Everyone onboard, set the sails!

  Isla Baltra - Isla Plazas, Ecuador
Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Note: The cruise was fantastic, incredible, unique. The pictures and text won't reflect that, sorry. Most of the time the light was quite poor, and moreover I had better to do than take pictures. Seeing wildlife from so close is just an unmissable occasion to just... watch it!
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The cruise began from Baltra airport, at the arrival of the morning plane. With Amit we had to set off at 7 to go to the bus terminal, take the only bus there to reach the north of Isla Santa Cruz, crossover to South Seymour (Baltra), and reach the airport. Waiting for the plane to arive, we made first contact with Juan, our naturalist guide.

The plane landed, and soon the group was complete: three british couples, a dutch couple, a french couple, and a scott. Plus us two.
Reaching the bay, we had our first encounter with the local sea lions, who were occupying the shaded benches near the pier. That is one main characteristic of the Galapagos islands: as theire is no natural predator, the animals just don't care about how close you get. Generally they start opening their eyes if you get within 2 meters, will actually look at you if you get to one meter, and start show their discontent if you get closer.

We boarded the Cachalote. Nice schooner with two masts, small but pretty rooms, and good deck spaces. We got introduced to thecrew (7 men), and set sails around Santa Cruz. As soon as we got out of the sheltered bay, half of us were getting seasick, but the seasickness pills provided onboard proved to work quite well. I still had to go lie down in my bed and sleep, to avoid getting really sick.

For lunch it was not getting any better, I took my plate up on deck and ate there, while some unlucky could not eat at all.
As we were sailing, frigate birds were accompanying the boat. They are fantastic gliders, apparently they have the highest wingspan-to-weight ratio, and they use the air currents produced by the boat moving to glide along. They are pirates, as they feed by stealing from other animals.

In the afternoon we reached Plazas, a tiny island. The Galapagos emerged as a result of volcanic activty, and as such have never been in contact with the mainland. That is why you find there so many endemic species.
Plazas resulted from an uplift: seafloor rising out of the water due to volcanic activity underneath.. The lava patterns there show that the lava cooled in contact with water, forming lava pillows, and dead coral can be found on the island too.

There was an abundance of wildlife there, starting with the sea lions: on the north shore, with calm waters sheltered from the southeastern winds, the females hang out on good spots for their puppies to learn to swim. Big males fight for strips of shore, preferably the spots most popular with females. Retired or unsuccessful males live on the rugged south shore, where waves crush on the cliffs.

On the rocky shore we could also observe myriads of crabs, brigh red in color, among which marine iguanas were grazing on seaweed. Nobody eats nobody, so basicaly they can climb over each other, nobody minds.

Onshore we met the land iguanas. On Plazas there is a lack of fresh water, making for specific behaviours and evolution patterns. Somehow the land iguanas are smaller and darker than on other islands, and that in turn can explain that mistakes can be made: sometimes a marine iguana will go for a land iguana female... the result being a hybrid. That seems rather uncommon, but we got the chance to have one passing by us just as we arrived.
Land iguanas eat cactuses, which is their main source of water as well.

We started seeing little birds as well: the famous finches, that Darwin used as example to illustrate his work on evolution. There was also the bright yellow warbler.
There are not a lot of species in Galapagos, especially compared to other tropical ecosystems, but they have evolved away from the mainland, and the few that arrived on the islands started occupying new ecological niches. This "simplified" ecosystem allows to observe some evolution patterns in an amazingly clear way.

We reached the south coast, on a cliff. Shearwater flying low above the waves.
Swallow tailed gulls nesting, siting on their egg. They have a beautiful robe, and big black eyes with a bright red contour. They are nocturnal birds.
Tropicbirds (or phaetons), are diving birds, with long tail streamers, a flap tail to brake when landing on clifs, and just beautiful black, white and red colors.
We could also observe brown pelicans and a few boobies, who are diving birds as well.
Up the cliff we met the bachelor's club, where sea lions can habg out away from the pressure of reproduction and territory fights.

Back to the boat, and we had a bit more navigation to do: another pill an I went to bed.
We got into Academy Bay, Puerto Ayora, and had dinner onboard. I could have gone onshore for a beer or game of pool, but I felt more like staying onboard, to experience living on a boat I guess.