Funny. There are a lot of amazing things to see in the Galapagos, but one thing that really seemed bizarre to me was watching penguins swimming around amongst the mangroves on one of the islands. Penguinis and mangroves doesn't seem quite right.
The Galapagos has a fantastic history as well. The Galapagos have been a haven for pirates, the source of Charles Darwin's 'Origin of Species', home to numerous of unique animals, a US army base in WWII, an Ecudorian prison up until the 60's (or 80's? can't remember) and the location for a bizarre real-life murder mystery surrounding a wealthy German and her two lovers.
Today was my last day so I decided to go diving again. To tell the truth the morning was a little bit of a let down compared to my other dives. There were only two others on the dive and they were both inexperienced and a but useless; taking ages to get down, kicking silt up everywhere and banging into things, swimming on top of you, etc. I guess everyone has to start somewhere, but it's still frustrating. However, we did get to see a lot of sea lions and swim about with them and swim through a small cave which was pretty cool. Now, fingers crossed my blocked ear clears up before I have to fly out tomorrow.
Showing posts with label Galapagos. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Galapagos. Show all posts
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Pirate post office
Another place we went to on the cruise was Post Office Bay. It's one of those postcard perfect beaches, but the interesting thing about it is just off the beach is an old barrel which is a relic from back in the days when the Galapagos islands were used as a port for whalers and other sea faring folk, as well as a refuge for pirates.
The barrel was used as a post box. People would leave messages in the barrel and other people coming through would go through the box and take anything that they could deliver. Now the tradition lives on through numerous travellers who come through the Galapagos. We wrote our postcards and put them in the barrel. Then looked through the 100's of other letters and postcards for ones that were close to home. Written on the cards were lots of promises of homemade treats or meal for a message hand delivered.
I could only find three cards that were from Australians, and only one of these was in Victoria. I think Beechworth is up north somewhere; but I figure it can't be anymore than a weekend roadtrip and I love the thought of turning up on someones doorstep, in this case Bev & Mick from Beechworth, and delivering a postcard written in the Galapagos six months ago. Someone suggested they could take a postcard from their country and post it when they get home; but that just didn't seem in the spirit of things to me.
The barrel was used as a post box. People would leave messages in the barrel and other people coming through would go through the box and take anything that they could deliver. Now the tradition lives on through numerous travellers who come through the Galapagos. We wrote our postcards and put them in the barrel. Then looked through the 100's of other letters and postcards for ones that were close to home. Written on the cards were lots of promises of homemade treats or meal for a message hand delivered.
I could only find three cards that were from Australians, and only one of these was in Victoria. I think Beechworth is up north somewhere; but I figure it can't be anymore than a weekend roadtrip and I love the thought of turning up on someones doorstep, in this case Bev & Mick from Beechworth, and delivering a postcard written in the Galapagos six months ago. Someone suggested they could take a postcard from their country and post it when they get home; but that just didn't seem in the spirit of things to me.
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| Putting my postcards in the barrel. |
Shake it baby.
One of the places we stopped on the cruise was Cerro Dragun which means dragon hill - named after the land iguanas which live there. They are pretty damn big for a lizard, but not quite dragon sized. They grow to about a metre long (tail included). On our walk around the island we saw about a dozen big males, a couple of the females disappearing into the bush (they're a bit shy) and one baby. The babies are blue and for some reason he was just sitting in the top of a bush waiting for me to spot him.
Towards the end we came across two large males having a face-off in the middle of the track. It was amazing. They were nose to nose starring at each other and shaking their heads. Apparently, best head shaker is the winner and the other has to get off his turf. And they don't shake side to side it's more of a head fit - up-up-up up-up-up down up-up-up up-up-up down - sorry not enough internet to upload the video, but you get the idea.
Towards the end we came across two large males having a face-off in the middle of the track. It was amazing. They were nose to nose starring at each other and shaking their heads. Apparently, best head shaker is the winner and the other has to get off his turf. And they don't shake side to side it's more of a head fit - up-up-up up-up-up down up-up-up up-up-up down - sorry not enough internet to upload the video, but you get the idea.
