16-Mar-2009: Galapagos Islands

The Galapagos Islands, at the equator off the coast in Ecuador, are just amazing - we really felt privileged to be able to visit such a special place like this. There is no where else in the world like Galapagos - every day we were there I was in awe by what we saw and what we learnt. The animals there are fearless of humans, as over time each species has developed their own special niche to survive in a situation where they have no predators, and therefore have no reason to fear other animals around them. If anything, the animals are curious of us strange beings who seem to like standing around, observe them and take photos of them like slightly annoying paparazzi.



We spent eight days on board the yatch Angelito, with a group of eleven others. Our group were not the usual demographic we're used to travelling with (no Australians!), but as we got to know everyone over the duration of our trip, we found that although we didn't have a great deal in common with everyone (except a love of travelling!), we all got along so well. Such a fantastic group of people to experience Galapagos with.


The Sea Lions were my favourite (hence the millions of photos of them!). Especially the pups, who were so curious of us - we all wanted to take one home! Although they did stink pretty badly - there would be no way you could sneak one of them past customs! We were instructed never to touch the wildlife while at Galapagos, but a couple of times we had the wildlife approaching us!!





You could see right infront us the evidence that Darwin saw to come up with the Theory of Evolution and survival of the fittest. Each island we visited had a different habitat to the next and the wildlife on that island had perfectly adapted to the harsh conditions found. For example, the land iguanas feed exclusively on cactii, which is found in abunance on several of the Galapagos islands. They sit patiently waiting for juicy yellow cactus flowers to fall for them eat. Their close relative, the marine iguana, have adapted to swim but feed almost exclusively on algae. They gaze out into the sea every morning for hours on end, as though contemplating life, waiting for the exact right moment for their daily swim.


We snorkled and swam and had afternoon siestas everyday. On most of the nights, our yatch Angelito did it's navigation to the next island, sometimes travelling over 5 hours to the next destination. The mind boggles how the different species managed to end up on the different islands, surviving the long transit on logs and other debris on the wide open sea.



Watching marine turtles mate in the wild was an amazing experience. The really didn't seem bothered that we sat there in a boat only metres away observing them splash about. Seeing large schools of 50+ Spotted Eagle rays swim ever so gracefully under our boat was also an awesome sight.


The Galapagos Islands National Park has many strict rules enforced for it's visitors in order to preserve the special environment there. Visitors are not allowed to land on any of the islands without a permit and without being accompanied by a ranger (except for the main island, Santa Cruz), and once on an island, visitors must not stray from the marked paths - you could endanger the fragile nests of native wildlife even by straying half a metre off the marked path!




The large Galapagos Land Tortoises were wonderful to watch. Some of them reach over 150 years in age! You get a feeling of their wisdom, having lived through so much, as you watch them move slowly to where they wish to go. We felt so lucky to be able to watch them in their natural environment in the wild.



Our yatch Angelito wasn't new or anything fancy, but it was comfortable and there was lots of space for us to relax and move about. We had our own ensuite bathroom with shower and toilet attached to our room, and the swaying of the boat in the water ensured that we had a good night sleep each night (there was only one instance where I had to take sea sickness tablets!). The naturalist onboard our yatch, Maya, was exceptional. She allowed us as much time as we wished to observe the wildlife, while other groups passed us to move on to the next "sight".