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Land iguana
Happily posing!check him out, Mark was off with the others in search of some more sharks. After a couple of minutes my close observation of the iguana was disturbed by Mark shouting, Look! Behind you!! Expecting at least a large fin sticking out of the water, I quickly turned around.....and was very pleasantly surprised by a sealion sliding of the rocks into the water next to me. I definitely need to come up with a device that can divide my attention in three different direction I thought.... There is just too much to look at!
Welcome to the Galapagos! The most amazing and bizare place we´ve ever visited. Where moments as discribed above not just happen once, but daily and constantly. We visited the Islands for 10 days, of which an eight day cruise. Yes, it´s true, it cost you an arm and a leg and admittently for the price we paid the cruise wasn´t always greatly organised. The guide for the first four days was very hard work (luckily this changed halfway, which made the tour a thousand times better) and the Islands and bays weren´t as disserted as we expected,,, but you only have to look in
Frigate bird
Male blowing up his large red sack, to attract the females. the cheeky eyes of a sealion pub who is swimming around you and you never want to leave again.
The boat we were on was called the Estrella del Mar. With 14 passengers, 1 guide and 7 crew members we sailed around the Islands. It was a great feeling that for this entire week we didn´t have to think, plan or arrange anything. The only thing we had to worry about was the bell, ringing every time the food was ready or when we were about to go and visit an Island/ do some snorkeling.
But we didn´t even have to leave the boat to see some amazing things. On our first night, we watched for an hour how a group of galapagos sharks were feeding on fish and how a sealion was swimming around the boat attracted by the lights. From that day on every night there was some sort of show, with as a highlight a group of about ten sealions catching flying fish (again usig the lights of our boat). It was spectacular to see the fish flying over the water for upto 30 metres or so whilst being chased by a pack of three sealions.
apperently the eyesight of flying fish isn´t great, as quite often they ended up hitting our boat, or even landing on deck.
Some days we had to sail for a couple of hours to the next Island (we did this mostly overnight) And even during these times, we had some fantastic encounters. A whale swimming next to our boat, a massive manta ray coming to the surface and twice a very playfull group of bottlenose dolphins swimming with us. We were all looking in disbelief when our guide yelled at us....Quick get ready, get your snorkeling gear we´re going in, when a group of about 30 dolphins were closeby.
Our whole group broke a record, changing into our swimming gear, and we jumped in the two zodiac's (the little motorboats we used every time to visit the Islands). The Dolphins were attracted to those little boats and were jumping along with us, so close we could have easily touched them by reaching out our arm. Unfortunatley they were on the go and didn´t have time to stay and play, so every time we stopped and jumped in the water, they dove under and were gone within 5 sec. But still,
it was one of those moments of which I hope I will be able to recall that feeling for the rest of your life.
Except for the dolphins we had some close encouters whilst snorkeling, with pinguins flying past , big seaturtles getting there shells cleaned by little fish in a ´cleaningstation´and we were several times joined by playful sealions. The sealions were amazing and at one point we got caught up in the little game of a sealion, who was wildly attracted to Mark. Swimming up to his face, circling around him and even managed to give Mark a little scare by blowing bubbles in the camara on the moment Mark was just taking a picture.
The wildlife is as amazing on land as under the water and what makes this place so special is that none of the animals are afraid or even slightly concerned about us being there. Which resulted in us sitting on beaches surrounded by hundreds of sealions, having to almost step over an albatros, because it decided to make a nest right on our path (like it didnt know what those black and white markers meant) and constantly keeping a close eye
on not to trample one of the very well camouflaged iguanas ( particularly the marine variety which like to sneeze alot). During a sunset, we saw some beautiful flamingoes performing their pairing dance, with the red lit sky in the back ground. And of course the gentle giant tortoises moving slowly in search for a bit of shade.....
And then, when we had some time to move our attention to look up into the sky there was always another spectacle waiting. blue footed boobies and pelicans bombarding the fish as their streamlined bodies plunged into the water and afterwards trying to avoid the wonderful mastery of acrobatics from the frigate birds who are intent on steeling the catch (It´s even more amazing to watch these thieves in action as they have no bouyancy and will quickly drown should they hit the water)
A lot of the animals on these Island are endemic meaning they are found nowhere else on the planet (which explains the very original names of Galapagos shark, Galapagos pinguin, Galapagos iguana, etc....), and looking at them they seemed quite pleased with the home they made for themselves. Likewise, we found the islands enchanting and our
eight day cruise blew passed way too quickly.
The fact that we hadn´t had any time to do a couple of dives here (as the Islands are famous for diving with large schools of hamerhead sharks) and the knowledge that Briony and Nick (a couple we met and had a great time with during our cruise) were staying a couple of days longer, made us change our ticket 20 minutes before our actual flight took off. The four of us booked a divingtrip for the next day to Gordon´s Rock, with the promise of a 90% chance on seeing some heamerheads.
This turned out to be quite the experience, and I wish I knew beforehand that this dive site also had the nickname ´The washing machine´. Jumping into this whirlpool and trying to stay clear from the waves crashing into the rocks, was exhausting. It didn´t get any better, as our guide only started to put on his scuba kit once in the water, which meant we had to kick even harder and longer to get away from the rocks, Briony lost her flipper in all the chaos, we had to climb back on board and do it all
over again. The second try went better, but even at 30 metres down we had to cling to the rocks because of the strong current (+4knots)and to make it all complete......NO heamerhead sharks! The Galapagos is known for some spectacular diving, but also it´s tough conditions! Unfortunatly for us, it wasn´t a great experience, but at least we can tick the box of diving the Galapagos :-) And the next day, when we were standing at the little pier, 5 minutes from our hotel, enjoying our last evening in this amazing environment....... some baby heamerheads swam past as if to make sure we at least got a glimps of them.
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meertje
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I'm SOOOOOOO JEALOUS!!! (...) ;-)