The Kitchen Table in the Pacific
Trip Start
Jul 10, 2007
1
45
46
Trip End
Mar 11, 2008
Galapagos Islands,
Ecuador
Thursday, March 6, 2008
The kitchen table in the Pacific.
So you may wonder about the correlation between a kitchen table and one of earth's greatest bodies of water. Well, what I am trying to describe is the biggest and most magnificent turtle I have ever seen swimming in the vast deep blue-green aqua. It was one of the many unruffled animals we encountered underwater in the Pacific Ocean surrounding the Galapagos Islands. It sounds a bit like a fish story but I swear this one is true! Ty who has been diving ever since we've both established as... "FOREVER" was so energized after seeing this beautiful and colossal amphibian nonchalantly grazing on the colourful plant life. I tried to photograph it with our newly acquired underwater disposable camera but simply could not get it to snap pictures. Silly me, I wasn't rewinding the camera "button thing" properly
flamingo
. Oh, how simple technology can be so foreign when one finally understands digital cameras.This time of year in the Galapagos, it is the "meet and greet" season for green turtles so we were spoiled by their abundance. We did however give the newly found couples their much needed privacy and closed our son's eyes when it was time. Going back to "my large green equatorial amphibian story", in order to understand the size of this critter, compare it to your kitchen table with all of its extensions. That turtle was massive. And then again, so were the black tipped, white tipped and reef sharks "resting" at the bottom of the ocean floor. "Swim away quietly boys."
Every day of our cruise in this precious, precious part of the world, we dove enthusiastically twice a day for at least 2 hours at a time. The Ecuadorians describe the water here as being rather cool. It is certainly not how this Canadian would qualify the particular area of the Pacific. Having received my diving qualifications in the glacial lac Beauvert in Jasper Alberta or having frolicked in the frigid Atlantic Ocean, diving around the Equator was quite pleasant and comfortable.
Roughly two dozen types of coral decorate the underwater lava formations along with every imaginable fish colour, a variety of barracudas, sharks, turtles, penguins, iguanas, Blue Footed diving birds and rays
Looking at the green turtles
. One morning, we surfed in the waves with a dozen sea lions. They were fearless and very skillful swimmers as each wave tossed us (sea lions included) up and down and all around the bottom of the ocean floor. A couple of scrapes were proudly added to the collection already on our knees...and arms and elbows. Sea lions love to be the center of attention; not unlike my three male companions on this trip! They (the sea lions, not companions) came quite close and at one point nuzzled my mask and my back with a comical "Look at me, play, play!" demeanor. An "alpha papa" sea lion was always present in a group of young ones. One gigantic specimen came quite close to Ty and me to size us up by circling around very closely...a little disturbing but interesting to say the least. When he accepted our presence and figured out that we were not a menace to his entourage, he turned upside down in the water and lazily scratched his belly...the male culture I tell you!
One young sea lion, looking for an audience (or flirting), played with a white pebble in front of me for a good 10 minutes. It tossed the pebbled proudly in the water to catch it in its mouth without ever dropping it. I watched this sea lion in total amazement and sheer joy.
Shhh!
What brought much excitement and tears (again) to my eyes were the dolphins. All we needed to do was to spot one flipping quite high in the air. As the boat approached the mammals, they would rush toward us to start their display of playful watery tricks. The more than forty dolphins swam so much faster than our boat which was "speeding" at 22 miles an hour. As I watched their tail as they followed us, it moved effortlessly. One dolphin, showing off I may add, swam further in front of the boat, to jump in the air and land hitting the water with its tail. We were drenched; I think the little tease left laughing. Brilliant!
Another animal to display acrobatics out of the water is the sting ray. The large black and white rays jump out of the water and can flip up to three times in the air. Scientists believe that they perform theses measures to rid themselves of parasites or simply to play.
Each day, we explored the many volcanic islands that all have ecosystems of their own. In the scorching heat, we "bravely" (sweat, sweat, pant, pant) ascended lava rock formations, crawled in lava tunnels to cool down, followed and smelled some very pink flamingos. We photographed Pinnacle Rock where "Master and Commander" was filmed and liaised with many iguanas. They seemed quite interested in what we had to say or simply enjoyed posing for us.
At night, the stars gave us an unsurpassed light show...the best I have seen on this planet. On the Equator, one sees the Southern Cross, the Big Dipper and Orion in the same sky. The three constellations were all getting ready to line up in the heavens as the North's spring and the South's fall equinoxes were approaching
conversing with the sea lions
.After so many years of waiting, I finally came across my adored "Blue Footed Boobies" (name derived from the Spanish word "bobo" meaning clam eaters). They are as endearing as I thought they would be. These skilled pilots and divers circle the water to locate food and plunge into the sea at a 90 degree angle to catch their prey. The stunning light blue colour on their feet could never be replicated. We witnessed their little step dance display and wing stretching announcing that it was also their season to meet and greet other birds of the same feathers.
In the Galapagos, the ocean provides life but does not always guarantee survival of its inhabitants; some years are harder than others. When the cyclic El Niņo settles in, its winds greatly affect the area and influence marine life; water warms up. Many of the necessary food sources for sea lions and Iguanas are destroyed from a very slight altering of water temperatures. On the other hand, more rain falls on the islands, rivers are created and plant life explodes in abundance for land dwellers.
The Galapagos Islands are my closest experience to time traveling to a magical world of sheer beauty. I can only imagine what Darwin would have felt studying the magnificent, friendly and still fearless creatures. How the world decides to manage and care for this volcanic archipelago will determine how long one of this planet's purest treasure can remain unspoiled.
