Wednesday, May 23
Our weather in the Galapagos has been mostly sunny with some cloud cover off and on, and usually the cloud cover is appreciated to keep the air temperature down and keep from sun burning. Today, however we are farther south and in some cooler weather and it’s overcast. It didn’t keep us from doing anything though as the temperatures are still really comfortable.
After breakfast we headed off in the pangas for a wet landing at Punta Cormorant on Floreana Island to go for a 1.5 hour walk to hunt for flamingos and another surprise. We landed on one side of the island and walked over to a lagoon where we hoped there would be some flamingos. The guides warn us on a regular basis that these islands are not a zoo and the wildlife is in fact wild and so they can not promise to always find certain things in their normal locations. But lo and behold, although they were far away at the other end of the lagoon, there were perhaps 30 flamingos standing feeding. Milton seems to be able to replicate any bird or animal sound and soon had the flamingos responding to his call. We stayed for a bit hoping they’d come closer and they did, but still well out of camera range. A group of them did fly past which was an amazing sight. They are much more orange than the ones I’ve seen in other places and brilliant coloured due to their food source.
BTW, speaking of food sources, I don’t think I’ve mentioned that the darkness of the blue in the feet of the blue footed boobies is because of their food source (sardines) as well. The deeper the blue, the better fed they are, so when the female boobies are choosing a male to mate with they look for the bluest of feet.
We continued our walk to the other side of the island and to a beach that is a breeding ground for green and Black Sea turtles but it is not the right season. Here is where the guides hoped we’d see stingrays because it was an eating area for them, and did we. We shuffled into the water, I remember them calling it the “stingray shuffle” in the Grand Caymans, without lifting our feet, because there could be rays sitting on the bottom covered by sand and we don’t want to step on them or more importantly for us, their stinger. We waded in knee deep and it took no time at all and we had a parade of them coming by. Most were platter sized greyish or sandy coloured ones and they tickled as they were washed up against your feet or hovered over them looking for food. We also saw 3 larger dark ones, Eagle Rays, which had beautiful markings. The edges of their “wings” sometimes flipped out of the water as they swam along. They were more wary and stayed a couple of feet away from us. It was a hard to get pictures, but one of our group got a picture of me with them in front of me, so hope I can get it from him.
We headed back to the ship to get ready for a deep water snorkel around Champion Islet off the panga. We went through the usual drill to get ready, putting on flippers, putting “sea lion spit” (really shampoo) on our masks to cut down on fogging, and once ready I slid into the water. I looked around to get oriented and couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Thousands and thousands of fish! All around us. All different kinds. All different depths. Huge schools of King Angelfish, with their bright colours of blue with a white strip and yellow tail and fins that almost fluoresced they were so bright. Parrot fish whose colours seem to be iridescent, and lots of surgeon fish with their yellow tails glistening in the sunlight that filtered down into the water. And every other kind we’d identified before and some we hadn’t. I didn’t know where to look. I just floated and my eyes darted all over taking it all in. We didn’t want to move on because we wanted to take it all in. And of course we were accompanied by the usual playful sea lions darting about as we swam along with them. We slowly made our way around the end of the islet and let the current float us along between the islet and the beach. The current was strong and the water a bit choppy so the less adventurous snorkelers were dropped in closer to the beach and Milton stayed with them with a life preserver to allow them to rest there when necessary. More than one of us commented on the fact that it felt like swimming in an aquarium. We followed the rocks along for quite a long time, soaking it all in. Along the way we also saw some White-tipped Reef Sharks who mind their own business and aren’t that large, but the shape and the way they swim still gets the heart racing.
I laughed out loud at one point (and was rewarded with a mouth full of very salty sea water) because a bunch of us were all floating looking at something and pointing down and I looked over to my left because I sensed there was someone close and I didn’t want to accidentally run into them. It was a sea lion and he was tail in the air, looking down with his head at the same angle as ours, as if he too was looking at what we were pointing to. When I looked at him he looked at me and them back down. It was priceless. It was a tad chilly because of the deep water and currents, but no one wanted to give in and go back to the panga and the guides practically had to drag us back in to go back to the ship.
Then on the way back to the boat, when no one was even looking for them, Milton spotted 3 penguins on the rocks near the water. He was so excited for us and he got on the radio to Adrian hoping the other panga would be able to get there before they disappeared. They all jumped into the water right away but I was lucky enough to get a picture before they did. They are smaller here than that ones I’ve seen in South African and certainly much smaller than on the ones we’re used to seeing on TV about Antarctica. We watched them in the water for a short time before they disappeared down the coastline. The theory is that at some point they came on the Humbolt Currents from Antarctica and over the generations they shed the size and weight which wasn’t needed here in the warmer waters.
This is what makes this place so special. The adaptations of the wildlife make it so interesting to see them on the different islands because they’re all so different. Lava Lizards (like geckos) are a classic example. They are differently coloured depending on what island they are from because of their food source. Some are black with the top half of the body red, some are dark with a red stripe down the middle and others are almost a yellow colour.
We had a special treat of sangria at lunch today perhaps because it was the last day for some of our fellow travellers to be on board. And then the usual siesta time which we’ve all come to love.
In the afternoon, we had an excursion to visit Post Office Bay where we would find the Post Office. The post office was started in 1793 by the English whaling vessels to allow for news to be passed on to the sailors loved ones. A barrel was placed on shore, not far from the beach and sailors put letters in it with the hope that the letters would be taken back home by sailors passing in the other direction. It has continued as a tradition and we sorted through the post cards to see if there were any from our home towns which we could deliver. I took three, one for Gloucester and one for Elgin, ( both just outside of Ottawa) one in Kingston. I’ll make a trip down to Kingston in the next couple of weeks to deliver it. I left 5 post cards there so you never know when you might get a knock on your door with the delivery of an unstamped post card.
This was the first stop where the bugs were annoying. There weren’t any mosquitos but there were horse flies and other small ones that buzzed around our ears. So we were happy to don our wet suits and do a beach entry snorkel into Post Office Bay. The sand there was lovely and white and soft although there were some rocks to navigate over about knee deep. Once out in the protected bay we wandered around checking out the rocks for fish. I could hear a couple of my fellow travellers ahead of me all excited so I headed for them at top speed. There, feeding on the bottom, were the most gigantic sea turtles. I’m not exaggerating to say their shells were 6-7 feet across. There were some strong currents and we had to work at keeping from being pushed into them. They didn’t even look up from their munching at us despite the fact they were quickly surrounded by 6 or 8 of us. Every once in a while they’d surface and I found one’s head pop up within 2 feet of me at one point. We’re not supposed to go within 2 metres of them, but again, someone forgot to tell the wildlife not to come close to us. It was amazing! What a day of snorkelling.
This evening was our last dinner with 9 of our fellow travellers who will be leaving the boat tomorrow, and heading home or on to other adventures. At our usual 6:30 briefing the crew all joined us in their white uniforms and the people leaving had a chance to say their thanks to them for everything. And we raised a toast in a traditional way which I’m not sure the origins of, but it was a really nice send off. Selfishly I was glad I wasn’t among those leaving. I’m am just not ready to leave yet.
Lois' Adventures 