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on the way back
The guys and gals of the tour group.
Bet you wish you had a camera like mine. The samsung digimax 301, shelved (parado) for a reason. So a week and a bit ago I bought a tour and plane ticket for galapagos. I left it to the last minute, thinking and hoping that I´d receive a bargain, o I went to a few travel agents last monday, who all told me the ´last minute price´of 650 dollars, so I used my incredible haggling skills to lower it to 630, and left feeling rather pleased with my efforts. To be told by the landlady in my house on my return that I paid WAY more than I should have, more like 500 would be appropriate at the last minute. So if anyone reading this is going to go to the galapagos and is going to buy a last minute price, please fleece (timar) them as they fleeced me.
The tour was for eight days but in reality is 6 and maybe a pieced together seven, as you arrive at midday on the first day, and leave early on the last.
When we arrived the group was greeted curtly by our guide alfonso, who looked a bit like garfield, shortly afterwards we were shooting off to another part of the first island where we were inundated with
giant tortoises, as we were to be for the whole tour, nevertheless they were big and unusual. After that we rode horses which was cool, we were riding up the volcano on the first island (baltra I think it was). My horse was called mercurio and was mental and eventually had to be muzzled as he was biting all the other horses for no reason. causing one to buck and I thought I was going to lose my head for a second.
Second day, another island , rabida I think it was called, we went to a sealion colony saw remains of dead baby sea lions on the sides of paths, the reason being is that during the first few months of the sealions life the mother can only recognise her offspring by smell, and tourists unthinkingly pet them, so they smell of tourist and not sealion the mother doesnt recognise them and they starve to death unable to feed themselves. For this reason all the seal bodies were alongside the paths for tourists, which is a bit bizarre as I would expect the baby sea lion to at least try and reapproach his mother and so would expect
siga no mas
rachel and michelle from the states with fernando the waiter, who was top. there to be bodies in different places, but it would seem that the baby immediately resigns himself to his fate and stays exactly where he was petted. I dunno, I expect some sealion skeletons are just warnings planted by the powers that be but I cant tell the difference. we went snorkelling after wards which, if you go to the galapagos ever, is by far the best thing to do there. We were in the (cold)water with the galapagos penguin, sealions and manta rays although I didnt actually see the manta rays, but they are there. I found that being in water just made me want to pee, so I held it until the boat, where a german surfer told me I should just do it in the water as there is the added bonus of the warmth in the cold water. Today we saw the galapagos pigeon, just a pigeon surely I said, no said the guide, it´s a
galapagos pigeon. They have a habit of prefixing a normally mundane animal with galapagos so as to appear ´volcanic in origin´ shall we say. Tomorrow we might see the galapagos rat. I shit you not.
third day saw frigate
beards in the middle of their mating season, (or, if directly translated from spanish, the epoch of zeal which I much prefer). Frigate birds are the ones with big red pouches under the beak that they inflate and use as a tool to ululate like a machine gun attracting the females.
fourth day, overpopulated iguana island, each iguana either has his cactus, which he guards like his patch, or they starve to death or they resort to eating sealion excrement as can be seen by the disturbing black tint on their lips. We went snorkelling again, the rest of the group saw a white tipped shark, I was too busy enjoying the sensation of peeing in the sea, and when I got there it had gone. But I did get to swim with a turtle which was awesome. As long as it isnt scared it doesnt swim fast so I swam a few feet above it and could just watch it swimming examining the detail of its head, eyes, carapace (apparently this is the proper name for a tortoiseshell) etc. And we got to swim with a group of playful sealions as well, they would nip at your flippers
on the way back
The guys and gals of the tour group.
Bet you wish you had a camera like mine. The samsung digimax 301, shelved (parado) for a reason. but eventually they were properly trying to rip the flippers of some of the others.
fifth day, went to blue footed boobies (hee hee) city, it was there epoch of zeal also and theyve developed a wholesomely poor dance to attract females, where by they stand on a rock and slowly lift up each blue foot at time whilst lifting their heads towards the sky to appear manly, but the best thing about it is that you can walk right up to them and they continue dancing, fearlessly. we went snorkelling again, the rest of the group all saw another shark whilst I was yet again on the outskirts peeing in the sea, at this point I was running out of days to see sharks, which was pretty much the only thing I wanted to see now.
sixth day went to the bahia de correos, post office bay, where there is an age old tradition to leave postcards destined for family or friends at home, whilst taking postcards for people that live near you, and it seems to work quite while as the majority of them were all dated within the past week. We then went snorkelling for
the last time, but apparently this place was by far the best, and yes, at long last I saw sharks, they werent massive but hey, they were sharks, I believe all were white tips, there were 3 hanging out by the sea bed, and one we saw swimming too, and of course there were shoals and shoals of tropical fish as usual, which were cool also.
seventh day got up early saw george the last giant turtle of his kind and then went to catch the plain, whilst ignoring the excuberantly priced souvenir shops that are dotted around.
I´ve missed a day out there somehow, but you get the idea lots of animals and they´re not scared of you.
random fact all three of the three most dangerous and aggresive sharks have all been sighted within the confines of the galapagos tours. The Bull, the tiger and the great white shark. One rourist was bitten on the bum by the bull shark.
Oh and if anyone does ever visit the galapagos that is reading this the islands much further to the north like darwin, and genovesa, have bigger sharks like 3 metres long so it would
be cool to see those in the water. And they´re harmless as well.
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anonymous
non-member comment
Wow
It's just awesome. Thank you so much for sharing all this. God bless. - Dad