The sights of the islands here are, of course,
beautiful. That is something that
you can experience through the photographs you’ve seen. The sounds and smells, though, that is
something you can only truly experience here. I’ve often thought I should invest in audio equipment to
bring here to share the symphony that we hear on the islands, but that would
still not do it justice. It is
when it all comes together that the experience is whole.
Every time that I’ve come here, there have always been
unexpected things that have happened.
Nature is not a blue footed booby standing in a trail. It is things that we experience because
we happen to be in the right place at the right time to intersect with the
lives of the animals around us.
Those moments happen often here, if we’re paying attention. This week has been no exception.
Gardner Bay on Española Island has a beautiful sandy beach
with sooooo many sea lions on it, hundreds on any given day. It’s may be one of the most
photographed locations in the Galapagos.
After several visits here, it can be difficult to do something different to photograph, but you can’t help but try.
This week, I spent most of my time there in the surf as sea lions swam
through the shallow water and eventually came on shore. (Click on the photos to see them larger.)
Española is also home to the waved albatross. This large bird only comes to shore on
this island, and only spends part of the year here. If you visit here February – April, you won’t see these
graceful creatures….they are out at sea then. May is their breeding time, and their courtship dance is one
of my favorites here. When walking
by the “albatross airport” where they take off from a high cliff over the ocean
and many nest nearby, we watched the courtship and mating of one pair.
The next day, near Champion Island we snorkeled with
countless sea lions. May is a
great time to be here because the sea lion pups are at such a fun age. They dance and spin all around
you, especially when you dive down with them. It really
is like no other place I’ve experienced in the water.
On Floreana Island, there is a beach that we visit that,
like many here, is a nesting area for the Pacific green sea turtle. As we were leaving the beach to go back
to the ship for breakfast this week, we saw a frigatebird flying low over the
nest area. I had been keeping my
eye out for this, since friends had seen this happen on previous trips, but I
had always been on another part of the island. We watched as the bird plucked hatchling turtles from a nest
and ate them as he flew overhead.
Three times he circled back by.
It was amazing to see how quickly he was able to do this. At one point a hatchling was dropped
and he swooped down to catch it in midair. Yes, some in the group were horrified, but it is part of the
process of life and a moment that I felt fortunate to witness.
There are four inhabited islands (five if you count Baltra
which houses the airport and a small military base) in the Galapagos. Puerto Ayora, on Santa Cruz Island, is
the largest city in the archipelago, with somewhere around 18,000
inhabitants. People are often
surprised to hear that around 30,000 people live on the islands. I’ve visited three of the four
inhabited areas and they are all distinct from each other. One of the great places to visit in
Puerto Ayora is the fish market.
The guys that work there are great multi-taskers, as they filet the fish
that’s come in that day, deal with customers, and defend their catches from the
patrolling pelicans and sea lions around them, although they do give them an
occasional treat. Anyone who has a
dog knows what kind of behavior that encourages!
