Las Islas Galapagos

Sea lions relaxing on benches as we first arrive in the Galapagos

I arrived back in the US this past Sunday night after spending eight days exploring the Galapagos Islands by ship. The islands were truly indescribable, but I am going to do my best to give you a small glimpse into this amazing place. I will do this mostly with my pictures, with of course a few comments and stories thrown in.

Our trip involved living on an 80 passenger ship and disembarking with the use of zodiacs (small boats) to visit the islands. Each day we would usually hike and snorkel, sometimes doing both activities twice a day. In the middle of the day, when it was too hot to spend much time outdoors, there would be lectures or presentations lead by one of the guides about the islands, including their geology, wildlife and history. So not only did I get to see many wonderful things, I also learned a lot of very interesting stuff at the same time.

The best thing about the islands, in my opinion, is the naive nature of the animals. Because the islands were never attached to the mainland (they were formed by volcanoes in the ocean), any animals that arrived there naturally had to fly, swim, or hitch a ride on some debris. What that means is that there are no large land mammals. In fact, the only land mammals naturally found on the islands are a couple species of rats and bats. This, combined with the fact that humans did not until relatively recently start inhabitating the islands, has lead to the animals having no fear of humans. Because of this, you can get extremely close to all of the animals without scaring them off. They seem to look at you like you are just another animal and do not have the instinctual fear of you like animals in just about any other part of the world would.


Day One: Baltra and North Seymour Islands

After meeting up with the rest of the trip participants in Guayaquil, Ecuador, my mom and I hopped on a plane for our hour and a half ride over to the islands. We arrived into Baltra that morning and were quickly brought on board the ship. After unpacking and having lunch, we were off on our first excursion to visit North Seymour Island, home of the land iguana, blue footed booby and frigate birds, among other things.

A swallow-tailed gull

A blue footed booby

A land iguana

A frigate bird: The large red pouch you see in the picture is the male frigate birds way of attracting a female. It takes hours for the bird to slowly inflate his pouch, and once he does, he lives it inflated until he finds himself a suitable mate.

A view from North Seymour

Day Two: Espanola Island

Our first full day was spent at the most southern island in the Galapagos: Espanola. The main attraction here was viewing the Waved Albatrosses. I did know not what a Waved Albatross was before arriving, but lots of people were very excited to see them. It turns out that they are magnificent birds which spend most of their time in the Galapagos, but leave for about three months each year to go on a little holiday to various other places. The hike we took on the island also brought us through some marine iguana nesting areas and we were even able to witness two iguanas fighting over a nest.

We spent the morning hiking around on the island and in the afternoon we visited one of its bays for some snorkeling, hanging out on the beach and kayaking. This afternoon was the first time we really experienced seeing the sea lions up close and it made me fall in love with them. Because of that, you will notice that I am posting a lot of sea lion pictures. They are just too cute.

Two seal lions cuddling one of the beaches of Espanola

One of the many Waved Albatrosses on the island

A view from Espanola

My mom watching the sea lions play in the water while waiting for the zodiac to pick us up

Children from the trip playing with one of the sea lions pups on the beach

A sea lion pup on the beach

Another sea lion picture

Day Three: Floreana Island

This day started out with a snorkel off of the coast of the island. This was by far one of my favorite snorkel sessions because it was the first time I really got to experience swimming with the sea lions. Swimming with sea lions is just magical. I really do not know any better way to explain it. They are extremely playful creatures and love to have new friends join in their games. So when they swam up to me diving and flipping around, I quickly mimicked their behavior and before long there were around twenty sea lions joining in. I will never forget the time that I was allowed into their world and I will remember that experience as the greatest thing I did on my entire trip.

That afternoon we took a hike around the island and saw lots of flamingos in a large salt pond as well as a sea turtle nesting site.

Some of my sea lion friends

Me swimming with the sea lions

My mom and a sea lion mimicking each other

A video of the sea lions under water (I apologize for the crappy videography, but it was tough to capture them especially while swimming)

Day Four: Isabela and Fernandina Islands

On day four we visited the westernmost realm of the Galapagos. The geology and environment here are very different from the rest of the archipelago as a result of its more recent volcanic activity. We spent the morning doing a zodiac cruise of the islands followed by a snorkel that involved swimming with dozens of marine sea turtles. That afternoon we landed on Fernandina Island, took a walk along the coastline and saw many marine iguanas, sea lions and various birds followed by heading further inland for a hike in a section of the island covered in molten lava.

A view of Volcan Ecuador from the ship

Flightless Cormorant: This bird originally flew to the Galapagos, but after hundreds of years on the islands, it eventually lots its need to fly and subsequently, lost its ability to fly as well. Notice its tiny wings which are now too small to be capable of supporting the bird in flight.

