The biggest surprise yet
Trip Start
Mar 02, 2008
1
13
17
Trip End
May 01, 2008
Galapagos Islands,
Ecuador
Saturday, April 12, 2008
It was in the Galapagos that Charles Darwin spent just three weeks of his five year voyage on the Beagle, and it was on these islands that he encountered subtle differences in species that helped him to formulate his theory of evolution, published in hid book On The Origin of Species in 1859.
The beauty of the Galapagos lies in its isolation. This group of volcanic islands lies on the Equator, about 1000km off of the coast of Ecuador. It has been so scarcely visited over the centuries that the wildlife there has never really been troubled by man, and is therefore quite content to approach human visitors. The variety of exotic wildlife is enormous
Greeting on arrival...
. Over our seven day trip, we encountered penguins, sea lions, turtles, blue footed boobies, sally lightfoot crabs, giant tortoises and many more.Rather than compile a day-by-day record of our visit to each island, I'm going to let the photos do (most of) the talking. Suffice it to say that, no matter how much I thought I had travelled to wonders of the world with the Perito Moreno Glacier, the Atacama Desert and Machu Picchu, this one really took the biscuit.
We were lucky enough to have three really knowledgeable and enthusiastic local naturalists on board our boat, Vanessa Blanca and Diego and they complemented our experiences by filling in the gaps and answering the dozens of questions that arose as we made our twice-daily treks or swims on the islands.
There were 32 passengers on the converted floating casino that was La Pinta; a mix of Brits, Americans, Canadians, Belgians, Swiss (well, converted Brits), Iranians and Australian. Whenever you throw a bunch of 32 people together in close confinement for a week you get a remarkably rapid changes in relationships as they are forced to get to know each other, be polite to each other and maintain (in the case of the Brits) a sense of reserve in the face of an onslaught (in the case of the Americans) of over familiarity
Land Iguana
.Well, Jane and I survived by banding together with a like-minded bunch of cynical and catty types, namely Claire and Bill from Switzerland via, errr, New Cross and Martin from Sutton Coldfield, which Nick Broomhall (or other ex- Bishop Vesey types) will testify, was music to my ears.
Only, Martin wasn't really from Sutton Coldfield. Having received a text from daughter Vicky informing me that she had spent the day pigging out at Cadbury World in Bournville, Martin told us that he had in fact been born and raised in Bournville, or rather (as my ear, attuned by Broomhall to the finer points of the West Midland vocabulary, ascertained) Bourn-VILLE.
Well of course, the soft-bellied southerners/Swiss managed to eke out about 4 days of fun from the stress on a single syllable. Martin's general view about the ignorance of the South (and Switzerland) was not improved by Jane's comment 'you lived in Bournville - I thought that was a chocolate bar' and, once that had been ironed out, Claire's follow up 'yes, but surely it's cooking chocolate - one can't actually eat it....' Martin's face wore the look of resignation of one carrying the ball and chain of a massive cultural divide
Seal pup...
. So we bonded by being generally critical of the Americans. All apart from Laurie (from just outside San Francisco, so practically a European), Len and Ros, who were just so nice and sweet that we would forgive them anything, and Dennis, who showed a real interest in other people. The rest were just, well..... what happens on La Pinta stays on La Pinta.
By the time we parted, we had got into the regular habit of a bottle or two of wine on deck after dinner (how is it possible to develop and keep a regular habit within seven days? Buggared if I know, it must be a sort of Tardis thing, but I do know that when we got off the boat I felt like I'd been doing the wine-on-deck-after-dinner-thing all my life, and as I sit here writing this three days later, I miss it desperately).
Cruise organisers Metropolitan Touring (website http://www.galapagosvoyage.com/ ) did a great job in not only feeding, watering, entertaining and educating us for a week, but also managing to make us feel as if we were the only people in the world. How they avoided all the other tour boats I don't know.
So, if you promise yourself one special trip in the next ten years, let it be the Galapagos. You won't regret it.
Friday 11th we flew back to Guayaquil. Stayed overnight then next morning, off to Cuba.........
Comments
Darwin
I am enjoying this Terry, beats looking at HOF anyway!
Took the kids to a Darwin Exhibition last year in Auckland. Did you know his wife was a Wedgwood, as in the pottery?