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(by Callum) After a long anticipated wait it was finally time to head to the Galapagos Islands!! A typical three hour South American airline flight from Quito had us arrive to the endemic isles of the Galapagos. I was expecting to trip over sea iguanas and God knows what else, and sure enough after a short bus ride we shared the gang plank to the ferry with a sea lion, which had decided to get out of the sun.
Santa Cruz, one of the biggest islands, is largely vegetated and seemed to be growing greener as we drove through it. I had anticipated ancient lava flows and barren landscapes, but instead we drive through banana plantations and dense bush. Our excitement grew as we got closer to Puerto Ayora where our boat and guide were waiting. There were 14 people on the 20 person boat, so loads of room. I think it was a schooner, (could be wrong on that one) she was big anyway. After a quick lunch we were bundled into a small runabout and transported off to see the giant endemic Galapagos land turtles. Before I get too carried away with the animals, most animals in
Baby Sea Lions Playing (approx 2 months old)
Mum was out fishing, so they were playing around on the beach waiting for a feed. the Galapagos are called "The Galapagos.......", and most are endemic which means "exclusively native to the area" (I had to look that up). Our guide preferred to remain anonymous and had a minor hatred of all things touristy, including tourists! Luckily he was very knowledgeable, and described all inhabitants as endemic!
Right on we go! After a short walk through a lava tunnel formed millions of years ago, we managed to find the local bulldozer or should I say Turtledozer! Frank was frankly the biggest turtle I had ever seen. Just looking at the size of this fella was enough to make us wonder how these creatures had managed to survive; I certainly would not like to have been born a female (as they are tiny in comparison) with this fella around. From there we returned to the boat, which set sail that evening for the Island Rabida.
The following day started with a short walk where we encountered sea lions, pelicans and blue footed boobies. We were introduced to the magical wonderland beneath the water with our first snorkeling trip. In fact this was pretty much the schedule for the entire trip, each day would consist of
two walks and two snorkel sessions,which worked out well as it was sweltering on all the islands so by the end of the walk we were dying to get in the water. On our first snorkel I missed a shark swim by as I was checking out a sting ray. It was a white tipped reef shark but a shark nether the less! Nicole saw it and we decided to swim along together for safety!! The rest of the dive reveled shoals of fish and more sea lions. It was quickly apparent that these animals were simply not afraid of us.
Next stop was Santiago Island, here we saw our first sea iguanas and Nic caught sight of a massive killer whale just of the cost, no doubt after those mischievous sea lions, or possibly the sea turtles. After a bit too much sun Nic decided to miss the afternoons snorkeling mission, so I set off with the view to get closer to the wild life and was not disappointed. The fish were bigger and more numerous here and the lava flows had created some colorful rock formations and trenches loaded with life. A few sharks and rays here
and there but no sea turtles. That was until I took a look to my left and there he was....about a meter and a half of green cursing next to me without a stress in the world, priceless!
The next day was the first real history lesson from our guide on Santiago Island. It is a relatively new Island and has some very new lava flows. According to the coloring of the flows and the amount of vegetation your can tell how long ago the eruption was. Black lava is new (just over a hundred years old), red is older (about a thousand years old) and used to be black before it rusted. Pretty crazy walking around on the lava flow, loads of weird formations! While we were suiting up for the next snorkel the cook was throwing fish in the water, which brought the "friendly" neighborhood Galapagos shark to the boat, all 2-3 meters of him!! Better get in the water then! Luckily they took us away from the boat´s new friend to a place where we could see one of the only species of penguins living in the Northern Hemisphere. These little fellas where lightning fast and
apparently like to nip tourists on the legs. Lucky we didn´t get any nips but I did get attacked by some tiny hungry orange fish!
Galapagos was amazing. Although at first we were wondering why we had paid so much for the experience (25%!o(MISSING)f a four month budget evaporated in 6 days), being able to stand within a foot of a blue footed boobies nest and have the bird look up at you as if it was asking you to get out of its sun, or have a sea lion come within centimeters of your face is truly a unique experience and one I would recommend to all.
Cal
Highlight: Playing with sea lions, swimming with sharks
Lowlight: Being sick....on a boat
Best Munch: Pawn curry on board, surprisingly good!
Best Gulp: Pina Colada
Rate: 10/10
Interesting Fact: The Galapagos islands are moving south at a rate of 7centimeters per year. Each island is slowly sinking as it shifts, as they move off the continental hot spot new islands will be created through volcanic activity.
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