8th November – Swimming with turtles......
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| Panoramic view from the back of the boat |
We motored 120 miles overnight and we woke up to find
ourselves with an incredible view of a cave set in a volcanic cliff which is
Punta Vicente Roca on Isabela Island.
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| Green turtle swimming by the boat |
I went up on deck before most people and enjoyed seeing Boobys
and Frigate birds plus some others that I couldn’t identify, but were amazing
to watch as it seemed that they could almost walk on water (later identified as
storm petrels). I also noticed sealions close to the ship and got quite excited
when I saw a turtle in the water. Tamsin joined me and started taking photos.
Others joined us as we all started spotting animals around us.
Prior to breakfast, those of us that had signed up for
snorkelling, went onto the top deck to get our wet bags which we filled up with
flippers, snorkels and masks before trying on wet suits. Hmm, don’t think any
of us are going to be asked to model any of these!!
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| Marine Iguana swimming |
After breakfast we went out for a panga ride along the
shore. Lola, our guide, first gave us a lesson on the local geography and
explained that what we saw was part of a volcano half of which (the bit we
couldn’t see), had fallen into the ocean. And that the water was almost 1km
deep. As we slowly motored along the shore she pointed out Noddy Terns (she
made it sound like “naughty”), Storm Petrels, Nazca Boobys, Brown Pelicans,
Marine Iguanas (in their masses), Fur Seals, Galapagos Sealions, Sally
Light-foot crabs, Flightless Cormorants, Galapagos Penguins and Green Turtles –
phew. As we went out deeper we could see the fins of Sun Fish or to use the
local name, Mola Mola.
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| Swimming with turles - amazing! |
We motored out to the edge of the rocks. Our guide Gabriel
(the older) showed us how to jump off the side of the panga. Not quite what we
had expected, but it worked. The initial shock of the “cold” water (20 C) was
soon over and we started to swim along the rock edge. I started my underwater
camera and took some shots of some of the fish. As yet I have no idea what they
are. I then noticed some turtles and took some shots of those and a group of
fish. I tried some other shots of some colourful fish that were smaller and
deeper. The battery ran out and I returned to the boat and loaded a new one.
Around this point Tamsin asked to take some shots. Needless to say I didn’t see
my camera again!! (He might mock, but I got some good photos!!)
For the next 30-35 mins we slowly drifted along the shore
and swam with turtles and sometimes I got so close that I was afraid of colliding
with them. We also saw Sting rays swimming along the bottom and had a glimpse
of a Reef Shark as it shot passed. As we were quite close to the shore (not the
deep water snorkel we had been promised) we didn’t see the Sun fish, but we did
see a lot.
After we’d hung up our wet suits and cleaned all the
equipment we went and hung out in the hot tub for a while with some of our
fellow snorkelers and indulged in some bar snacks. We met up with Gill after
we’d dried and changed and went to lunch. Gill went off on the alternative
panga ride they offered and regretted it as sadly, she saw her lunch
again!! This panga ride wasn’t a gentle
trip at all and Mum said they went bumping along at high speeds and then
circled round and round chasing sharks and rays. It was all too much for her and she had to
take some sea sickness pills, which eventually knocked her out.
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| Marine igunaa |
Between lunch and the afternoon activity the
ship moved to a new location just off Punta Espinoza on Isla Fernandina. There
we went out on the Pangas to have a walk on one of the newest parts of the
Galapagos Islands. Although we were promised a dry landing, after walking
through a colony of marine iguanas, we had to then wade through a mangrove
swamp as it was high tide. Luckily,
there were towels available to clean and dry our feet afterwards, and when we
eventually retraced our footsteps, the tide had dropped. This area has had a lot of recent volcanic
activity, the latest being in 2009. Despite this, there are enormous Marine
Iguana colonies here as well as sealions. We walked around with our guide Lola,
who is our favourite guide. She talked about the evolution of the land Iguana
into the Marine Iguana and its 5 adaptations. These being; change of the skin
colour to black, the ability to eat marine algae using a shortened jaw and
special tricuspid teeth, the modifications to the tail so that it’s flatter and
more paddle like, the lengthening of the toes and claws so that they can cling
to rocks and the development of a salt gland. The last modification requires
the Iguanas to snort out saline every so often. This can be observed and heard
just standing next to them and is somewhat revolting. As we continued our walk
along the shore we saw lots of crabs (Sally Light-Foot), Galapagos Sealions,
Galapagos Cormorants, Brown Pelicans, storm petrels, a ruddy turnstone, a
beautiful yellow warbler, a lava heron and a Galapagos Mockingbird. We also saw
a lot of dead Iguanas, some crabs and a couple of sealions. This concerned Lola
and she felt the need to alert the Park authorities as the level of dead things
was higher than should be expected. Walking back we stopped up on a “recent”
lava flow and looked at the Cactus growing as the first coloniser. As we neared
the end of the tour we passed the remains of a Pilot Whale that had washed up
on the shore a few years ago. This is now bleached bones as time and tide have
removed any perishable material from the carcass.
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| Sally Lightfoot crab |
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| Lava Cacti |
Returning to the ship we stayed on the sun deck and enjoyed
a cocktail and got to know some of the fellow guests a bit better.
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