We're just back from 24 days of travel in Ecuador and my mind is reeling. Charles Darwin spent four years just writing his notes of his travels on HMS Beagle,but in today's internet age, my notes will be stale in four weeks. (BTW Darwin waited another 20 years before he wrote Origin of the Species.)
Our trip was arranged by Link Experiences of Quito and our friend Patricio ("I invented the Galapagos!") Suarez. Patricio made this possible and Link executed it to perfection. Amazing!
Coconut Grove neighbors and friends Sandy and Vance Lemmon hitched on too, which made it even better.
Here's our detailed Overview of island by island*. We had a combination of flights, boats, lodges and vehicles and guides to get us where and when we needed. (*These notes are working papers...right now just to help us travelers remember where and when we were somewhere and what we saw.)
The islands' terrain is what makes the animals and understanding of evolution through natural selection possible. It's also spectacularly beautiful and stark.
Pinnacle Rock of Bartolome appears below.
Pitt Point's cavern is majestic and awesome, but we boated through it anyway.
The extreme conditions result in extreme adaptations. Cactus trees and red succulent plants on the slope of South Plaza Island, below.
The remoteness results in animals that are completely unafraid of humans. (Luke and Sandy pass two blue footed boobies, below.)
Thus you can photograph them close up, but respectfully. (Luke and a young sea lion.)
Mated albatrosses cuddle prior to their 6 month separation flight. They'll return Espanola Island again in autumn to mate. (below)
The Blue Footed Booby is a marque bird for the Galapagos. (below)
A Nazca booby and his chick cuddle in a rock nest a few feet away. (below)
The ancestors of all animals found in the Galapagos came from elsewhere. Some arrived millions of years ago to islands that have long since eroded back into the sea. Galapagos land iguanas are good examples of this.
The harsh conditions and regular extreme climactic upheavals precipitated the survival of only those creatures that could adapt. Marine iguanas have adaptations that permit them to eat algae underwater.
We saw two species (marine and land) in rare combat. (Luke won a photo contest with this picture.)
Some creatures are more recent arrivals to the islands. Ancestors of these flamingos came from the Caribbean (based on DNA analysis). Notice how close this bird is to the photographer.
Other birds use the Galapagos as sanctuary, though they fly around the world. Here frigatebird chicks get the attention of their parents and prepare for flight.
A male frigatebird shows his stuff.
Warblers, finches (13 species of Darwin fame), mockingbirds, and others all have developed specializations that permit them to survive where others have failed.
The land tortoises may be most famous. Here our traveling companion, Little Peep, buddies up to a 100 year old tortoise. (Little Peep has been around the world with Lauren and me for about 15 years. Thanks, Gretel!))
We snorkeled almost every day. I swam with a raft of sea lions...one of my top memories.
Here Luke swims alongside a green sea turtle. Wait until you his his shark video! Stay tuned!
I'm seen here near a hawksbill turtle off Isabella Island's Tuneles area.
The press of life goes on everywhere. Green sea turtles mate...
climb the beach to rest and nest...
...and hatch.
You'll find great photos and fantastic documentaries on the internet...The BBC is terrific...if you want to learn more, and you should!
The professionalism of our three naturalist guides, Sergio, Jose and Josue, made our experience exceptional.
This brief summary will have to do for now, though. After a day of rest in Quito, we pushed on to the Amazon, and another blog post.
Mel
Mel,
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing the memories of your trip and the information about what you, and Darwin, saw - fascinating!
John