Penguins & boobies & sharks, oh my!
As I write this, I'm sitting atop the Flamingo, my home for the next week. I can see a massive, luxurious looking cruise ship not far off. The Flamingo is basically a floating hostel, which means it's short on amenities but full of like minded travelers and that's far more important to me.
The morning started with a walk ashore. We visited Flamingo Lagoon but there were no flamingos there. Apparently they were always there between 2005-2010, disappeared in 2011, and have only been back sporadically in 2012 so far. Still, it was an incredible landscape.
There were several blue footed boobies sitting along the rocky shore. I still don't know where the bird got its name, but their feet really are a lovely shade of blue. Until they are three years old, their feet are brown. The males are smaller than the females and the females have noticeably larger pupils.
We walked to the beach and Alfonso, our guide, spotted a pair of mating turtles in the water. Apparently it takes 3-4 hours and is quite uncomfortable for the female as she has to support the male's weight (approximately 75 pounds) as well as fend off other turtles who may approach. There were a couple of other sea turtles swimming around and one pelican who had no intention of giving the pair their privacy.
As we got in the dinghy to return to the Flamingo, Alfonso spotted a Galapagos penguin! This was the only animal I truly wanted to see but I knew our itinerary wouldn't take us to any major penguin colonies and that this wasn't the best time of year to spot them, so I was beside myself with excitement, as most of you can imagine. He stood on the rock, preening himself, and occasionally responding to our attempts at penguin calls. Galapagos penguins are the 3rd smallest after ferry penguins and Magellanic penguins, respectively.
This only got us even more anxious to go snorkeling, so once we were back on the boat, we got ready as soon as we could and headed out again. From the dinghy, I spotted several penguins swimming and jumping (just like in Antarctica!).
Snorkeling time! The water was absolutely perfect: clear, warm, and beautiful. This was my first time snorkeling with wildlife so it was a huge thrill to swim with sea lions and a white tipped reef shark! Countless varieties of colorful fish swam all around us.
Lunch and then it was time to take advantage of our boat's small size-by jumping off of it! We passed the afternoon by peer pressuring each other to jump off every conceivable platform and plunging into the refreshing waters.
An afternoon dinghy ride took us to see sea lion harems. Sea lions love to spend their days lazily sleeping on small islands with crystal waters. Here, they know they are safe as they can see any potential predators in the waters. Each sea lion colony, or harem, has just one male. The alpha male will spend about twelve hours a day patrolling the waters to make sure his harem is safe from enemies and fending off attacks from rival males. Because this full time job is such exhausting work, the alpha has no time to hunt and will lose a lot of weight. He typically lasts only three weeks in his weakened state until he is challenged by a rival, who will take over for his own short reign.
We visited the Baroness Lookout, named for a German woman who moved to the island with her three lovers in the late 1930s. Their arrival on the island was something of a scandal and it was not too long before the baroness and one of the lovers vanished. Another of her lovers was later killed in a shipwreck. Over the island's history, seven people have disappeared without a trace. Lucky for us, we were able to enjoy the view and make it back to the dinghy with everyone accounted for.
Post Office Bay was next. It's a Galapagos tradition for visitors to leave an addressed, unstamped post card for the next batch of visitors to sort through and hand deliver whatever post cards they can. It is believed this tradition dates back to when whalers left information for each other in barrels on the beach. Over time, this has evolved to a free mail delivery system for tourists. I left one post card (Katya, I hope it reaches you and Sofia before too long!) and picked up ten to hand deliver over the next few months in Toronto, NYC, London, and Dar Es Salaam. I'm sure when the time comes there'll be a post about delivering the mail!
Our last stop was a cave. Alfonso sent us down armed with a few headlamps and a whole lot of trust in each other. The only thing we knew was that the cave led to the sea, so we would hit water sooner or later. And hit water we did! By then we had been in the cave for a good chunk of time and debated how much farther we wanted to go. Eventually, we concluded that this was a rare experience, so everyone started disrobing to various degrees and leaving things behind on dry rocks. We continued on in the freezing cold water, all the while giggling and shouting to each other in the near dark. We turned off all of our lights at one point to experience true darkness, which was neat, and to take a photo. Hearing the photographer say, "No flash?" to his camera made us all burst out laughing. I don't know how long it took but we were in waist high water when we reached the end of the cave. If we had waterproof torches with us, I'm sure everyone would have happily swam out to the sea! But we didn't so we turned around to walk back and recollect our dry things. We put on our shoes and picked up our cameras and were about to return to the mouth of the cave, when one of the group said, "Oh, I have forgotten my trousers." It was hilarious! The poor guy had to turn back and trudge through the cold water to retrieve his pants. Needless to say, we haven't let him forget it! When we did finally reemerge from the cave, our usually laid back guide had been getting nervous! He said most groups returned well before we did but that they also normally turned around once they hit water. I feel lucky to have been with such an adventurous group!
After dinner, several of us hung out on the sun deck, watching the stars and listening to music. Seagulls flew in graceful circles around the ship all night long. The moving ship, for some reason, makes it easier or them to find food. I was amazed at how long the birds kept up with the ship and how easy they made it look. It reminded me of the birds that would circle our ship in Antarctica, thousands of miles away. Different environment, same behavior.
Todays's animals:
Galapagos penguins
Sea turtles
Sea lions
White tipped sharks
Sting rays
Sea urchins
Star fish
Fish, including angel fish, moorish idols, & tangs
Blue footed boobies
Pelicans
Medium tree finch
Brown finch
Blue heron
Ruddy turn stern
Iguanas
Crabs
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