We set off bright and early for the Galapagos Islands - first a flight from Quito Airport to Baltra Island Airport via Guayaquil, then a short ferry from Baltra Island to Santa Cruz Island, then a 40 minute drive across the whole of Santa Cruz Island, then a 2 hour long speedboat trip from Puerto Ayora on Isla Santa Cruz to Puerto Villamil on Isla Isabela, which is the largest of the Galapagos Islands.
The speedboat was not the greatest experience ever, and I am very thankful that we had seasickness tablets. It also felt like people were trying to shaft us for money at every possible opportunity - $10 to leave the Quito Airport, $100 to enter the national park, $1 for the ferry, $1 transfer fee from the dock to the speedboat and then again from the speedboat to the dock, $10 docking fee at Puerto Ayora. I get that people need to make a living, but it gets very annoying after a while.
We had two days in the Galapagos - Day 1 was to learn about the islands' formation, and Day 2 was to see some of the animals.
Much of the scenery looked like this, and it was raining.
We were hiking around the rim of the Sierra Negra caldera, which is about 10km in diameter. It last erupted in October 2005. You can just see the rim of the crater off to the right.
The line on the ground marks the transition from the older eruptions to the newer ones. It's a few thousands of years old natural straight line.
We walked across where the most recent eruption had been. Here's a lava tunnel - formed when a river of lava goes out - the outside cools in the air, and creates a tunnel down which the lava continues to flow, insulated from the air.
There were many colors of rocks - it looked a bit like the set of Star Trek.
More colors on the lava field - yellow sulphur and red iron.
Time for animals! We stopped off at a local lagoon, where the flamingos were feeding. They actually feed by sifting silt through their beaks upside down, which made a very weird swooshing noise.
We visited the Giant Tortoise Breeding Center to learn about the program and see how they were taking care of the tortoises. Apparently there are around 10 or 11 different subspecies of giant tortoises, and they all live on different islands. Introduced animals (dogs, cats, goats) killed nearly all of the tortoises, so now they mostly reproduce in the breeding center - they keep them there until they are 6 years old and then release them into the wild again after their shell has hardened and they're big enough to fend for themselves.
The tortoises were kind of scary looking, because they were so big. You got the idea that they could bite your feet off if you they didn't like you. And no, they didn't let us sit on them.
They had a lot of tortoises there. There was probably a thousand in the breeding center we saw, which was one of three breeding centers on the islands. No more extinctions for these guys!
Another species endemic to the Galapagos is the marine iguana, an iguana that has evolved to be able to swim and eat algae. Apparently Charles Darwin wasn't a big fan of them: "The black Lava rocks on the beach are frequented by large (60-90cm), disgusting clumsy Lizards. They are as black as the porous rocks over which they crawl and seek their prey from the Sea. I call them 'imps of darkness'. They assuredly well become the land they inhabit." Here's the local iguana crossing - they really did just wander across the road whenever they felt like it and they were EVERYWHERE.
They liked to sit over the paths like this and hiss at you when you tried to walk past, and they blended so well into the black rocks that are everywhere that sometimes you would turn around and one would be 30cm away staring at you. Imps of darkness indeed.
Blue footed boobies hanging around on the rocks.
We visited a wall built by prisoners called the Wall of Tears, which was actually not that exciting, being a wall built in the middle of nowhere for no reason.
There were plenty of stealth tortoises to see though - you can see the one on the right, but you can see his ninja buddy hiding in the bushes to the left?!
In the afternoon we went on a boat trip around the Tintoreras Islands, which are in the harbor of Puerto Villamil. On the way there, we found this sea lion hanging around sunning himself on someone's boat.
They were everywhere too - here's another one lazing around on the dock. We were struck by the resemblance to Jax.
And another one sunning himself on the beach.
Galapagos penguins on the rocks.
Sunset over the Galapagos Beach. We did go snorkelling (not with the sharks) and saw lots of fish including puffer fish, two types of rays, and three sea-turtles, which were huge! Obviously no pictures :)
The Galapagos was a very strange place. Stephen said it reminded him of a pacific island, as it seemed to have a very laid-back lifestyle and we were surrounded by beaches. I was pretty disappointed by how we were treated in a lot of places - it was clear that they saw tourists as a resource that would just continue to renew itself regardless of how they were treated, and ripe to be exploited at every possible opportunity. It doesn't give you a great feeling.
This is Part 2. Part 1 (Quito) and Part 3 (Highlands) are also available.
We had two days in the Galapagos - Day 1 was to learn about the islands' formation, and Day 2 was to see some of the animals.
We started Day 1 with a 16km hide to the Sierra Negra volcano. The Galapagos are volcanic islands (created by volcanic eruptions), and everywhere is evidence of this.
And finally some white-tip sharks in a canal (with some iguanas on the rocks above - I told you they were everywhere!).
The Galapagos was a very strange place. Stephen said it reminded him of a pacific island, as it seemed to have a very laid-back lifestyle and we were surrounded by beaches. I was pretty disappointed by how we were treated in a lot of places - it was clear that they saw tourists as a resource that would just continue to renew itself regardless of how they were treated, and ripe to be exploited at every possible opportunity. It doesn't give you a great feeling.
This is Part 2. Part 1 (Quito) and Part 3 (Highlands) are also available.
No comments:
Post a Comment