20.4.2013
We had an easy and enjoyable 46 mile
motor sail, in light winds, from San Cristobal, passed the island of Santa Fe,
to Academy bay in Santa Cruz.
This is the main tourist centre of
the Galapagos, and is by far the busiest town. It is also home to the Charles
Darwin Research Centre.
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| Academy Bay/Puerto Ayora |
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| Not quite the original! |
The anchorage itself is quite tight,
and is wide open to the prevailing swells. The wind however varies in both
strength and direction, making a stern anchor essential.
This in turn adds a
whole new host of problems and challenges, with boats dropping stern anchors
over other folks main anchors etc etc. Recovering stern anchors in such tight
areas can also be difficult, so most people hire a water taxi to assist ($2),
which involves the yachts retrieval personnel (me), releasing the stern anchor
rode, climbing on to the taxi,….. which motors back to the drop point, and said
personnel pulling his arley off to lift the anchor on to the taxi boat. The
next challenge is to get the stern anchor, chain and rode back on to the yacht,
then recover the main anchor, before the boat swings round and clobbers someone
else!
In fact the Taxi Aquatico men are
pretty efficient, and nobody uses their dinghy, for the simple reason that
there is nowhere to leave the dinghy ashore! The authorities are extremely
tough about all passengers and taxi drivers wearing life jackets at all times,
which is not a bad thing when one considers the speeds at which these guys roar
around the anchorage. The big question, however, is why these same authorities
do not require taxis to have lights at night!! Go Figure ! (as the Americans would say!)
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| Main Street |
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| Charles Darwin Street |
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| Mary also desinged T-shirts in her past life! |
Our first day trip was to the Darwin
Centre, which is a kilometer walk down the waterfront. Along the way we passed
the many of the tourist shops, all with their versions of “I love Boobies”
t-shirts, and other crafts and trinkets.
The centre itself is the actual Research HQ, and only a limited aspect
is open to the public.
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| Galapagos Mockingbird |
This includes a walk around laid out paths around marked
flora and animal pens, including the breeding pens of the Giant Tortoises.
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| Large dome tortoise - the biggest of the species |
The
biggest of the 10 remaining species can be seen there, along with the orangy
yellow Land Iguana.
We enjoyed the walk, but found that we did not learn a great
deal that we had not learned in Wreck bay, but found this graphic depicting the converging currents around the archipelago.
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| Converging currents surround Galapagos |
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| A challenging promise- "We promise to tell your story and to share your conservation message" |
We did however walk past the memorial plaque to “Lonesome George”, which marked the exact extinction date of the 11th species of Giant Tortoises.
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| Check the halfbeak pelican |
Along the way to the centre, we also
passed the Fish Market. This has really become a tourist trap and attraction,
with all the Sea Lions, Pelicans, and even a large Grey Heron, bickering and
squabbling around the fish cleaners doing their work; sitting between his legs,
standing up an leaning on the table, just willing a head, or chunk of entrails
to come their way!
In the late afternoon, tables and
chairs are put out, and one can buy a fillet of fresh fish right off the slab
and have it prepared and cooked for $5. We tried to go at 6.00pm and the queue
was far too long already, so we went to an adjoining restaurant, where we had
an excellent grilled wahoo, chips and veggies, with a nice view for $7.
We drew money at the local bank, and
almost had to step over Marine Iguanas to go inside. Outside, on the sea wall,
a whole bunch of young iguanas lay basking in the sun.
We also booked a day tour up to North
Seymour island, at $145 each. We swallowed hard, and paid, as we had heard that
it was the one “do not miss” tour in the
Galapagos.
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| Santa Fe 111 |
It was superb… a fantastic wildlife
experience right up with some of the very best that we have been lucky enough
to experience. It involved a 45 minute bus ride to get from the south of the
island to the north shore. From there, we boarded a luxury motor yacht, and did
another 45 min boat ride around Baltra island, (where the USA built the airport
to protect Panama, after Pearl Harbour in 1942), to the small, flat,
uninhabited island of North Seymour.