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| Shakey shakey |
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Just cruisin'
The weeklong cruise seemed to go awfully quick, but we did get to see and do a lot. We visited various islands, went snorkelling most days and got up close and personal with giant tortoises, sea lions, marine iguanas, land iguanas, turtles, penguins, lava lizards and blue-footed boobies.
On one of our first snorkels I was about to dive down to take a look at something when I heard someone call out 'Shark!'. I turned and two feet behind me a metre and a half long reef shark was swimming by. I started swimming as fast as I could. My little chicken legs pumping and my arms splashing about as fast as they could, but damn, there was no way I could keep up with him and he swam off into the distance.
The turtles were a little easier to keep up with. They can swim fast when they want to, but they've kind of got this blase, 'yeah whatever' kind of attitude. You swim up close and they don't care, they don't leave, they don't pay any attention to you either; they just keep on being a turtle and just doing what turtles do.
Penguins are like the reef sharks, you don't have a hope in hell of keeping up with one. Sea lions would be the same except they are curious creatures and like to play. So they'll come up and check you out.
Penguins mini torpedoes and sea lions a little curious.
Admittedly we didn't see a lot of reef sharks while snorkelling and we would have loved to see more penguins and sea lions, but in all the snorkelling was pretty good. The mix of warm and cool currents made it a bit of a mystery everyday as to what the water would be like. Would it be warm or cool? What would the visibility be like? How tough would the current be?
Out of the water the number of tortoises, marine iguanas, land iguanas, birds of all sorts and sea lions we saw was fantastic. I was averaging about 300-500 photos a day. So you're probably lucky that it takes too long to upload them and I can't put lots up!
On one of our first snorkels I was about to dive down to take a look at something when I heard someone call out 'Shark!'. I turned and two feet behind me a metre and a half long reef shark was swimming by. I started swimming as fast as I could. My little chicken legs pumping and my arms splashing about as fast as they could, but damn, there was no way I could keep up with him and he swam off into the distance.
The turtles were a little easier to keep up with. They can swim fast when they want to, but they've kind of got this blase, 'yeah whatever' kind of attitude. You swim up close and they don't care, they don't leave, they don't pay any attention to you either; they just keep on being a turtle and just doing what turtles do.
Penguins are like the reef sharks, you don't have a hope in hell of keeping up with one. Sea lions would be the same except they are curious creatures and like to play. So they'll come up and check you out.
Penguins mini torpedoes and sea lions a little curious.
Admittedly we didn't see a lot of reef sharks while snorkelling and we would have loved to see more penguins and sea lions, but in all the snorkelling was pretty good. The mix of warm and cool currents made it a bit of a mystery everyday as to what the water would be like. Would it be warm or cool? What would the visibility be like? How tough would the current be?
Out of the water the number of tortoises, marine iguanas, land iguanas, birds of all sorts and sea lions we saw was fantastic. I was averaging about 300-500 photos a day. So you're probably lucky that it takes too long to upload them and I can't put lots up!
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| Land iguana |
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| Blue-footed boobie |
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| Our boat, the 'Angelito' |
Monday, May 23, 2011
Hammerhead hijinx
Finally the big guniea pig thing...
I arrived on the the Galapagos Islands Monday and it's been great. It's either the start or end of the wet season as it's still hot, but it seems to rain most evenings. But it's ok in the day so that's good.
In my first day or so I met a small but good crew of people to hang out with. A few people from the US, Israel & Switzerland. We checked out some beaches, have been diving, seen the giant tortoises, marine iguanas and lava tubes. All this and I've only seen part of 1 island!
The first night, myself and Richard - a New Yorker I met getting off the plane, went hunting for a cheap hotel and managed to talk a lady down from $45 to $30 a night each for rooms. We thought we had done well until we met a girl, Sasha, who was staying the same place as us and paying $15 a night. Ripped! The next day we asked the guys we were diving with how much they were paying and they were paying $15 and $12 a night! Obviously we must look like suckers. That was it, we got off the boat and followed our new friend, Gilard (can you believe I kept forgetting his name), an Isreali dude, to his hotel. We had a look at the rooms and the standard was the same as our $30 a night rooms, so we switched hotels, never to return, except when I've gone back to the restaurant next door so I can steal their wi-fi ;)
The diving, although somewhat expensive has been amazing. Turtles, reef sharks, muebla rays, blue-spotted eagle rays, sea lions and hammerheads as well as all the usual small reef fish.
