Galapagos.......

Ok, cue the theme from National Geographic.....Really is there anything else for the title that can capture this magical place? I could not come up with one. When you say Galapagos, what do you think of? I think of Darwin, his finches, the amazing variety of other birds (the three species of Boobies come to mind), the sea lions, the land and marine iguanas, the sea turtles and of course the giant land tortoise! These land tortoise were partially decimated by the pirates and the whalers. They would sail by, land on one of the islands and fill their holds with these slow moving, gentle giants. The tortoise could last at least a year without food or water in the hold of a ship. Fresh meat and liquid for pirates and whalers. The guide at the Darwin center told of one of the tortoise being found in the hold of a ship that had been afloat without crew for two years and it was still alive! Now it was found between two large, partially drunk casks of rum......hmmmm... smart tortoise! Maybe a little drunk and maybe not so happy about being found! HA! Ok, so off we flew to the islands, were picked up and after a ten minute ride we were at the dock. Of course there were sea lions having a snooze (isn't he cute!),

Here, we saw the first of many hundreds of sally light-foot crabs and one swimming marine iguana. These to me look like a creature from a bad 1970's movie. (Think "Creature from the Black Lagoon" or "Godzilla, King of the Monsters").

We got onboard our small ship that held 16 passengers and 7 crew. We sailed just around Santa Cruz Island and hopped onto zodiacs to land on a beach. We walked along and saw sea turtles had been busy laying eggs, more marine iguanas and some pink flamingos in a brackish water lagoon (did you know they get their color from the little shrimp they eat?

 Good thing humans do not do the same thing!). We went for our first of many snorkelling adventures and swam with a sea turtle, a white tip shark and a huge albatross. We then set sail for Genovese Island. For those bird watchers reading (Carolyn, this means you!) this is bird paradise. We walked up the Prince Phillip Steps (named and built for Prince Phillip when he came for a visit) into Nazca Boobie (no I will not make a comment about the name) hatching ground. This was the time of the year when the eggs are hatching and the nests were on the ground every ten feet or so. They were walking along the pathways and would squawk at you if you got too close. It is also Red-footed Boobie hatching time but they nest in the bushes.

 Oh yeah, it is also Frigate bird hatching time and they are in the bushes too. The males of the Great Frigate Bird puff out their red chests to impress the babes, much like male humans do! HA!

 Off we went to Santiago Island which 120 years ago had a volcanic eruption that filled in part of the bay. Before hiking out onto the lava fields we managed to see our fourth species of penguin. The little Galapagos penguin does not have the numbers that the Antarctic ones do but he is just as cute! We wandered on the pahoehoe lava (look it up non-geologists) that still looks like it might be hot, then set off for North Seymour Island.

Each time we stopped for a walk there was some norkelling involved before or after. Sometimes we just saw pretty fish, other times we saw manta and eagle rays and the occasional swimming sea lion. On North Seymour Island there were hundreds of land iguanas. They are about three times the size of the black marine iguanas (so about 3-5 feet in length) and very bright oange and yellow in color. Again think Godzilla except with color. The next day took us to Bahia Ballena here we hiked to where the juvenille land tortoises hang out. We did spot two of these shy fellows.

Then over to Rabida Island where the famous Blue-footed Boobies hang out. They dive into the water straight down from 30 feet in the air to catch fish.

  From here we went back to Santa Cruz Island to visit the Darwin Center. This is where they have been successfully breeding and re-introducing the endangered land tortoises. They have a bachelor pad here as well. These old fellas were either family pets, in zoos, etc. They also have one male that is the last of his species. He is "Lonesome George". He has two females in the pen with him that are as close to his species as they can get. However, George has not figured out what to do with them. He had no one to teach him. Apparently he seems to like rocks better than the tortoise babes. HA! Overall another fabulous wildlife adventure and another place that if it is not on your bucket list, should be. Off to see a bit of human history now in Peru.