Greatest Show On Earth
That’s what National Geographic calls Galapagos Islands. I would have been skeptical after what I saw in Africa, but it’s National Geographic making that pronouncement. Well, being the ultimate skeptic, I was, but I decided to have a little faith in my favorite world journalists. I am more than happy to report that I have seen what may be the greatest show in the Universe. Best of all, my sister, Julie, joined me for such an amazing experience. We were lucky to see wildlife acting in ways that they just don’t exhibit anywhere else. Sea lion pups “walk” up and nuzzle you. Sea lion parents frolic with you in the water. Blue-footed boobies put on a courtship dance including exchanging sticks as if they are exchanging vows and wedding rings. Reptiles called marine iguanas swim in the ocean. Eleven species of giant tortoises exist on the islands. Sharks swim with fish and humans and all are content. Sea lions play with iguanas and crabs. Pelicans and just about every other animal allow humans to walk or swim within a meter of them without balking. I’m still at a loss regarding why the animals allow human contact. The common wisdom is that they did not have contact with humans and did not learn to be afraid of humans as predators, but this seems to be a myth when you learn about buccaneers wiping out most of the tortoises and that fishing and other hunting went on until the last few decades. One day we were snorkleing at Devil’s Crown and I was acting like the third sea lion with two real ones. I looked down and three meters below us was a shark! I stopped acting like a sea lion immediately knowing I was the slow one, but I had to wonder why the sea lions would hang out around a shark. Another day and we found two sharks cuddling near a large school of butterfly fish. I kept my eyes on them. I looked for the group and they had all turned their backs on the sharks as if that was ho-hum, just sharks. I guess even the humans get conditioned to hang out with the predators without worries very quickly in the Galapagos.
Speaking of cuddling sharks, the Galapagos is all about eating, sleeping, playing and sex. Not that I was partaking in the last one, but the animals sure were working on reproduction. The best show involved the blue-footed boobies. We watched a female between two males who were courting her. They each did their dance involving footsteps and wing movements as well as their call (“choose me, I will love you forever”) until she picked one and they exchanged sticks. The male that lost literally cried and still tried to impress her with his dance. The two lovers then did the deed right in front of the other male. Life is harsh! They last for about ten seconds, but I understand they repeat the act often for a couple of days. We didn’t stay around for the encore and I hope the other male did not either. I will say that everyone who witnesses this boobie courtship is very touched by it. We missed the albatross by a week, but they have an interesting courtship that goes on for months and leads to lifetime mates. The bull sea lion has a harem of females and we saw a lot of pups for each bull that was lucky enough to have a harem. Some of these pups were only a couple of days old. They nurse until about seven months when they are big enough to fend for their own. The bull with the harem is a busy boy protecting the harem, the pup rookery and, well, producing more pups. His reign only lasts a couple of years before a new bull takes over and he is turned out to the bachelor colony. Oh what a couple of years, though! We did get to see sea turtles mounting each other – I’m still not sure what the third and fourth turtles’ involvement was all about – but we did not get to see land tortoises making romance. A visit to the tortoise farm allowed us to see two tortoises – one small and one large – coming down the road in what appeared to be a chase. We thought we were going to see something from a Ringo Starr song (Why Don’t We Do It In The Road), but it turned out that they were both females…
Some of the best scenes ended up being the eating scenes. We were hovering over a school of fish that was maybe a half acre in size, deep enough to block out the sandy bottom completely and resembled a large amoeba in how it moved together. Just the sight of the fish alone was overwhelming. I remember there was excitement about something and when I swam towards the others I thought I was looking down at a reef ten meters below the surface until I saw that it was moving. We were just watching it when all of a sudden POW! and we saw a boobie had dropped from the sky in an attempt to pick off a fish. The fish made an opening in the blob and the boobie went right through it and hit the sandy bottom before propelling itself upwards to the surface where it bobbed for a while until it had recovered enough to fly again. The second attempt came in right near me and it caught a fish that didn’t stay with the pack. Next thing I see is the boobie on the surface two meters away with the fish dangling in its mouth. It swallowed it whole. There were other moments when the blob created even larger openings and a sea lion came flying through. That will probably be one of the greatest wildlife spectacles that I will ever witness just based on the sheer number of fish involved and how they moved as one being.
Other great moments included having penguins swim by while we were snorkeling. They may be walking and flying impaired, but they certainly make up for it in the water. We saw dozens of stingrays. At Kicker Rock we snorkeled between a “cleavered rock” (300 meters long, 100 meters wide and 100 meters high???) over eagle rays, golden cowrays, galapagos sharks and hammerhead sharks. My only disappointment, though, was that I missed the hammerheads which were seen below the other sharks. Apparently, I was too bug-eyed over the closer specimens to see any further below. We attempted to go back through the rock, but it was a drift snorkel one way and impossible to go back the other way. We had a boating encounter with maybe hundreds of bottle-nose dolphins who loved playing near our bow and putting on a show. A wonderful photo opportunity involved very close flamingos reflected in a calm lagoon. Speaking of pictures… I have never taken so many in my life, nor have I ever been so happy with the results – Africa taught me so much, and I promise to do a big blog entry of photos as soon as I take a break. Actually, there were so many great moments, I can’t possibly tell you all about them so let’s leave this one alone for now.
And then there are the landscapes. Although I had seen Master and Commander and plenty of documentaries, I guess the idea that the Galapagos landscapes would be so varied and overwhelming had escaped me. Hawaii is one of the most beautiful places on earth, but it doesn’t have nearly as good landscapes as Galapagos and they are much larger islands. Bartolome looking across a torquoise channel to Santiago including Pinnacle Rock (just think about the Galapagos scenes in M&C) and a hundred different lave formations and colors is probably the most beautiful images etched in my mind. I will never leave that place. You just can’t believe what it looks like at dawn from atop the peak or on a boat in the channel. Unfortunately, no movie or pictures can ever reproduce it for you. Some of the best landscape photos I have taken are there, but they just pale in comparison to the real place. Sombrero Chino is an islet that has one of the prettiest protected small bays you can imagine… a giant swimming pool in between two pieces of lovely lava mounds with white sand beaches. And lest I forget the soaring cliffs some of which I estimate to be 300 meters or more in height that we were so fortunate to be able to kayak within meters of their base. I truly love the moments when I know how small and significant I am in this vast and beautiful world and universe and many of those moments occurred under Galapagos cliffs. Finally, the beaches… red, black, white and green sands… oh my. And no hotels on any of them. No people for that matter except the few of us lucky enough to be allowed on them on any given day.
Lastly, my first trip to the Galapagos with Julie and friends, John and Jean, was highlighted by the group of people (Shelley, Dave, Kim and Cliff) and our leader, Nancy. All of my favorite adventures so far involve sharing the experience with others and this being the greatest adventure was that much better being shared with this group of people. I made a second trip to Galapagos a few days later with my niece, Jillian, and I included some of those wildlife sightings in this blog entry, but the real story about the people will need to wait until the next entry. Here I am back in Quito, Ecuador waiting to take a plane to Lima, Peru for Machu Picchu and my head is still swirling about in the Galapagos Islands. Let’s leave it at this… I had the ultimate in expectations about the Galapagos and they were far exceeded.
Tags: ecuador, galapagos, south america, Travel
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