The land Iguanas from Baltra, have another
unique place in history. Between 1942, when the airport was built, and when the
troops and personnel moved to the island, and 1947, the Baltra Land Iguana was completely
wiped out. It is the fastest ever
documented extinction of a species. A combination of domestic dogs, cats and
rats that moved on to the island with occupation, and the “target practice”
habits of the marines, were to blame. A bit later, it emerged that another
group of US scientists had in 1932 discovered that North Seymour which had an
identical environment to Baltra had no Land Iguanas. They introduced a small
group to North Seymour to see how the prospered. They are today, the last rediscovered descendants of the original Baltra Iguanas, and are part of the
Darwin Centre breeding program.
From the motor yacht, we were taken
ashore by rubber duck, and ushered there by a 6-7ft Galapagos shark, circling
the boat. Ashore, we found ourselves walking into a theme park of “Love is in
the air!” We arrived in the middle of the breeding season of Swallow-tailed
Gulls, Blue footed boobies, and both the Magnificent and the Greater Frigate
Birds.
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| Handsome pair |
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| Then I do my little dance...... |
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| Then a little kiss......... |
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| Then........... |
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| Voila!! |
We were able to watch the adorable,
and slightly comical, Blue Footed Booby mating dance, where the male displays
his beautiful bright blue feet to his mate, by dancing from one foot to the
other, and ending his display by throwing back his head, making a very
distinctive whistle, simultaneously lifting his wings to full stretch. Couples mate for life, and their displays of
affection, beak pecking and grooming, are quite touching.
We saw their life starting from eggs
being sat upon, through fluffy white snowballs, to the demanding squawking of
patchy feathered juveniles.
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| Another species that mate for life........Swallow-tailed gull on egg |
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| Kids can be so demanding!! |
We also saw breeding pairs of Swallow-tailed
Gulls with chicks, the only gulls to fish and feed by night. We had observed
them swooping around the boat at night, on our approach to the Galapagos, but
had not known what they were. We learned that they use the iridescence and bow
waves created by boats to assist in their fishing efforts.
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| Greater male frigate on nest duty |
Magnificent Frigates, with a slight purple
tinge to their black feathers, and Greater Frigates, with a green tinge, nest
in the same rookery, with both sexes taking turns to sit on the nest.
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| Magnificent female at the back.......Greater male in foreground |
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| Magnificent female on nest duty |
Frigate
birds can have a nasty side to them, as they steal all their food from others,
be they seagulls or Boobies. They even steal young booby chicks from any
careless parent.
The fickle male Frigates are in fact
selected by their female partners each year. To be selected, the male has to
prove his nest making skills, (3 or 4 twigs and a bit of poop sticking them
together), and attract the females, by putting on one of the most spectacular
mating displays in nature!
Sitting on his creation, he proceeds
to blow up his bright red throat pouch to a spectacular size, and when he sees
a female flying overhead, he spreads out his 6ft wings, and calls out in an
evocative gobble, gobble, gobble, chant, supplemented by a resonant drumming
sound as he beats his beak on his tight as a drum throat pouch!
He is not a fussy guy, as he seems to
go through this routine when any female that flies over…. Not any particular female!
It apparently takes up to 12 hours for a male to blow up his pouch to full
proportions. He has to let it down a bit at night so that he can sleep!
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| Result of all of the above! |
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| More demanding kids! |
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| Still needing parental care! |
The system obviously works, because
everywhere, frigates, male and female, were sitting on nests, fluffy
youngsters, were demanding feeding, young teenagers were flapping their wings in
exercise routines to prepare for their first flights.
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| Baltra Land Iguana, rescued from extinction |
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| A Darwin Finch |
We saw some of the now indigenous to
North Seymour, Baltra land Iguana’s happily chewing on their chosen food
…cactus plants, and some Darwin Finch nests, where one species has specialized
in nests in Cactus plants.
It was a truly fantastic day. Still
pictures can never capture the full effect. Thankfully we have got lots of
great video footage which we will have a chance to edit into another of The
Journey of Sheer Tenacity clips when we get home, but that’s half a world away
right now!
Footnote:
All our pics are taken with our little Canon D20 "point and shoot" including the underwater shots
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