Almost the last word on the Galapagos

Having spent much of the past day on airplanes I am catching up on old blogging, so let’s see if we can knock off the Galapagos.

As previously described, Kathy and I flew into the islands with a tour group of about a dozen people. One of the delights of traveling is the people you meet along the way – though to be honest they are more typically other travelers than true natives. In the case of our Galapagos tour it was a great group of Australians, a few Brits and a family of Americans. I always like meeting our friends from down under because they talk so cute, and use phrases from Crocodile Dundee movies, like “g’day mate” and “toss another prawn on the barbie”. It also gives me a chance to play the Ugly American role which I have perfected. (Landing at the airport in the Galapagos: “So where are the turtles! I flew 7,000 miles, they told me there would be turtles, I want to see some damn turtles!”)

Being together on planes and boats, the shared experience of exploring the islands, and liberal application of alcohol, makes for quick and intense friendships. And this was a truly splendid group. So to Claire & Ellen, Helen & Bronwyn, the other Claire and Mitch, David & Leanne, Adele & Brian, Linda, Mike, Chris & Mathew, if you check into this blog do send me a note and let me know how you are faring.

The basic routine of a day in the Galapagos with some variation is an early breakfast followed by a wildlife excursion, return to the boat for lunch, an afternoon excursion and return for tea and then dinner. Interspersed in the schedule are opportunities for snorkeling and swimming off the boat. The excursions are made in zodiac-type inflatables launched from the boat, and are either walks on the islands or cruises through the bays and inlets. The landings can be either “dry” to a dock, or “wet” to a beach. There was nothing terribly challenging physically in anything we did – a two kilometer walk on rocky terrain was the most demanding – though it can be hot in the direct equatorial sun. There’s also a possibility of seasickness for those prone during the island to island evening cruises, so bring Dramamine.

Each island visited has distinctions in climate, terrain and wildlife – which is why a longer trip to more islands really is worthwhile. On various islands we saw sea lions (they get upset if you call them seals), sea turtles, tortoises, flamingos, penguins, albatross, boobies, finches, frigate birds, and much else.

One key piece of advice when photographing wildlife in the Galapagos is to bring more storage media (or film, if you are still in the dark ages) then you can imagine you will possibly use. Since you and the animals are constantly moving you never know when you will get the best shot. The penguin head you see bobbing may be your best chance to check off that species. Do you take the shot now before he dives, or wait till he turns and you see his face? So you take six shots, then he turns and you take another six. When he comes out of the water and starts walking toward you it is certainly worth another dozen. By the time he puts on a straw hat, picks up a cane and starts doing a soft shoe you have run out of film. And that is just one of the 22 endemic bird species on the island. Endemic, by the way, means “found no where else in the world”. (A useful tip if I you want to annoy a naturalist guide is each time you see some creature move ask if they are “epidemic to the islands.”)

And while Penguins do not actually do vaudeville dance routines in the Galapagos – at least that I saw – the image is not really that fanciful. The blue footed booby (epidemic to the islands!) is famous for the little mating dance that it does to impress the gals. It does a two step number that is quite fetching, accented as it is by its oversize pastel blue feet. I am told there is also a red footed booby but we didn’t see it. Thank goodness for Photoshop.

Our group must have collectively brought $20,000 worth of photo and computer equipment with us, but of course we were all running out of storage for photos and nobody had brought the right cables or chargers or cords to transfer the photos from one place to the other. (The boats are cramped so you are restricted to brining a small duffle aboard.) This led to a cruise tradition of “afternoon Galapagos Tech Time” in which the nerdiest among us would gather while others had their siestas and pool our gear. “Mitch, if you can transfer your photos to my PC, we can use Brian’s USB cable to download them to your Ipod, as long as we can recharge its batteries with the charger from Dave’s mobile phone…”

A digression on photo equipment, by the way. A number of my fellow travelers had nice SLR type digital cameras with long zoom lenses. That definitely would have been nice to have for wild life photography in the Galapagos, and would be essential for wild life photography in the Amazon (where you can’t get nearly as close to the animals). On the other hand, they are bulky and there is something to be said for the compact size of the small digitals now available. Leaving aside the telephoto capability, I suspect that the better compact cameras approach the SLRs in picture quality – at least for the kind of amateur shooting most of us do – though I can’t say that for sure and welcome any comments on this. Since I have some photos from the SLRs on my PC as a result of the Galapagos tech time swap described above, perhaps I’ll do a side by side comparison of the same subject later. My own camera is a Canon S70 which is a sort of midsize non SLR, with 7 megapixels. While it only has a 3x zoom at the other end of the range it starts with a wide angle about 50% broader than most others. The extra wide angle is really incredibly useful for talking the sort of indoor shots, landscapes and street scenes that are the most common type of shots I take while traveling, and I wouldn’t trade it for a longer telephoto. And with 7 megapixels there is some extra resolution available for cropping the shot later on the PC.

On our last day in the Galapagos we visited the Darwin nature center where they are doing good things by way of captive breeding some endangered species. There are significant problems on some of the islands with introduced non-native plants and animals that drive out the endemic species. One sad resident of the nature center is Lonesome George – an ancient and enormous saddle back tortoise. A virtual living dinosaur, the last of his particular species, Lonesome George is unable to find a mate and reproduce. Kind of reminds you of Teddy Kennedy.