Galapagos

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Galapagos is truly an absolutely amazing place. You hear stories and watch films about what it is like, but nothing can prepare you for the behaviour of these incredible animals. As you step off the plane you note that the landscape is quite barren, the plants are dried up and appear dead. They are not the lush tropical islands I had envisioned. To me, this just made it even more impressive that all this life exists in such an unfertile appearing place.

Within minutes of my arrival as I walked down the pier, I saw a giant sea turtle surface in the water and had to carefully step over a few sleeping sea lions. Now I’ve seen sea lions before but these ones are special. They have no fear. And even though I knew this fact, experiencing this first hand is incredible. Not only do they not run away or get defensive when you come up, but the babies will often waddle up to play with you. When you snorkel with them they become even more playful and you can twist, flip and dive in the water with them. Playing in the middle of the vast ocean with an animal the same size or larger than yourself is an unforgettable experience.

To see all the Galapagos Islands, we went on an 8 day cruise with 7 other people. Every day we would stop on 2 different islands, first exploring the land and then snorkeling afterwards.

While exploring the islands I saw firsthand, into the secret lives of these animals. I watched as a baby albatross learned to fly, his parents watching over and showing it the proper wing positions. There were male blue footed boobies dancing and showing off in order to impress the female and other boobies that had already formed a couple and were incubating an egg or taking care of a chick. As you walk around the islands, you can walk right up to within a foot of a nest and the birds don’t even flinch. It’s amazing being close enough to see the details of their feathers, eyes, and of course their blue feet. You have to be careful when you walk as none of these animals (seals, chicks, lizards) move when you approach and you might step on one while you’re distracted by the other animals.

All the beaches are covered with hundreds of marine iguanas, and if you look out into the ocean, you could see them surfing the waves back to shore. It is very humbling to see into their real lives, like you might on the national geographic channel. For instance, I saw two alpha male iguanas battle for dominance doing a ritualistic head shake dance before lunging at each other.

Again, what makes the Galapagos animals so special is that you get to see the family dynamics and how they really are in the wild. My favorite was the sea lions; I could just watch them for hours. The big alpha male was always patrolling the shore swimming back and forth and honking (which sounds like vomiting) to make sure no other males snuck in to fertilize one of his females. A couple of times we saw a male sneak in and try to do his business and then get caught and either run away or try to fight the alpha male. There were so many baby sea lions, some only a few days old. We came across one which had just been born, still covered in blood with its placenta still attached. They were always playing with each other in little tide pools which we dubbed the ‘nurseries’.

Snorkeling was another wonder all unto itself. There were of course sea lions, penguins, marine iguanas, turtles, sting rays, reef sharks, and hundreds of different fish and coral species, but the most remarkable animal was the giant manta ray. I had no idea that they were that big, but it had a 4m wing span and moved through the water with such grace and beauty. This was the most remarkable and memorable experience for me.

As we moved between islands we saw mating turtles (sometimes a poor female with 3-4 males on top weighing her down), dolphins, whales, sea lions, and mantas (yes these will jump out of the water too!), swimming by or even jumping and playing in the waves at the bow of our boat.

The last animal I will mention is the famous Galapagos land tortoise. They are unsure of how long they live, but can tell that one of them is at least 170 years old. When you come face to face with them and look into their ancient eyes, they seem so wise and all-knowing. I loved how, if you walked up behind them, they slowly stuck out their long necks and twisted around to see you, making this odd sound of a cross between an old hinge and a slow breeze. They were so mysterious and mystic to me.

There is so much more to describe and share but it is truly just incomprehensible and you must go yourself to really understand this extraordinary place.

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