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First Sea Lion Encounter!
Mothers nursing their babies, not batting an eyelid at my presence The 7 of us in the hotel (Chris and myself, an older couple from York - Sue and Keith, Erica and Rachel from the USA and Mark from Switzerland) flew to San Cristobal this morning, 620 miles away, to meet our naturalist guide (Hanzel) who took us to our home for the next 7 nights - a 79 foot GAP adventures yacht.
The archipelago is comprised of 13 major islands (each at least 10 square km in area) and over 40 small islands, islets and rocks, which totals 7882 square km of land area. Much of the land mass is lava; the islands are of volcanic origin. But unlike most of the world's volcanic areas, the islands do not lie on the borders of two tectonic plates, instead scientists use the "hotspot" theory to explain their existence. This is where a fixed area of extraordinary heat in the magma occasionally bubbles up to form a volcano. The islands sit on the Nazca plate, which is moving eat and downwards at 3-4cm per year, causing volcanoes to come off the hotspot and become extinct, erode and submerge. Meanwhile new volcanoes appear. Thus the eastern islands are the oldest and most weathered:
San Cristobal is 2.3-6.3 million years old, whereas Isabela and Fernandina in the west are only 100,000 years old. Two chains of extinct and eroded underwater volcanoes (Locos and Carnegie ridges) 100km north east and east are evidence that the hotspot has been working for tens of millions of years. Balsatic lava, rather than producing high cone shaped volcanoes, makes shield shaped ones. The broad tops can collapse into empty magma chambers leaving depressions many times the size of the original vents or craters. Sierra Negra volcano on Isabela has a crater 10km across. This volcano was the last to erupt, in 2005.
The Galapagos Islands are famous for inspiring Charles Darwin's theory of evolution; natural selection. Because of the 8 different currents (the prevailing ones being the cold Humboldt current and warm Panama current) there are many many different microclimates, even within each island. This gives rise to a huge number of weird and wonderful species (and subspecies; differing from island to island depending on the habitat and food chain) that are endemic here, i.e. found nowhere else in the world. You have no doubt heard of Darwin's finches - the 13 species differed between islands, through natural
selection, in characteristics such a beak size and shape (dependent on their food source). Darwin did in fact sit on his theory for 20 years (he landed on the islands in the Beagle in 1835, but didn't publish The Origin of Species until 1859); as he collected more evidence to convert the Creationist religious ideas at the time. Whilst controversial, Darwin became a legend by the time of his death in 1882 and was buried next to Sir Isaac Newton at Westminster Abbey. However his theories weren't fully accepted until the 1930's.
Tourism began in the late 1960's (now bringing 70,000 visitors per year and with 21,000 inhabitants), but the first documented visitor was Tomas de Berlanga (the Bishop of Panama) when his ship to Peru went off course in 1535. Thee islands were named in 1574, after the giant tortoises found here. The first settler was an Irishman called Patrick Watkins, after quarrelling with his captain and deserting the ship. He stayed on Floreana for 2 years, but not through lack of trying to escape. No ship would take him due to his ferocious appearance. So eventually he stole a ship and abducted four people to crew it,
but mysteriously arrive alone to Guayaquil. He was imprisoned.
The best bit about the islands for tourists, is that the animals have no fear of humans; they are completely tame. On boarding our dingy to the yacht we had to step around sea lions basking in the sun, and watched as they followed the boat, leaping in and out of the water. Fantastic welcome party.
After lunch on board we took the dingy out to Playa Ochoa - a completely deserted beach (aside from the sea lions) with water bluer and clearer than ever I've seen before. After a wet landing we had a seat with the sea lions, they did not bat an eyelid! In fact, one of them took a liking to Rachel and was rubbing up to her! A number of mothers were nursing babies (the suckling sound was adorable! Characteristic of the younger ones who have not learnt to suckle properly) but this didn't stop us from getting just inches away from them. It was then time for our first snorkel, where mother and baby sea lion swam alongside us and played! Reaching the shore they lay on their sides and rolled over and
over on the sand inching thier way up the beach before getting on all fours and clumsily "walking" the rest of the way. Such a contrast to see them glide so elegantly through the water and then act in such an ungainly way on land. And the noises they make! More often than the barking noise I recognised from the zoo, they made horrendous deep choking noises very similar to the sound of someone belching or vomiting! And the abbies baa like sheep! One approached us from the sea crying and crying away - we think it had lost its mother.
We returned to the yacht thrilled with our first day and already dreading leaving this magical place.
Chris's Corner The first day was a dream, in just an afternoon we had played with sea lions, seen how approachable they were (sometimes approaching us) and swum with a couple whilst having a great time snorkelling. The horseflies took some fighting off and Sophie's legs took some biting, but the day we had been looking forward to was worth the wait!
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