We went through air quick in that dive because we went quite deep and there were a lot of strong currents which we had to swim against. At the end our guide was a bit far away so he banged on his tank to get our attention and for us to follow and then took off. He was almost out of sight when Richard and I went to go after him, then I realised that the other girl was still watching the sharks and going the opposite direction. I wasn't sure whether to go after her or get richards attention first, but turned around and saw her and I was low on air so left him to chase her. So I was left danglling in the middle, trying to wait where they could see me and I could see where the guide was disappearing to.
So we all got back together in a group and did our 3 minute safety stop. But Richards dive computer said we had to do extra time because we'd gone too deep. So the guide took the other 2 to the surface then came back to Richard and I who were just hovering in the water waiting to see how long his air would last. The guide came back just as Richards air ran out, so they shared and I got to keep my diminishing resources to myself. Longest 9 minutes ever. Perhaps a little excessive for a safety stop, but better safe than sorry. So yeah, exciting 50th dive.
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| Agouti - the big guinea pig thing. |
I arrived on the the Galapagos Islands Monday and it's been great. It's either the start or end of the wet season as it's still hot, but it seems to rain most evenings. But it's ok in the day so that's good.
In my first day or so I met a small but good crew of people to hang out with. A few people from the US, Israel & Switzerland. We checked out some beaches, have been diving, seen the giant tortoises, marine iguanas and lava tubes. All this and I've only seen part of 1 island!
The first night, myself and Richard - a New Yorker I met getting off the plane, went hunting for a cheap hotel and managed to talk a lady down from $45 to $30 a night each for rooms. We thought we had done well until we met a girl, Sasha, who was staying the same place as us and paying $15 a night. Ripped! The next day we asked the guys we were diving with how much they were paying and they were paying $15 and $12 a night! Obviously we must look like suckers. That was it, we got off the boat and followed our new friend, Gilard (can you believe I kept forgetting his name), an Isreali dude, to his hotel. We had a look at the rooms and the standard was the same as our $30 a night rooms, so we switched hotels, never to return, except when I've gone back to the restaurant next door so I can steal their wi-fi ;)
The diving, although somewhat expensive has been amazing. Turtles, reef sharks, muebla rays, blue-spotted eagle rays, sea lions and hammerheads as well as all the usual small reef fish.
So our second dive on Wednesday was not only one of the best dives I've ever done, but my 50th dive ever! Towards the end of the dive we saw this big school of hammerheads, then as we were watching them a school of muebla rays swam past, then a huge turtle came swimming through the rays right past us.
There was so much going on I didn't know where to look. I probably should have been looking at my air gauge :( When I finished the dive it was on 0 and my dive buddy, Richard, he had to share the guides air for the last couple of minutes.
There was so much going on I didn't know where to look. I probably should have been looking at my air gauge :( When I finished the dive it was on 0 and my dive buddy, Richard, he had to share the guides air for the last couple of minutes.
We went through air quick in that dive because we went quite deep and there were a lot of strong currents which we had to swim against. At the end our guide was a bit far away so he banged on his tank to get our attention and for us to follow and then took off. He was almost out of sight when Richard and I went to go after him, then I realised that the other girl was still watching the sharks and going the opposite direction. I wasn't sure whether to go after her or get richards attention first, but turned around and saw her and I was low on air so left him to chase her. So I was left danglling in the middle, trying to wait where they could see me and I could see where the guide was disappearing to.
So we all got back together in a group and did our 3 minute safety stop. But Richards dive computer said we had to do extra time because we'd gone too deep. So the guide took the other 2 to the surface then came back to Richard and I who were just hovering in the water waiting to see how long his air would last. The guide came back just as Richards air ran out, so they shared and I got to keep my diminishing resources to myself. Longest 9 minutes ever. Perhaps a little excessive for a safety stop, but better safe than sorry. So yeah, exciting 50th dive.
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| Turtle |
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| School of blue-spotted eagle rays |
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| School of hammerheads |
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