Our guide told us that we would be screaming ‘no more boobies’ after 3 days .. and he was almost right. Although the booby birds are fascinating, particularly at this time of year when the babies are hatching .. but after being within just a breath of these amazing birds for days on end.. enough was enough!! My personal favourite of course was the blue-footed booby .. who could resist those aqua feet!!
The famous ‘blue-footed booby’ that is unique to the Galapagos islands. These birds are amazing and you can imagine I was loving the aqua feet!
This blog is coming hot off the trail of my 8 day cruise in the Galapagos Islands which was truly fantastic and definitely the wildlife experience of a life time. It was a mind blowing lesson in natural history set in group of islands that are barren and volcanic one minute and then perfectly luscious with green mangroves the next. A place of magnificent contrasts and the only place where you can be looking at a heron one minute, a sting ray the next, then a baby shark will come along while you’re busy spying a turtle going for a morning fish.
So … a brief run down on the highlights of the trip … This is definitely easier to describe in photos, so I hope you enjoy the extra photos on this blog and I’ve tried to keep my rambling to a minimum…
Andrealina, the daughter of the captain, was on board with us for the trip and she helped me practice my Spanish all week. Although she told me she could only understand me when I ‘spoke properly!’
Definitely the crew, our guide and our group. The crew were fantastic, lots of fun and were very patient with helping me practice my Spanish all week and also provided great dancing partners on the last night where they got the salsa and reggatone CDs out and we danced around the dining table! Our guide Diego was also so helpful and patient and answered questions asked by certain people in our group such as Diego … is the red-footed booby the one with the red beak? to which he patiently answered that it was probably the one with the red feet! Our group was great fun, particularly my fellow Aussie cabin-buddy Bron! The Captain’s daughter and nephew were also on the boat who were my constant companions and with whom I had the fun of building a big sand castle on the beach. However, the little girl did tell me in Spanish that I was easy to understand only when I “spoke properly” .. guess I still need a few more lessons under my belt …
Discovering the creatures of the sea … Definitely the highlight for me was swimming with the sea turtles, playing with sea lions in the water as they dart in and out and around you, floating over giant manta rays, following white point sharks as they slithered through the sea and seeing an amazing aquarium of brilliantly coloured fish … Everyone on the boat was highly amused at my fetish with sharks. Upon finding out that these sharks do not (usually) attack humans, whenever we saw one whilst snorkelling, I always took off after it to follow it slithering around whilst everyone else was thinking, there she goes again, or trying to swim in the opposite direction! One day while I was snorkelling, I was in heaven, I had 5 different shark sightings in the space of 45 minutes … call me crazy but I love these guys.
This little baby sea lion was so cute and had his fin lifted up whilst he was covered in sand and basking in the sun on the beach
Turtles Turtles deserve a special mention all on their own. I loved both the land and the sea turtles. After swimming with a few sea turtles, I did’t think that the land turtles could possibly compete but then upon stumbling across giant 150+ year old turtles roaming around the highlands on the island of Santa Cruz, I had to reassess my earlier judgements. These amazingly huge creatures walk up to 10 km a day, some of them weigh 250 kg and they are ginormous (not sure whether that is a word or not). We even had to stop the car to get one of the turtles off the road into the national park … that was certainly a first for me.
Well … never before have we had to stop the car to clear a turtle off the road! This turtle was idling along in the national park during our trip inland to see the giant land turtles
Boobies, boobies, boobies. I didn’t actually know that booby birds existed before Galapagos, let alone that they come in the varieties of blue-footed, red-footed and masked. We saw so many of these beautiful birds and I have learnt almost everything there is to know about them, or so I think! My favourite boobies were on the island of Genovesa where we witnessed the mothers feeding the young, by regurgitation.
Anyway, that´s all in this blog, but please take a look at the pics, there’s about another 500 where they came from too!! I´m currently adjusting from being rocked to sleep like a baby from the gentle swell of the ocean, in other words, I´m back in a dorm room in a hostel in Quito! I leave tomorrow to meet up with my sister Elizabeth in Lima, can’t wait!
Me snorkelling in the crystal clear waters of the Galapagos (photo courtesy of Bron)
Hope you are all well and please keep in touch, Tamara 😊
This little land iguana is so cute, green and red and he was sunning himself up on a rock. Such placid little creatures
A mature red footed booby playing in the tree
Notice the red pouch of the frigate bird is used to attract the females .. and size does matter .. the bigger the pouch, the better chance the male has
The famous blue-footed booby in all its glory. We saw these guys dancing (mating call), singing, flying, eating, sitting on eggs, nesting and eating … I loved them!
The elegant swallow tailed gull that we saw on lots of different islands
I got very excited in Black Turtle Cove where we saw tens of baby sharks, although I did prefer swimming with the bigger ones!
Knocking on the shell of a 150+ year old giant land turtle that we stumbled upon in the National Park on the island of Santa Cruz. These animals are mind blowing. Also the only rain we had all week!
A little baby red footed booby that we saw hanging out in his nest whilst mum was out and about. He was screeching for food!
The aqua shorts feature again!! Relaxing on the deck chairs whilst the sun sets after a hard day of snorkelling and bird watching
The crew paid only a bottle of rum to a passing fisherman for all this fish. This is Jimi the cook .. however when the fish didn’t eventuate on the meal table for a few days there was almost a mutiny
In Española on the beach that I voted the best beach outside Australia! It was filled with sea lions and was perfect for a swim on a sweltering afternoon
My other young friend on the boat was the nephew of the captain, doing work experience. He was very patient with my Spanish and always accompanied me on the walk, teaching me Spanish. Here we are on the lookout over to Bartolome
These sea lions were kicking back after a hard morning of swimming and fishing. They snuggled up, perfectly aligned, on the beach
In the afternoon when we travelled for an hour or so, this was the perfect opportunity to catch an hour’s kip on the back deck sleeping to the purr of the motor!
Our dinghies that we used for wet and dry landing excursions from the big boat every day
Watching the sunset on the last night of our cruise just before dinner and a night of salsa dancing around the dinner table with the crew!
Tamara's Travel Blog 