Today
we've moved further round to Punta Moreno on the west coast of Isabela. Unfortunately Ian's stomach is still giving him problems and with very
little sleep last night and a hot, sunny walk on lava rocks proposed, he
decided to stay onboard near the loo and rest up.
The sea
was quite rough and I bobbed around a lot trying to get these Blue Footed
Boobies (again in small numbers only).
And
finally we saw “animals” in the quantities I’d imagined – and they are probably the most hideous creatures on earth - marine iguanas – positively
prehistoric. I’m sure they were the
inspiration for the orks in The Lord of the Rings. The collective noun used in the Galapagos is
orgy which I think is very apt given
the way they loll all over one another; an alternative noun is mess – equally appropriate.
The walk
was quite tough over the slippery lava and without my walking pole I would have
been totally lost as Ian wasn't there to help me over the worst bits. Simon kindly kept a watchful eye but he wasn't much surer footed than me
having a turned foot due to spina bifida. Of course it doesn't help that
I lug a back pack with camera gear weighing about 4kg everywhere I go.
We also saw our
first flightless cormorant; this bird is a classic example of Darwin’s theory
of Evolution of the Species by Natural Selection; this bird hasn’t needed to fly
to find food for many years and therefore its wings have become redundant and
shrunk to small stumpy things (rubbish picture but it shows the wings quite
well in silhouette.
The other half in
the panga, it never mattered who went where it was just who was ready first.
It wasn’t the most
exciting place but here are a few general shots.
Candelabra Cactus
One of Stephanie’s
(the Ecuadorian living in Paris) friends owns a travel agency and gave out
these cuddly toys to clients etc with the idea that they are photographed all
over the world. Apparently this little
thing even has its own Facebook page.
Lava Cactus
After lunch we set out again in the pangas looking for turtles (in Spanish there is only one word to cover the two distinctly different species of turtles and tortoises "tortuga" so they qualify it when necessary by adding marine or terrestrial. As it wasn't anything strenuous Ian chanced it and came with us.
I took loads of shots of brown pelicans diving but never managed to get the "water entry" shot I wanted.
This could have been so good :(
Whilst our boat has a special environmental license, I am appalled as to the amount of pollution we seem to be emitting; the smell of diesel when you're in the pangas for example is sometimes quite nauseating and we're above water level so what it must be like for the poor marine creatures goodness knows. It was particularly noticeable this afternoon but fortunately when we got into calmer water the engine was turned off and we paddled around looking for turtles and there were so many it was hard to know which way to look at times.
The setting sun as we headed back to the boat was amazing and these really don't do it justice.
A few random pics on the way back to the Beluga for lunch (including this ray which was quite exciting)
After lunch we set out again in the pangas looking for turtles (in Spanish there is only one word to cover the two distinctly different species of turtles and tortoises "tortuga" so they qualify it when necessary by adding marine or terrestrial. As it wasn't anything strenuous Ian chanced it and came with us.
I took loads of shots of brown pelicans diving but never managed to get the "water entry" shot I wanted.
This could have been so good :(
Whilst our boat has a special environmental license, I am appalled as to the amount of pollution we seem to be emitting; the smell of diesel when you're in the pangas for example is sometimes quite nauseating and we're above water level so what it must be like for the poor marine creatures goodness knows. It was particularly noticeable this afternoon but fortunately when we got into calmer water the engine was turned off and we paddled around looking for turtles and there were so many it was hard to know which way to look at times.
The setting sun as we headed back to the boat was amazing and these really don't do it justice.
