Really fabulous fidget - as your photos and posts always are. Bet you were glad to get out the heat and into the water for some photos. Love the iguanas. Those turtles/tortoises don't give a ****, do they? Too much listening to Barry White in their youth, I reckon... I love the crater and the surrounding 'scape. What a fascinating world we have, if only we could look after it properly. At least they take the preservation/protection of their islands seriously there. Footsteps and photos. I echo Anni's post about the plastic/fag ends too. Humans are disgusting. Feel sorry for that bloke trying to make people aware, and desperately trying to turn the tide. I'm sure there are some considerate Americans...somewhere...maybe....
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Very lazy day as it is changeover day and most of last weeks guests have gone, leaving four of us with the run of the ship. Leisurely breakfast after 96 guests departed at 7.30 am. The Captain, Chef, and Doctor are also changed over. The Captains do six weeks on then six weeks off in a rota. We had lunch in the grill bar, people watching a small group of Italians who have arrived and seem to have the crew running round after them. We are wondering how they got here before the plane is due. Private jet? Maybe they got here a day early and overnighted on the Island.?
The main group arrive in the afternoon from the Guayaquil flight. Horror of horrors, there are children. Lots of them. A group of four adults with five children from around 5 to 15 from Chile. Another American with a child of about 12.
The vibe on the boat has changed. Instead of expeditioners, come ready for hot sun and treks to see animals, we have people who dress up for dinner, sparkly jewelry, gold rolexes galore, who expect to be entertained. They will be unhappy as there are no dancers on board, the nearest thing is a talk a day about the animals or geology, then a briefing about next days program of events. They sit through the briefing fiddling with their iphones, then ask stupid questions that have already been answered, had they been actually paying attention.
I may need a few more drinks in the cocktail bar.
Last week we were mainly to the west, around the seahorse shaped island Isabela, and Fernandina. The next week we will be in the Eastern circuit, more birds, but no penguins.
Interesting how the dynamic has changed Fidget bones. I would have thought that anyone taking a cruise would look into the details before booking, but obviously not! I could feel my blood pressure rising just reading about it ! I was reading an article yesterday about visiting the Galapagos and the writer, while fascinated by the wildlife, was also dismayed at the amount of plastic waste.
Wait until they find out that the first trip each day starts at 7am. 2nd group at 7.30am. Relaxing trip this is not. This is to stagger the groups so any place is not swamped, and also so that a second activity, usually snorkelling happens by 10.30 for an hour or so. Otherwise everyone would be fainting in the heat. It is rainy season, but we have only had one cloudy day, and one day when we went up into the highlands it poured down. That was localised, back at port, there had been no rain.
Just found this thread, thank you Fidget, it's great! I've enjoyed the reports on human behaviour as much as the animals Fabulous photos (the ones that my Internet signal lets me see), think my favourite is the sealion on the bench. You could write a book about it, with photos, I'm really enjoying your descriptions.
Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
For those that can see the videos, I apologise for the sealion one, I was bouncing around in the water a lot, and I am very floaty due to built in water wings. For that reason I envy the male guides who could just duck dive down without any weights, swim along and then surface. I can hold my breath, but I need quite a bit of weight to sink me.
I did reduce the photo size down before I posted, but I realise anyone with slow t'interweb probably can't see them. I couldn't see any photos when we were on the boat. Just getting internet in the middle of the pacific is pretty amazing. When I first went to the Maldives, 20 years ago, there was no TV, no mobile phone signal, no internet. You switched off and totally relaxed.
This is a flooded caldera. The island is the remains of a volcano edge with a chunk missing, so basically three quarters of a circle.
First walk is via Prince Philips steps. A very steep flight of rough step/stones up the cliff edge. I clambered up them with some effort. I will definitely need the walking pole to get down again. We then have a walk , seeing Nazca boobies and their babies on the ground, and red footed boobies in the trees.
There are frigate birds, mockingbirds, and a single brown owl that flies in the daytime. We see fur seals dozing at the waters edge.
The red footed boobies nest in trees. Nazca and blue footed boobies nest on the ground. The red footed boobies have webbed prehensile feet so that they can grip branches.
