Galapagos Islands - Ecuador´s Crown Jewels
Well what a unique travel experience the Galapagos Islands has been! Apart from no television, radio, internet or telephone for one week which is rare in itself, we were able to enjoy wildlife and stand in awe at its beauty and resourcefulness. To see it all before you in harmony with no intervention by man to spoil it, is truly uplifting.
The islands themselves are jagged and volcanic and not particularly beautiful. Vegetation is often quite different on each one, saltbush, candelabra cactus, rainforest.Mangroves ring lagoons. Many are nothing more than volcanic rock. They sit right on the Equator, 1000km from the coast of Ecuador.We knew the animals were tame, but we weren´t realise they can be downright inquisitive. Mockingbirds land on your shoulder or daypack looking for water, sea lion pups sniff your shoelaces. It takes a great deal of self control not to pat them, as they look so sweet. However touching or feeding them is strictly taboo. No closer to any bird or animal that 6 feet. They of course can come close to you. It is so strange how they don´t run or fly away. There is not a shred of fear of people. They are unafraid of close encounters!
The birds are simply wonderful. Being there in May meant we were witness to much courtship and mating. The Blue footed Boobies were our favourite birds. They are quite large white birds with speckled chest and brown wings, and the most amazing bright blue webbed feet. The females select their mate, and if a female lands near a male he immediately goes into his dance, which is walking up and down, lifting his feet high and pointing his beak to the sky¨."Look at my beautiful blue feet, dahling!" She watches impassively and then if interested joins in the dance, otherwise flies off to look for someone with better feet, I presume. Other birds have similar courtship routines.The frigate has a red pouch at its throat which it inflates to the size of a large red balloon, and when the female comes past he flaps his wings and nearly has a seizure trying to get her to notice him. If they do become a couple you can often see them sitting with one of the birds with his wing around the other.So cute! Other birds were pelicans (brown) nesting, diving, flying overhead in squadrons, albatrosses launching themselves off the cliff at "Albatross Airport" because they are too heavy to lift off the ground directly, penguins, much like our fairy penguins but a little larger. They come up from the south in the cold Humbolt current , flightless cormorants, and many more and all so fascinating.
The marine iguanas are like something out of Jurassic Park. They lies motionless on the rocks and you can almost step on them. We were thinking "This is David Attenborough country" when lo and behold there he was with a film crew shooting his latest documentary called "Life in Cold Blood". At a later stage we actually spoke to him for 5 minutes, which was quite exciting. He even asked us where we were going. Nice person, but looks much older and walks with a heavy limp. I must mention that the Ecuadorian guides were marvellous. They have such a deep love and knowledge of the wildlife. Our guide kept talking about "Welcome Flash" and we couldn´t work out what she meant. Took a couple of days before we realised she was saying "well camouflaged".
The land tortoises are as big as large wheelbarrows and weigh up to 250 kg. They have faces like ET and feet like an elephant. Lonesome George is the last of his particular species and at the age of 80 he should be girl crazy but shows no inclination even when they put all these lovely young females with him. We though we might see history in the making when he "chased" one of the females around the pool, but nothing came of it.
We have seen so many more things, sharks, golden manta rays, green turtles, huge angel fish. All helping to create a treasure chest of memories, which I have hopefully captured on film. Re-entering mainland culture again was hard. This afternoon we fly off to Bogota in Colombia, so my next post will be from there.
The islands themselves are jagged and volcanic and not particularly beautiful. Vegetation is often quite different on each one, saltbush, candelabra cactus, rainforest.Mangroves ring lagoons. Many are nothing more than volcanic rock. They sit right on the Equator, 1000km from the coast of Ecuador.We knew the animals were tame, but we weren´t realise they can be downright inquisitive. Mockingbirds land on your shoulder or daypack looking for water, sea lion pups sniff your shoelaces. It takes a great deal of self control not to pat them, as they look so sweet. However touching or feeding them is strictly taboo. No closer to any bird or animal that 6 feet. They of course can come close to you. It is so strange how they don´t run or fly away. There is not a shred of fear of people. They are unafraid of close encounters!
The birds are simply wonderful. Being there in May meant we were witness to much courtship and mating. The Blue footed Boobies were our favourite birds. They are quite large white birds with speckled chest and brown wings, and the most amazing bright blue webbed feet. The females select their mate, and if a female lands near a male he immediately goes into his dance, which is walking up and down, lifting his feet high and pointing his beak to the sky¨."Look at my beautiful blue feet, dahling!" She watches impassively and then if interested joins in the dance, otherwise flies off to look for someone with better feet, I presume. Other birds have similar courtship routines.The frigate has a red pouch at its throat which it inflates to the size of a large red balloon, and when the female comes past he flaps his wings and nearly has a seizure trying to get her to notice him. If they do become a couple you can often see them sitting with one of the birds with his wing around the other.So cute! Other birds were pelicans (brown) nesting, diving, flying overhead in squadrons, albatrosses launching themselves off the cliff at "Albatross Airport" because they are too heavy to lift off the ground directly, penguins, much like our fairy penguins but a little larger. They come up from the south in the cold Humbolt current , flightless cormorants, and many more and all so fascinating.
The marine iguanas are like something out of Jurassic Park. They lies motionless on the rocks and you can almost step on them. We were thinking "This is David Attenborough country" when lo and behold there he was with a film crew shooting his latest documentary called "Life in Cold Blood". At a later stage we actually spoke to him for 5 minutes, which was quite exciting. He even asked us where we were going. Nice person, but looks much older and walks with a heavy limp. I must mention that the Ecuadorian guides were marvellous. They have such a deep love and knowledge of the wildlife. Our guide kept talking about "Welcome Flash" and we couldn´t work out what she meant. Took a couple of days before we realised she was saying "well camouflaged".
The land tortoises are as big as large wheelbarrows and weigh up to 250 kg. They have faces like ET and feet like an elephant. Lonesome George is the last of his particular species and at the age of 80 he should be girl crazy but shows no inclination even when they put all these lovely young females with him. We though we might see history in the making when he "chased" one of the females around the pool, but nothing came of it.
We have seen so many more things, sharks, golden manta rays, green turtles, huge angel fish. All helping to create a treasure chest of memories, which I have hopefully captured on film. Re-entering mainland culture again was hard. This afternoon we fly off to Bogota in Colombia, so my next post will be from there.
posted by Margaret & Barry Fisher | Friday, May 12, 2006
1 Comments:
Hi Mum and Dad
I had a bit of a read of your trip but a lot seems to be the old trip. I found May 12th so am posting a comment here...hope you get it.
Happy Mothers day Mum. Hope your having a good day and the trip has been fun. The Galapagos Islands sound amazing, I will have to check out your videos when there edited. Hope everything went well with your Columbian friends. I'd like to know what Columbia’s like.
I'm moving today, I moving into Sarah's for a while, hopefully not long. I have continued to look around for a place and a few things are starting to get there. Zig thinks his found a good office space in a warehouse so I will check that out in the next few days. There is also the possibility of me moving in with a few work colleges like Mike Long a photographer I know and Tim from Brave Design a designer who runs his own business like me but he has three employees. Just have to wait and see there. A share accom place that I checked out is a possibility but other then that still looking. I have to keep moving as tomorrow is the day that I have to be out and still have a bit to do...not to much though think I'm fairly well organised.
Hope your having a ball.
Love Dan
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