One of the many marine turtles found in the waters around Isabela Island

A view of our ship- the M.S. Polaris -from Fernandina

The many marine iguanas hanging out on the island

Day Five: Santa Cruz Island

This day brought us to the first island where we witnessed the human aspect of the Galapagos. We started off landing in the city of Puerto Ayora, the economic hub of the Galapagos, and headed to the Charles Darwin Research Station to see the work that they are doing for the giant tortoises of the Galapagos. We saw giant tortoises from each of the different islands and learned about what the research station was doing to protect them. In the afternoon, we drove to the highlands and did a walk to find the tortoises in the wild.

My Mom with a huge (500 pound) giant tortoise at the Charles Darwin Research Station

One of the wild giant tortoises we found

A video of two giant tortoises mating: The only time a giant tortoise ever makes a sound is when its mating. You can here this on the video.

Day Six: Cerro Dragon and Sombrero Chino Islands

The morning started out with a hike at Cerro Dragon, which basically means dragon hill, named for the many land iguanas that habitat it. Along with the iguanas, we also saw some more flamingos on the island. That afternoon we went for two different snorkels, both provided the opportunity to witness more sea life, and the second one allowed us to swim with another amazing animal in the Galapagos- the penguin.

A flamingo found on Cerro Dragon

A sea lion doing a flip at the Guy Fawkes snorkeling sight

A view of the islands from the water

Me posing in front of a colony of penguins during a snorkeling session

A close up of one of the penguins

Day Seven: Bartolome and Santiago Islands

Our last full day on the islands started out early with a five hundred and something step hike up to the top of Bartolome Island. The early wake up call was well worth it though once you made it to the top and were granted an amazing view of Bartolome and the surrounding islands. Later that morning we all headed out for our last snorkeling session. Like allows we saw lots of cool animals including more penguins and sea lions as well as some white tipped reef sharks. The snorkel ended in a pretty exciting way when a large male sea lion got a little angry over too many terrorists being in his territory. He began leaping out of the water and barking loudly, trying to warn us all to get out of his space. Our guide was yelling at us to swim this way and that way and eventually we all got far enough away and were able to get on shore. She admitted to us once we were out of the water that she really thought someone was going to get bit. The sea lions we had been playing with were all females or young pups and this was my first real encounter with a bull, and an angry one at that. Anyways, it was a pretty interesting way to end our last snorkel and reminded us all that while these animals are seemingly unafraid, they are still wild animals and deserve our respect.

That afternoon we all went out for a walk around the island of Santiago. The walk mainly consisted of going around the coast of the island and getting some final views of the animals and scenery as the sun went down. It was a great way to end such wonderful trip.

A view from the top of Bartolome

A white tipped reef shark

My snorkeling self portrait

A penguin hunting for fish (I know its hard to see, but if you look closely you can see a penguin in the middle of a school of fish)

A fish I thought looked cool

A sea lion hanging in the waters of Santiago Island

Marine iguanas in the water

A hungry young sea lion waiting for its mother to return with food

Day eight: Daphne Major and back to Baltra

Our final day on the ship involved started out with a circumnavigation of Daphne Major, a small island close to Baltra. Daphne Major is well known for the studies that took place there involving Darwin's finches. The study consisted of measuring the beak size of the finches over a thirty year period and led to the discovery that the finches have evolved and their beak size has change in order to deal with the changes of climate from year to year.


From Daphne Major we headed back to Baltra to catch our flight back to the mainland of Ecuador. We took a few lasts pictures of some iguanas hanging out around the airport and said goodbye to the enchanted islands of the Galapagos.

A view of Daphne Major from the ship

After a night in Guayaquil my mom and I flew back to the states and I had to come to grips with the idea that my great vacation was finally over. I had an amazing time through it all, and even though there were a couple rough times thrown in, I wouldn't change a thing. Thanks to all of you who kept up with my blog, as it always made me feel better writing it when I knew someone was out there reading it.

After arriving back in the states, I took a day in Tampa to get everything packed up and by Tuesday I was driving back to North Carolina to start another summer in the mountains. Originally I had planned to lay low for a few days to get my life in order, but that didn't work out so well. Less than an hour after arriving in Bryson City I found myself meeting friends to head out to the local Mexican restaurant, Guayabitos and the following day managed to go kayaking twice, once in the Smoky Mountain National Park and once on my home river, the Nantahala. I did not however manage to get anything else accomplished and I can't say that bothered me at all. Its been a great year and only getting better!

See you on the river,
Laura

***One last note- I usually only post on this blog when I am traveling, but I am thinking that I will try and post anytime I do anything that I think is cool enough to be worthy of the blog, so check on it occasionally....