Paradise on Earth

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Where to start? We´ve just spent five days in paradise. A thousand km from the Ecuadorian coast are the Galapagos Islands, where Charles Darwin famously developed his theory of evolution. After hesitating a long time due to the very high price of the trip, we arrived at Balta airport on Thursday (one of the main islands) and quickly met up with the other passengers of the Cormorant, the boat on which we were to tour the islands. We visited around 7 or 8 destinations in total (over 4 different islands) and we managed to see most of the animal species. We saw hundreds of sea lions (or more exactly sea wolfs), possibly even more iguanas (land and marine) of all different colours.


The most peculiar species are found among the birds. The Tropic Birds constantly patrol the sky in search of fish to catch and their particularity lies with their red pouch that can be inflated to impress females!! Another bird that had a strange way of flirting is the Blue Footed Boobie who performs a hilarious dance during the mating season. Unfortunately we didn´t get to see this but we still found the birds funny.

Without any doubt the most exciting part was the snorkeling outings. We were almost constantly swimming with hundreds of multicoloured fish as well as sea turtles , sting rays , eagle rays and loads of starfish. We even got to chase a group of three manta rays gliding through crystal clear water. The pinnacle of the trip must have been when we swam around the Devil's Crown (a submerged volcano), we found ourselves among a dozen of 6ft-long white-tip sharks!!! Another big attraction of the islands is the Hammerhead Shark, but unfortunately we didn't get to see one. We sailed with a crew of 5 Ecuadorians as well as 10 other tourists from various parts of the world. It was a wonderful experience and you'll see on the photos just how close you can get to the animals.

On the last day we got to see the last survivor of a species of giant turtles. He's over a hundred years old and spends most of the day lying in the same spot. Two females of a similar species have been introduced to him but for some reason he doesn't pay any interest to them ...

We re now back in Peru, more precisely in the coastal town of Chiclayo. We're looking for some more volunteer work. This time we're planning to stay at least 3 months, since we much prefer trying to settle down in a place and meet people rather than traveling as tourists.

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Photos

The islands
Yep, it was like that

The passengers
The 12 passengers and Cheche, our naturalist guide

Tropic Bird
Nice and cosy in it´s nest

Frigate Bird
They were always flying around the boat hoping to catch fish. Sometimes they chase other birds until they surrender their freshy caught prey!

The Turtle Wisperer
Cheche makes a giant turtle stand up

The not so good Turtle Wisperer
Well at least I tried

Pellican
In fact it´s Mr Pellican

"Sea wolf"
Sleeping in the sun

Land Iguana
Another species

Penguin
We didn´t see many of these

Pink Flamingos
Even the guide had never seen as many at the same time

Masked Boobey
Notice the black mask...

Sea turtle
In spanish its called the Galapagos. Hence the name of the islands.

Albatross
It wasn´t easy to get on photo

Comments

[Hamoudinho]

Wow what a place, is it safe to stay there, and that equana is so strange

[thomas]

belles photos mon graeme
T'es polymorphe comme mec, quand même.