Galapagos and Us

Our ship, the Galapagos Legend, had 84 passengers, close to its maximum of 90. It certainly was more comfortable and pleasant than the one we travelled on in our visit to the Greek Isles in 1997. Our room was very comfortable and quite spacious. The passengers were organised into groups for our guided visits to he islands which were would visit. Our group was the Dolphins.

On the afternoon of the first day, we travelled in a Zodiac (an inflatable dinghy) to North Seymour Island where we viewed some of the wild life in their natural conditions. It was truly amazing. So different from the Amazon where the lush vegetation and flowing creeks had been beautiful but where the wildlife, although plentiful, was small and quite difficult to find. On North Seymour, there was little vegetation except the leafless trees (as it was the dry season) and prickly cactus so we were struck by the desolate arid appearance of nature’s canvas. But this scarcity of vegetation, coupled with the fact that man has not been a foe of the animals on the island meant that there were able to be seen at close range everywhere. Sea Lions (different from seals in that they have small front feet instead of flippers, and also ears) were fighting, suckling their young or just basking in the sun right at our feet. We saw at close hand sea iguanas (black) and land iguanas (with golden heads and shoulders) and frigate birds, whose males had enormous red bags under their chins which they puffed up in order to demonstrate their masculinity to potential mates.

I must have been very engrossed in watching the mating rituals of theses birds as I stood for a long time watching and listening to the guides comments. When we moved on, so did I but when we returned to the beach, not going on, as I had expected, to see the blue footed boobies, I began to notice a change in the group. Jack seemed to be missing, and on further glance I couldn’t see Tony or Chris or Daryl or Lorraine either. I must have looked a bit perplexed because one the group asked me if I had lost someone. “I am not sure” I replied, “I am a Dolphin, are you?” Well they weren’t: they were Frigates, but they very kindly took me under their wing (no pun intended) until the Dolphins reappeared in the distance. This minor incident did not increase my standing in the group, although on our excursion the following day, I noticed an increased solicitude as to my whereabouts.

That night at diner, as we took a turn around the deck, we saw a shark, a pelican, a tortoise and sundry seals cavorting around us.

On the following day, we landed at Santa Cruz Island where we saw me iguanas, a flamingo (rare on the Galapagos), and wild goats, which are, like rats, cats and dogs, an introduced species and a scourge on the native life. In the afternoon after a long voyage, we donned snorkels and flippers on Floriana Island for our first venture into the 20 degree water. This was a great experience although we looked less than glamorous in our black swimming and flippers. We swam with a turtle and saw a lot of multicoloured fish. Xavier, our guide, assured us that the snorkelling scheduled for the last day was to be even better.

Wednesday saw us bound for Espanola Island where we saw at close hand many sea lions who were protecting their young and asserting themselves. They were in such profusion that they blocked our path on several occasions and we couldn’t keep to the rule of maintaining a distance of 7 feet. Adult females protecting their young g and males asserting their dominance present a formidable obstacle.

After being separated from the group of Day 1, I had my first opportunity to see blue footed boobies, nesting on eggs by the side of the path, sleeping and performing mating rituals right before our eyes. AS well another variety of water iguanas (red and black) covered the rocks in some places, soaking up the sun in order to get moving. They are exothermic, meaning their body temperature varies with the environment. We also saw a huge albatross flying above and a baby one sitting on the ground.

This island gave us the most interesting experience so far: it was truly stunning to walk amongst these animals and to see their total disregard of us.

In the afternoon, we set off for San Cristobal Island, one of the three which are inhabited. This trip combined more walking and … some shopping. We visited a centre which was working on protecting the giant Galapagos turtles and saw babies and some of the big ones which can grow to an age of 200 years. One type of turtle is called the saddle turtle and this gives the islands their name because Galapagos apparently means saddle in Spanish.

On the morning of the final day, Jack, Daryl, Sharon and I joined the second snorkelling expedition, although the others felt the time frame made it a bit difficult. This time it was deep water snorkelling and a much better experience than the first time although we saw only many varieties of fish. I had not realised what a magical world it is under the ocean.

The rest of the day was spent flying to Quito and then on to Peru’s capital, Lima. It was only enlivened by the pack of cards I produced for our big school of Rickety Kate at Quito airport in the coffee shop.