Galapagos: Arid, Aquatic Christmas

Out of nowhere, a week opened up in my schedule around Christmas - the perfect amount of time to go on a 7-8 day Galapagos boat tour. Here the view from the top of Bartolome Island, taken towards Santiago, or James, island. I flew from Guayaquil, Ecuador, where I had been with University of Chicago students (see last blog), to Baltra, Galapagos. My tour was on a "economy" class tour--- visiting the Galapagos is expensive in any way (the park has a $100 entrance fee for anyone who is not an Ecuadorian citizen, then there is the most expensive available domestic plane ticket and tour costs).

The animals and landscape were bizarre, and memorable. Here is a "Sally" Crab, which will eat its mate if it is larger (the male will eat the female, or the female will eat the male). Sometimes the the mate gets away with only one appendage eaten, like this one!

The marine iguanas of the Galapagos are particularly well known. They sleep on land and hunt in the ocean. They are great divers and can swim distances if necessary. Usually the iguanas are scavengers and vegetarians, however one was recently documented actually attacking and killing a live octopus! Here is a close-up of a marine iguana.













The boat I lived on for those 7 days is named the "Poseidon". Usually the Poseidon has 10 passengers and approximately 5 crew, including our bilingual naturalist guide. This trip, however, was "special", according to Jon, our guide.

A group of 7 passengers somehow where not able to get on their international flight to arrive in Ecuador. Thus, we were a group of three with the boat and guide to ourselves! Three days later we picked up three people and dropped off one, making us a group of five. I can´t imagine what it would have been like if there HAD been 10 people, the quarters already seems cramped! Here I am in my "two person room."

Each day we would have at least a morning and afternoon activity... or several morning and afternoon activities. We went on hikes, small boat rides into tidal waters, went kayaking and did a lot of snorkeling.

The snorkeling was my favorite and was when I got to swim with penguins! I also swam with sea lions, sharks and many.... many fish!
Sometimes we swam with schools of thousands of fish- I wish I had an underwater camera to have documented those experiences!

The Galapagos penguin is its own species which can withstand the warm temperatures of the Galapagos land and water. Here they are swimming in a pack and looking for food.

The penguin is at great risk of going extinct, however as during the last, "El Niño" year, the populations dwindled and would not survive another if they are affected in the same way.

Here are some sea lions on land, a baby and its mother.

We also swam and snorkeled with many female and young sea lions. The sea lions are very curious and playful and like to swim around people from below... above the side... you wouldn't know where they might appear from!

Before I arrived in the Galapagos I read a whole natural history book about the islands, their animals, geology, human history and current politics. I was so glad I did, as I was able to add to an better contextualize the experience I had with my islands tour.

While I was in the Galapagos, it was turtle mating season, and Blue-Footed Boobie mating dance season... Above two green turtles (who actually may be a different species, endemic to the Galapagos, the "black turtle"), mate while close to shore. Below a male and female Blue Footed Boobie. Unfortunately my video clips of the mating dance will not load on this site!Some of the other birds we witnessed were albatross (below), which was completing its mating season....

and masked boobies.

Here is a cactus that has grown a trunk to protect it from the land iguanas. Interestingly, only a sterile hybrid, a cross between the marine iguanas and the land iguanas, which only occurs on one of the Galapagos Islands, is able to climb the cactus! You can tell the hybrid is present when the cacti has bites out of its... and they haven't yet fallen to the ground.

In the above pic, a land iguana guards its territory and waits for its favorite food, the fruit of the cactus, to fall.The land iguana will wait months for this to happen! In the meantime they also eat other vegetation and other pieces of cactus.

One of the most different looking islands was ... which was covered in the tree-cacti and a strange red ground cover. It reminded me of a Dr. Seuss landscape. Here is a close-up of the red ground cover.

We visited the Charles Darwin research center for one afternoon of our trip, and witnessed the Center's breeding program in action. The center breeds and releases tortoises to several of the islands. The baby turtles are maintained separate based on their island of origin because the tortoise species has now differentiated into distinct sub-species. The tortoises were in need of a breeding program after feral goats had eaten much of their food sources. The Galapagos National Park now has feral goat eradication programs underway, and some have been completed.

Here is an adult tortoise, I think he looks like ET. One of the adult tortoises at the Charles Darwin Center is "Lonesome George", the last known of his sub-species. There is a huge financial reward being offered for anyone who can locate another of his kind. During the early 1900s, tortoises were removed from the Galapagos and sold all over the world as a kind of unique lawn ornament. So far no one has come forward with a mate for George. The center is trying to breed him with the most similar sub-species that exists, but George is not interested.

My roommate in the Galapagos was a Swedish girl named Marie who I am planning to have dinner with tonight in Bogota. She is working for a Swedish agency which provides an international presence to non-governmental organizations in Colombia.

One of the most entertaining, and ridiculous aspects of the trip were two German girls who got on the boat on Christmas eve. They demanded a special Christmas "program" for the next day, during which, they informed everyone, we would have to all sing Christmas carols in our respective languages. We tried this, however I knew more words to the Spanish Christmas Carols than did the crew and our guide, and I didn't know all of them. Also the Swiss guy and Marie did not participate.They brought a small Christmas tree and some other decorations, and gifts for each other and demanded that the cook make something special for Christmas dinner. Above they are posing with their Christmas tree. The girls did not stop their complaints and demands at Christmas- They were upset that the English/Spanish speaking guide didn't know the names of seabirds in German, didn't want to hike some of the island trails, and their opinion of the boat was very low... they couldn't imagine how 10 people could fit on such a boat.

Another point of interest for the Galapagos, at least for me, was that I became quite sick. I wasn't sea sick, I started with a fever the first night and things just got worse until I finally visited the Hospital on San Cristobal, one of the more inhabited islands. I started to get better on Christmas day. If I hadn't started feeling better I likely would have flown back early. Luckily I only missed out on about a day's worth of activity.

Despite being more sick than I think I have been in my whole life, the experience was amazing. If I ever go back it will be for the SCUBA diving (now that I am certified!) and to go check out the tortoises in their mountainous habitats up in the island volcanoes.