The snorkel trip is to deep water. As some people ignore briefing, two turn up on our boat with full face masks. The company will not let them use these in deep water as carbon dioxide build up can cause problems, and the water we are in is too deep to stand up. Its ends with a child refusing to use separate mask and snorkel to go in and having a hissy fit. She should have been on the alternate boat heading to the beach, a much easier plan. Meanwhile I backward roll off the zodiac, and find a hammerhead shark. The mother then refuses to come in because of dangerous sharks. Someone goes in with a lifejacket on, which auto inflates on hitting the water. Doh.
Child and mother sit on the zodiac with a face on because they cannot go straight back to the ship as the zodiac has to give the snorkelers safety cover.
The party of Italians are believed to be related to the owners of the ship, and are giving the crew the runaround. The sense of entitlement is astounding. . We have some very rich Americans on board. I counted four gold rolexes on one zodiac. We also seem to have the sister of the Bride of Wildenstein. Face lift with plumped up cheeks looks a bit too tight, but would represent about 50 years old. Very skinny legs look like permanent starvation diet. Hands look like 80 year olds.
Afternoon walk of Darwin bay. We land on a soft coral sand beach. The Italians are sunbathing and swimming from the beach. How they can just ignore the wildlife, in favour of sunbathing, I don't know.
From the beach, a small circuit looking at birds. Some graffiti on the wall from ships that have called there. The Frigates robbing food from boobies.
Swallow tailed gulls are mating on the beach , totally oblivious to the audience.
Daddy Sealion lazing on the beach, and two baby sealions in the mangroves. One is shouting for his mummy, following anyone who looked like they could be suitable.
Eventually mummy sealion came back, checked he was alright and disappeared again. A lava heron is fishing in the shallows. There is coral sand and bits of broken coral on the beach so there must have been some good coral here once. Different beaches have different sand, some red, some black, one is sparkly like diamonds scattered through it, another is white powdered coral.
Dinner with the new Captain. The captains work six weeks then six weeks off, and they changed over at the weekend. This one has been with this boat since it arrived in the Galapagos, and was the captain when this boat was the first on the scene of a new eruption last June. The video of people enjoying drinks on the grill deck, with a backdrop of an erupting volcano was good. The captain had anchored four miles away, but it looked pretty close.
At first l thought that photo of the gull was one of the "Bride of Wildenstein" lady. I don't know which is more intriguing, the behaviour of the wildlife, or the behaviour of the human race. Bless the baby sealion, he (?) was very cute.
North Seymour Nature walk Up some steep steps from a dry landing from the boat, then mainly walking along a sandy area. There are plastic boxes with poison in, as they have been trying to eradicate the rats on the Islands, as they go for eggs from the ground nesters. Unfortunately some blue poison seems to be scattered about. Not good for the wildlife. We collect up what we can. The guides will report it to the parks authority as this should not happen.
Frigate bird babies sit on nests, waiting for a parent to come back and feed them.
There are sealions, Blue boobies, Marine Iguanas digging nesting holes, and Land Iguanas. A pair of lava gulls are on the rocks.
(Larus fuliginosus)
Four white tip reef sharks under the boat. A large galapagos shark later on and a spotted eagle ray. Lobster (crayfish) in the rocks, a trigger fish building a nest. The video pro dives down and leaves a go pro to film the trigger fish. Braver than me. I still have a scar on my finger from where a small trigger fish took a lump out. My fins have a bit missing from a Titan trigger fish in the Maldives. A trigger fish building his nest on the sea floor is not to be trifled with. There are Garden eels which disappear down into the sand as we approach .
There is first sighting of some live coral. Hurray.
Afternoon we move to Sullivan Bay, Santiago to go for a walk on new lava fields.
These are what are called soft (pah hoe hoe )lava. The lava is hard, it erupted about 120 years ago, but is softer to walk on. They also have Ah Ah lava, that is not possible to walk on, jagged lumps sticking up would wreck shoes in an hour. Loose patches clink like two metals being cracked together rather than rock. There are some beautiful patterning as the lava has flowed , and the occasional roof has fallen in to leave a cave beneath. There is little or no vegetation. A lava cactus (Brachycereus nesioticus)is the smallest of the cacti found in the Galapagos Islands growing in the lava rock.has started to grow, it is one of the pioneer plants, but there is little erosion and so little soil/sand for anything to grow in. A desolate but curiously interesting landscape.
