Galapagos Islands, Ecuador
From Which Way Is North? in Galapagos Islands, Ecuador on May 16 '07
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The Galapagos Islands ... it´s simply impossible for anyone to describe this place in words. Even though we´d heard how tame the animals are, nothing can prepare you for having a sea lion swim up to you and tug at your flipper like a puppy. Or a mother Nazca (masked) boobie come marching across your path and feed her chick literally a foot away from you. We could actually see the fish being regurgitated from the mother´s mouth into here baby´s. The Ecuadorian government has taken extreme measures to preserve the pristene nature of the islands, and it has paid off. If you ever have the chance, visit the Galapagos!! It´s the most magical place.
Below are the highlights of our 7-day cruise among the islands. Our ship was called TipTop II, a 16-passenger motor yacht. Our guide Angelika has been living on the islands for more than 25 years and was a font of information. Our trip wouldn´t have been the same without her.
- Swimming with sea lions--These guys are simply amazing creatures! They´re like little puppies in the water. So agile and inquisitive. They come right up to your snorkel mask and peer into your face. It´s unreal. Of course they´re completely unaware of their size. Things actually got scary for a moment when we were scuba diving with them off of Floreana. Jan and I were surrounded by 4 or 5 curious pups, and when I looked over one of them had jan´s snorkel in his mouth and was tugging away at it and his mask! Luckily he was able to pull it back quickly. Another time, when we didn´t have the benefit of full-body wet suits, one playful sea lion grabbed onto my leg and actually left tooth marks!
- Did we forget penguins? We were able to get eye-level with them as they sunbathed on a partially emerged rock. But as soon as they dove into the water they were impossible to keep up with. Like little rockets shooting past. And so cute!
- Witnessing courting albatrosses and boobies- The blue footed boobies, red-footed boobies, and Nazca boobies (for those of you from belgium, boobies are Jan van Gent) have the most elaborate mating dances. You could watch them for hours, and really I can´t understand why modern dancers haven´t tried to mimic some of these dances. Although apparently flamenco was developed based on the movements of the flamingo
- Diving with hammerhead, white-tip reef, and Galapagost sharks - At first we thought we wouldn´t be allowed to go scuba diving in the main shark sites of the Galapagos because of the level of difficulty. We only had 8 dives, and the books generally recommend 30. But sure enough, we found a company that was eager to take us out to Gordon rocks. The currents there were crazy, and the visibility very low, which made it all the more eerie when silvery hammerheads came gliding into view not more than 10 feet away. The next day we had an amazing dive at Punta Cormorant, where we saw at least 50 sharks. These were all white-tip and Galapagos sharks, which are smaller (abouit 6 feet max) and less intimidating. Still an awesome experience to come upon four sharks sleeping in a cave, then watch them wake up and glide off beneath you.
- Tripping over iguanas of all kinds--land iguanas, marine iguanas, lava lizards. The Galapagos are lizard heaven, and like all the other animals you can get ridiculously close to them. It´s like peering into the eye of a dinosaur.
- Lonely George - I´m sure you´ve all heard about this tortoise, the last of his particular race. We were happy to see that lonely George isn´t so lonely after all. He has 2 females in his corral that are the most similar to him genetically. The resident biologists hope he will mate with them some day
That´s it for the Galapagos. After that we spent 3 days in a beautiful city called Cuenca, and 2 days in a picturesque nature retreat called Vilcabambas. Tomorrow we´re off to Chachapoyas in Northern Peru. A 2 day journey that sounds quite insane but we hope will be quite worth it. More to come a few weeks.
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