little bit more... I usually prefer land-based activities as I'm a big fan of oxygen, but the snorkeling in the GIs was amazing enough to send me into the chilly water every single afternoon. There were schools of colorful fish and sea anenomes galore. But the special attractions were the large critters. Each snorkeling expedition was filled with the hope of swimming with turtles/sea lions/sting rays. I did spot several giant rays spanning at least a meter lurking on the floor of the ocean. We swam with several turtles which was AMAZING. However, my favorite (and one of the highlights of the whole trip for me) was swimming with sea lions. Now, living in San Diego breeds some familiarity with these guys, but this was a whole different gig. The younger ones were so curious, they would swim right up to you, stare at your goggles and then whiz by you only to return a few seconds later for the same game. I learned how to laugh through a snorkle. Lots. If I ever go back, it will be for that feeling..... My primary whimp-out of the
Galapgos land turtle
Spotted this guy off the trail. Their sex is determined by the temperature at which the egg incubates. That boggles my mind. whole Ecuador trip was declining to snorkle through the shark grotto. A channel about two meters wide where the sharks come to chill. Enclosed space + sharks does not = Jen. Maybe next time...
The other main characters of the trip included iguanas- of both the land and the sea variety. They pile on top of each other. They spit frequently (as a way of eliminating excess salt) and they make you feel like a visitor in their world. Each island has a slightly different variety of iguana adapted to the unique circumstances there. Pretty cool. Then there is the famous Galapagos turtle- again of both the land and sea variety. They have teetered on the edge of extinction on several different islands (although apparently used to be rampantly available to dine on for visiting ships and even Charles Darwin...) There are lots of conservation efforts and all the tourist ships seem to stop at the reserves that are working to repopulate each islands with these giant creatures. But the real treat is spotting them in the wild. They were always poking their little heads above the ocean for seconds at a time and I got to
see a few up close and personal while snorkeling. By the way, they may live to be over 130 years old. Whoa.
This is the kind of experience that you look back on and ask, "did that really happen?" The answer is yes, I saw a flamingo the same day as a penguin. I felt a sea lion's body as it swam beneath me in the ocean. I watched an iguana dine in the drizzling rain. I saw a bright red crab chow down on algae in the warm sun. Postcards and T-shirts do not reflect what you experience in the Galapagos. Even pictures and videos barely capture the feelings that you have. The longer I am away, the more I want to go back. I feel fortunate and ridiculously happy to have experienced that little world.
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Aunt Jeanne
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Jealous
I am so JEALOUS. I am now extra motivated in talking Gene into going. Are you back in the states? jj