You can see how the lava flowed between the hills of older rock.
One of my trainers has decided to peel apart. It doesn’t like salt water plus lava.
Posts
Love the iguanas.
Those turtles/tortoises don't give a ****, do they?
Too much listening to Barry White in their youth, I reckon...
I love the crater and the surrounding 'scape. What a fascinating world we have, if only we could look after it properly. At least they take the preservation/protection of their islands seriously there. Footsteps and photos.
I echo Anni's post about the plastic/fag ends too. Humans are disgusting. Feel sorry for that bloke trying to make people aware, and desperately trying to turn the tide.
I'm sure there are some considerate Americans...somewhere...maybe....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Saturday February 9th
Very lazy day as it is changeover day and most of last weeks guests have gone, leaving four of us with the run of the ship. Leisurely breakfast after 96 guests departed at 7.30 am. The Captain, Chef, and Doctor are also changed over. The Captains do six weeks on then six weeks off in a rota.
We had lunch in the grill bar, people watching a small group of Italians who have arrived and seem to have the crew running round after them. We are wondering how they got here before the plane is due. Private jet? Maybe they got here a day early and overnighted on the Island.?
The main group arrive in the afternoon from the Guayaquil flight. Horror of horrors, there are children. Lots of them. A group of four adults with five children from around 5 to 15 from Chile. Another American with a child of about 12.
Last week we were mainly to the west, around the seahorse shaped island Isabela, and Fernandina. The next week we will be in the Eastern circuit, more birds, but no penguins.
I was reading an article yesterday about visiting the Galapagos and the writer, while fascinated by the wildlife, was also dismayed at the amount of plastic waste.
Sunday February 10th 2019
Bahia Darwin, Genovesa Island
This is a flooded caldera. The island is the remains of a volcano edge with a chunk missing, so basically three quarters of a circle.
The snorkel trip is to deep water. As some people ignore briefing, two turn up on our boat with full face masks. The company will not let them use these in deep water as carbon dioxide build up can cause problems, and the water we are in is too deep to stand up. Its ends with a child refusing to use separate mask and snorkel to go in and having a hissy fit. She should have been on the alternate boat heading to the beach, a much easier plan. Meanwhile I backward roll off the zodiac, and find a hammerhead shark. The mother then refuses to come in because of dangerous sharks.
Someone goes in with a lifejacket on, which auto inflates on hitting the water. Doh.
Child and mother sit on the zodiac with a face on because they cannot go straight back to the ship as the zodiac has to give the snorkelers safety cover.
The party of Italians are believed to be related to the owners of the ship, and are giving the crew the runaround. The sense of entitlement is astounding. . We have some very rich Americans on board. I counted four gold rolexes on one zodiac. We also seem to have the sister of the Bride of Wildenstein. Face lift with plumped up cheeks looks a bit too tight, but would represent about 50 years old. Very skinny legs look like permanent starvation diet. Hands look like 80 year olds.
Dinner with the new Captain.
The captains work six weeks then six weeks off, and they changed over at the weekend. This one has been with this boat since it arrived in the Galapagos, and was the captain when this boat was the first on the scene of a new eruption last June. The video of people enjoying drinks on the grill deck, with a backdrop of an erupting volcano was good. The captain had anchored four miles away, but it looked pretty close.
Monday February 11th
North Seymour Nature walk
Up some steep steps from a dry landing from the boat, then mainly walking along a sandy area. There are plastic boxes with poison in, as they have been trying to eradicate the rats on the Islands, as they go for eggs from the ground nesters. Unfortunately some blue poison seems to be scattered about. Not good for the wildlife. We collect up what we can. The guides will report it to the parks authority as this should not happen.
(Larus fuliginosus)
Afternoon we move to Sullivan Bay, Santiago to go for a walk on new lava fields.