Galapagos 3 - Galápagos Islands

from http://discovergalapagos.com

The first cruise tour is coming to an end. What an experience! 

To give you an itinerary for cruise days, we would generally have breakfast at 6:30 am to be able to take a dingy over to an island at 7:30. Why so early? one might ask. Well it is so hot that even when you complete a hike across a lava field about 9:30 in the morning the temperature is 95ish degrees. Even hot for me when there is no real break from the sun. 

After the hike/walk/amble/step...step...step...pause-listen-to-the-monotonous-drone-of-our-guide, we would go snorkeling for an hour or so. Then back on the boat for a light refreshment and snack (usually fruit and something salty -my favorite so far was mochín, a yucca croquette filled with cheese dipped in honey) followed within the hour by lunch. About 2:30 we were back in the dinghies headed for our next walk and snorkeling or swimming adventure. We get back on board about 5:30 with another light refreshment and snack. We are given just enough time to shower and relax before dinner at 7:00. Then a bit of time to relax, chat, talk about the day's adventures, or pass out from exhaustion. 

That was just the logistics. I have already described some of what we saw the first day. What we have seen is amazing. Frigate birds with their red pouches engorged with air to attract females; blue-footed boobies nesting;  sparrow-
tailed gulls with hatchlings; land iguanas of orange and yellow; and sea lions. 

Watching the male frigate birds try to attract females was like something out of National Geographic. The has the red pouch that they inflate during mating season. When a female comes close they spread their wings and call to them. We saw one female approach a male after his call and the reject him. Poor guy. We saw others nesting either newly mated or with eggs. The gulls were nesting as well and we saw these very young ones, one a week or so old and another about 6 weeks. So cool to see the in real life. 

The blue-footed boobies seem to the a favorite of visitors due to their name. Across the populated parts of the islands in tourist shops there is all manner of "I love boobies" paraphernalia. Amybeth sent me an article about them just before I got to the Galapagos. It is interesting to see birds with a unique color of blue feet. It is kind of sky blue but richer in some cases. We also saw them with their eggs. The interesting thing is that they only stand over their eggs to keep them cool because of the heat. 

I am sure I will have other stories but two of the most interesting experiences I had while on our excursions were with sea lions and land iguanas. The land iguanas are big lizards. So, I am guessing you're asking yourself, "What in the world could be interesting about a big lizard?" On one of our walks, we saw a female (black and gray in color) land iguana eating part of a cactus pad that had fallen to the ground. It had clearly been eaten over a couple of days and the female was taking chunks out of it. As we stood there and our guide described the food sources for the iguanas another couple of females joined her. They were enjoying their breakfast when a large male (have orange yellow coloring) arrived followed by a smaller one. The first female who was smaller than all the others tried to stop the large male and they had a nose-to-nose standoff. They both huffed and cheeks kind of flaring. The male advanced a bit on the female who tried to stand her ground but eventually backed down and was chased off. She tried to return to the cactus pad but each time she was chased off by the male. Eventually she approached from a different direction and was able to eat more. Just seeing this display in real life was so cool. Not anything I would have thought to see.

Now on to the sea lion experiences. First of all sea lions are cute, inquisitive, playful and fun to see. We have seen sea lions throughout the cruise. On one snorkeling trip the sea lions played with some of the group biting the rubber flippers and at one point trying to eat one guy's GoPro camera. So cute. We watched the video one night. It kinda blows you away that they can play with humans and know what is ok to bite/nibble. On one islet we saw a good number of sea lions just lounging and and catching some rays (sun not the sea creatures). Walking further down the islet I saw a mother sea lion nursing a cub. It was such a cool sight. The next day we were on a different island and found a small colony of sea lions mostly sleeping but again there was a mother with a cub feeding but the cub was bigger than his mother and probably 4 years old. I was bizarre looking. Our guide was surprised to see it because they normally say that sea lions nurse for about 18-24 months. There was also milk from the mother leaking from her as he nursed. What a sight! 

We have come at the right time of year to see so many of the animals with their young. 

As I have said the trip so far has been great. I did succumb to the heat and sunshine one day. I know! Me!? Have a problem with the heat! The second full day we were out on the water we did a walk in the morning that was both interesting and tedious. Interesting because of what we saw and tedious because our guide cannot make a story interesting to save his life. He could make fireworks dull. Anyway, we spent about 90 minutes in the early morning heat and bright sun. I was in shorts a t shirt and a big wide brimmed hat, a necessity in the Galapagos. I could feel the skin on my calves crisping in the blazing sun. Even with multiple layers of sunscreen. It is like being under a broiler. There was also little to no wind where we were. We walked this rocky terrain looking at birds and iguanas (cool stuff) but we moving glacially partially because our guide did not keep us moving at a steady pace and partially because some of our group were straggling or taking thousands of pictures of the 90th bird sitting on an egg, or the 8 millionth iguana. When we got back to the boat we had some juice and fruit. I was feeling a bit nauseated, tired, and weak. It was odd.  At one point it felt like my whole body temperature had risen 100 degrees. My face and head were all red, my arms were red; my torso was red. I opted out of the snorkeling excursion and rested. Anything that touched my head or neck felt like sandpaper on my skin. I slept for a bit and even took a cool shower. After lunch I was still not feeling great but decided to go on the afternoon walk and beach time. I felt the sun was my enemy that day and had light weight long pants and a long-sleeved shirt. There were points during that walk where I struggled with the heat and a couple of times with my breath. I came back with a blistering headache and my face and arms bright red. I took another cool shower and some Advil. I had a cold Pepsi with dinner and relaxed on the top deck in the coolish breeze. By morning I was feeling better. It was strange for me. I was concerned I wouldn't be able to enjoy the rest of my time here. Our last day on the water was great because it was cooler, there were some clouds, and I felt like myself.