The Galapagos- South American Journeys Part 3

Just being at the Equator would have been enough for me...it was truly an experience, rolling around on a "yacht" [I put the quotes around the word yacht because it was a very funky boat, but more on that later].

The Galapagos are everything you've ever heard of and more....the bird life is abundant, some of the animals are weird and some are found not only nowhere else on earth, but often only on that particular island where they live. This is me with some sea lions....who are EVERYWHERE! Every beach where we landed had the colony of sea lions. The ones behind me are female- but there is a male/bull somewhere on this beach "walking" up and down roaring for us to get away from his family. On the first island we went to we witnessed a sea lion just giving birth to a cub. Our guide could tell this because of all the frigate birds that were circling around to get the placenta. Within minutes of the birth, the mother was pushing the baby down towards the water....no time like the present.

The rules in the Galapagos are: Don't go off the path and don't touch the animals. The sea lion behind me came right up to me and smelled my hand. Most of the animals on the Galapagos are fearless of humans. The birds stay right where they are and do not fly away, nor do the reptiles- who are lying all over the docks and rocks- flee on a human approach. [not that they move very fast anyway...some of them look like they have been lying there for about 1200 years] It is wonderful to see a place where the animals are given preference over humans.

Every day, we went to a different island where we went for a walk in the morning and a snorkel [or two] in the afternoon. We were snorkelling with sea lions, penguins [yes! penguins], manta rays, sharks, tortoises and all sorts of fishies. The weather was wonderful, but the sun was blazing and most everyone got fairly burned despite the sun screen.

One of my favourite birds on the Galapagos are called Blue Footed Boobies.....I swear some of them are trained to pose for photos. This one was waiting on the rocks when we landed for a walk around the dead volcano on Bartolome Island. Aren't his feet pretty? The bird life is pretty abundant- pelicans, boobies, frigate birds- who escorted out boat every day- and Galapagos Hawks. On one island we saw three Galapagos hawks feeding on a dead baby sea lion and they just sat there as we walked past...several of us were snapping away and still they didn't move. It is not unusual to be anchored at some harbour and watch the Pelicans and boobies dive into the water after some fish...they look like arrows darting into the sea. It is also not unusual to see a dolphin or a black and white manta ray leaping out of the water into the air and spiralling back down into the ocean.

Pat- who is on the right in the picture below, was our spotter for the trip....I could not imagine how she could see all those birds and tortoises and rays, but she always did and she told us it was because she played golf and had to see a little ball all the time, or she would be broke buying new golf balls. She and her other half Noel were very entertaining for me during the trip.... they had a fabulous sense of humour and Pat was wonderfully supportive of me during walks and on our landings which I got pretty good at by the end of the trip.

There are so many islands in the Galapagos and we only got a taste visiting Santa Fe, the North and South Plazas, San Cristobel, and Bartolome...I can see how you could spend weeks and weeks there. Our yacht which was very funky, had a great crew. They were all enthusiastic and made sure that we got the most out of all our dinghy trips to the islands....sometimes going out of their way to point out penguins etc along a shore line away from where we were supposed to land. I have to say they had their hands full [excuse the pun] lifting me up into the dinghy after a snorkelling session....I have no idea how they did it. It is the most ineligant position to be in. Nevertheless snorkelling was wonderful...the water was so incredibly clear and the marine life most accomodating.

The yacht was driven by a variety of people, and I swear some of them must have been in training. When Felix- who was our regular dinghy driver, was piloting the yacht, we went twice as fast and bumped over 3 times as many waves as when the captain was in control. Often we had wild rides and quite a few people [not me thank god] were sea sick. I'd had enough of altitude sickness, so I wasn't about to be sea sick. Besides I was nursing an Amazon Rainforest parasite who was assisting me to digest my food 6 times faster than normal. I am not sure that South America is the country for me.....I seemed to have been attacked by all sorts of things. Considering how long I have been travelling however, I think I have gotten off easily.

Sunset on the Galapagos

Next stop: New Zealand- almost home. I can't believe that 4 1/2 months have already zoomed by.....sometimes [like when I was floating down the Amazon River] I think about all the places I have seen in the last 4+ months and I can't believe it......Adios for now.
Genie