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After hearing so many people rave about the Galapagos Islands, I decided that I had to go see them for myself, since I was in the neighborhood. For some strange reason which I still cant figure out, they would not let me ride my moto all over the islands. Its too bad because the Galapagos looked like some great off-road riding. Ha ha!! Yes, lots of rules here in in Ecuador. So, at the last minute I booked a trip on a boat called the Samba. Here is what our route looks like.
The boat is an 80 foot motorized yacht called the Samba and there were a total of 12 passengers and a crew of 6 on the boat. Over the course of 8 days I must have taken over 3000 photos of birds, lizards, seals, turtles, beaches and other such stuff. I wont bore you to death with all of the details of each island or all the pictures. Just a few select pics and a little commentary.
The terrain, climate and general topography reminds me a bit of the Cortez side of Baja California. The general idea is that you island hop on the boat, then take a zodiac onto land and to snorkeling spots a couple of times each day. There are literally animals everywhere.
The animals for the most part do not fear anything, since there are very few predators that were introduced to the islands and those that were introduced years ago are slowly being eradicated. So the result is that you can get very close to the animals and they are totally unfazed by your presence.
Bear in mind that none of my photos were taken with a telephoto lens. I only have 17mm to 55mm zoom, so its a very widefield lens.
Albatros.
Babysitting. Maybe this is where the term comes from. 🙂
We also witnessed a type of mating ritual between the birds.
A big hit with most tourists are birds called the blue-footed Boobie. Funny name for a funny looking bird.
I saw one doing a funny little dance where it would lift its feet up and down and sway back and forth. I forgot the significance of this little dance, but it was funny to watch.
Bad day for the Boobie, good day for the crab.
I don’t know why I was compelled to take hundreds of pictures of these little guys, but they are colorful little buggers.
There were some beautiful beaches along the way.
Sea turtle tracks going to the nests.
And of course lots of sea turtles.
And curious little Mockingbirds.
That would get all tweaked when they discovered that you were an intruder in their territory.
The paparazzi were always in action.
They were relentless. If those cameras were guns, all the wildlife on the Galapagos would have been decimated in only a few short days. Ha!
The big tortoises were really cool.
Dude, do you mind getting out of my face with that stupid wide angle lens on your camera?
Like the rest of the pacific ring of fire, these islands are volcanic, so there were some huge lava flows.
And some cool sink holes from some collapsed lava.
This little guy is called a lava heron, for obvious reasons.
Another cool bird. Some kind of gull I believe.
I knew you guys wanted more Boobies.
Random beach shot.
There were some beautiful tidal pools.
Blow holes.
This one was pretty impressive with just a little swell in the water.
Of course plenty of sea lions.
We even saw them fishing.
Hey buddy give me a little break here, you’re scaring the fish away.
Sorry man, no milk for you.
Hey I think I just saw that sea lion poop.
Jeez, I cant even poop and nap in peace.
And of course, there were many, many land iguanas.
They kind of grow on you after a while.
Watch your step, thats a big-un.
And marine iguanas as well. These guys were literally everywhere and you really had to pay attention not to step on them.
A face only a mother could love.
The good ship Samba………..
…..showed us yet more spectacular coastline.
Sei whale.
Galapagos hawk.
Heron.
The Heron got a little tweaked when that hawk landed so close to him. He was not happy.
Flamingos.
Goat man.
Penguins!!!
more beautiful scenes……………
I was a little ambivalent about going to the islands but it turned out to be a great experience. We also had some absolutely fantastic snorkeling with seals, sharks, turtles, and all kinds of interesting fish, but I didn’t have an underwater camera to capture any of those scenes.
Yes its touristy, yes there are many boats and many tourists, yes its expensive, but I found it to be a great experience, one of those “once in a lifetime” things. What made it much better was that I booked a small tourist class boat rather than a large first class boat. Being with a small group of people made for a very mellow experience.
So, two thumbs up for the Galapagos Islands.
Saludos.