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Published: August 12th 2008
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Since our last blog we have been travelling the islands of the Galapagos, another place which was near the top of our places to visit and all we can say is that they were amazing, hence the 3 pages of photos! We booked a trip with GAP, and flew out from Quito to spend a week sailing around the islands.
As soon as we arrived, we were greeted by sea lions... sleeping on the benches at the dock as we boarded the zodiacs to get to our boat. The boat we had was pretty luxurious by our travelling standards. Galapagos is not really on the backpacker route, mainly because of the cost as this place is not cheap by anyones standard. So we had a bit of luxury for a week which was nice, with so much great food, breakfast, lunch and dinner, 2 or 3 courses every day, all cooked by the chef on board. It was like being back on the Inca Trail again with all the porters and chef looking after us!
We started touring the islands as soon as we arrived with a short trip to Black Turtle Cove. We had a brilliant start as
we were followed by loads of Frigate birds, which scarily looked like Pterodactyl dinosaurs from below! We came across a massive group of Blue Footed Boobies, saw a few Green Sea Turtles swimming in the cove and then a glimpse of a shark jumping out of the water chasing a fish, what a start!
The 7 days went pretty quickly as we settled into a routine of a morning trip, hiking around one of the islands, snorkeling, relaxing on the boat for lunch and then another hike in the afternoon. This meant we travelled overnight between islands so we could enjoy them as much as possible during the day, however it did mean the boat was moving overnight. The first 2 nights between Santa Cruz to Floreana, and then Floreana to Espanola, were really rough crossings. No one really got any sleep as the boat would move so much, during the midday rest between island trips, we all slept! Luckily it was only these 2 nights when it was really bad, the rest of the trip was pretty smooth in comparison.
We got to see so much wildlife in our 7 days, Frigate Birds, Blue Footed Boobies, Nazca
Boobies, Green Sea Turtles, Waved Albatrosses, Marine and Land Iguana's, Giant Tortoises, Black and White-tipped Reef Sharks, Sea Lions... the list could go on. We also swam briefly with a sea lion, which are really playful in the water, and saw a few sharks from the boat, although we didn't get to swim with any of them. One of the most amazing things is how close we could get to the animals, and they didn't seem to care. We were walking along one of the paths on Espanola Island and a Waved Albatross was sitting on the path nesting! When we got closer we could see she had a chick underneath, we had to walk right past her and she just watched us go by, not afraid of us at all.
On Floreana Island we spotted quite a few sea turtle nests on the beach, and as we were walking along we happened to spot a baby turtle climbing out of the nest and trying to get down the beach to the sea. The baby turtles are meant to wait until dark before they emerge but this one had come up early... unfortunately one of the sea turtles' mortal
enemies, the Frigate bird, had noticed the turtle and we watched as it flew down and scooped up the little dude for dinner. The cruel side of nature for sure, but hopefully the other turtles in the nest decided to wait for dark and made it to the sea.
Also on our trip we visited the Charles Darwin Research Station, where they take care of some of the endangered wildlife, such as the Giant Tortoises. We got to see perhaps the most famous tortoise in the world, Lonesome George, who is the last of his species. We also got to see loads of cute baby tortoises which they look after until they are bigger and then released into the wild. We also travelled inland on Santa Cruz, where we were lucky enough to see some huge tortoises in the wild... and they were just massive!
Perhaps one of the best days we had in the Galapagos was at the island of Espanola. It was probably the roughest journey we had, but it was well worth it as we saw so much wildlife, all so close you would hardly believe it! In the morning, we landed on a beach
full of sea lions... perhaps a classic image of Galapagos of walking in amongst a sea lion colony. The sea lions obviously enjoyed all the attention given by the visiting tourists, as often they would look up at us as we were taking photos, or even waddle a little closer and pose for the camera! There were also a couple of Marine Iguanas that we could get up close to... little did we know that on the next activity in the afternoon, we would see tens, if not hundreds of Marine Iguanas resting on the rocks or coming out of the sea and snorting the salt out of their nostrils!
It was on Espanola that we saw the magnificent Waved Albatrosses, not only were they nesting with eggs or young chicks, but we saw them do their mesmerising mating dance, where they bend their necks and then click beaks together, perfectly mirroring each other. We also got a short glimpse of what the mating dance of the blue-footed booby looked like as well, where they open their wings and move their blue feet up and down, just like they are dancing.
The Galapagos Islands were simply breathtaking and
worth every penny to visit, we were so glad we had made the effort to visit, and one day hope to return again as well! A place like no other... we felt so lucky to be able to see the wildlife that we did, it truly is an incredible place.
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