If we wrote about everything new and interesting that we saw and did, this post would become a small book. As it is, this blog post is probably more than you want to read. If so, just look at the pictures, just like a National Geographic Magazine.
The Galapagos Islands has a relatively short history with people and a long history with plants and animals. Over time, the flora and fauna of the isolated Galapagos Islands has adapted to produce a fascinating variety species found only here, mingled with species found more broadly. Penguins, green and blue footed boobies, ocean-faring iguanas, frigate birds, sea lions, unique finch varieties, Galapagos mocking birds, giant tortoises, Volcanos, flamingos, white tipped sharks, black tipped sharks, golden rays, parrot fish, cactus trees, mangroves, Darwin’s fly catchers, chocolate chip starfish, schools of sardines and other fish, there is so much that we did and so much that we saw.
For most trips we just figure things out on our own but for the Galapagos part of this trip, we used Intrepid Travel, a company we have used a few times in the past. Our group was small, consisting of 6 guests plus Cesar, our excellent guide. We started with one night in Quito then 7 days in the Galapagos, visiting all four inhabited islands. We hiked, snorkeled, kayaked, took buses, vans and boats to see the landscape and the wildlife, to learn about the history of the islands and of course, Charles Darwin.
Here are some galleries of some of the things we saw and did. Unfortunately, we didn’t bring a waterproof camera so all the things we saw while snorkeling and kayaking I can only describe what we saw, and borrow a few pictures from the internet.
Our very early flight from Quito to San Cristobol island at least afforded us some interesting sunrise views of many volcanos including snow covered Cotopaxi, and one active volcano as seen in the second photo, the distant volcano on the right producing smoke.
Galapagos Sea Lions
These lumbering guys were hanging out at all waterfront locations. They took over benches and boardwalks intended for people, but who’s going to argue with a sea lion?
In the water though they are fast, playful and curious. We snorkeled with sea lions on several occasions. We could attract their interest by blowing bubbles underwater. They came right up to us to check us out, staring at us with large puppy-dog eyes.
Galapagos Penguins
These little guys (less than 24 inches tall) win the award for most adorable creature we saw in the Galapagos. With only around 1200 adults left in the world, we felt quite privileged to have the pleasure of swimming alongside three penguins for several minutes. It was hard to maintain spacing and at one point Susie got a bit too close to one of the penguins, and the penguin pecked her on the arm. The bruise lasted for several days. But who gets to say they have been pecked by a swimming Galapagos penguin?
Blue Footed Boobies
Yes, a funny name but it was really special to be here during mating season. The birds have no fears of humans and pretty much ignore people if they stay about 2 meters away. We watched a mating dance take place right in front of us. So cool. We saw them on many other occasions as well. They skip the step of building a nest and lay eggs directly on the ground.
Green Footed Boobies.
These birds live at sea, so we just saw them when boating between islands.
Frigate Birds
This is also mating and nesting season for Frigate birds. They were intermingled with Blue footed boobies on the little island we visited. Males compete to win the affections of a female by spreading wings and inflating the bright red sack on their breasts. The spectacle is just like we’ve seen on nature shows on TV, but quite a bit better experience when watching in person.
Marine Iguanas
These iguanas are black which works as camouflage when lounging on or near lava rock to warm up. They have adapted here in the Galapagos to swim in the water in search of food. We swam with a few dozen iguanas during our snorkeling trips. It was great to watch them from underwater as they used their tails to move through the water. The novelty of seeing these marine iguanas did not last long, as they were everywhere on land so we had to watch where we were walking. They can lash you with their tails or bite you, which would require a trip to the hospital.
Black Tip and White Tip Reef Sharks
We encountered these sharks on several snorkeling dives. The sharks hang out in mangroves and in overhangs of reefs. There is nothing quite like being upside down under water and pulling yourself downwards on a reef to peer under the overhang to see a shark resting. On another occasion we saw a pile of them just hanging out in the shallow water of offshore mangroves. Baby sharks swam around a lighted pier at night, along with a mature sea lion, all hunting fish that were attracted to the light.
I borrowed a photo from the web to show a white tipped shark:
We saw lots of other common reef fish swimming about and chasing each other about. I was particularly intrigued by a little fish with blue eyes and yellow lips that aggressively guarded his/her side of a small rock in a tidal pool
We swam with sea turtles on several occasions. Some of them were huge. Some were just sitting on the sea floor resting for awhile. This was also nesting time for iguanas and sea turtles so some beaches were closed, and on others we could see the tracks of where the sea turtles had dragged themselves up to lay eggs in the sand well above the high water line. Image of sea turtle below is borrowed from the web
Galapagos Giant Tortoise
There are actually 13 existing subspecies, which have adapted to environment and food sources. We really liked the saddle backed tortoises with their long necks. They look a lot like ET. A lot of work has been done to preserve the tortoises, as many introduced plants and animals (and volcano eruptions) threaten their existence. We visited breeding programs and nurseries where they raise the babies for the first 5 years, and reintroduction programs and preserve areas to let them live their lives as close to normal as they can.
and to get a sense of their size, we had an opportunity to climb into some shells and try to move around:
Finches
Famously studied by Charles Darwin, we saw several varieties on different islands (but no photos). We also saw other water birds and small land birds, including Darwin’s flycatcher. While I didn’t get a picture of the flycatcher, I did get a picture of people with big cameras taking a picture of the bird.
Volcanos
The Galapagos is an archipelago of volcanos similar to Hawaii, so every island has one or more volcanos. We hiked into the highlands of Santa Cruz Island up to the edge of earth’s second largest active caldera. It was foggy so we only caught a glimpse of the caldera. We also hiked to some vents on the volcano, passing over lava flows ranging from a few hundred years old, to one from 2015. This was a place to find the Galapagos land iguana, which is yellow but we didn’t see one. The photos don’t do justice to this otherworldly landscape.
We also explored little volcanic islands, visted the Charles Darwin Foundation, took walks on paths through mangroves and relaxed at some awesome beaches
Oh, here’s a cactus tree that is unique to the Galapagos. Cactus are very hardy plants and are some of the first plants able to grow in recent lava flows. They only grow 1-3 centimeters per year, so many of the trees we saw were many hundreds of years old.
Congratulations if you made it this far in this blog post. Pictures and videos just give a sense of the Galapagos, you need to come here yourself to see and experience this place. A highlight of our travels!
Next up, some R&R in Quito then back to the US to visit family. The plan is to head to Romania in June to help with BYU Pathway training!
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