Last look at Galapagos

Sunday, June 2nd

The crew woke us at about 6 am by starting the engine to leave the buoy to which we apparently moored late last night, and motored around the cliffs of Daphne Major. By the time it was light we had our cups of tea and were perched on the top deck of Nemo with our binoculars and cameras, watching the early morning bird display. Blue and Nazca boobies still had their heads tucked under their snowy wings, but the pelicans had starting their morning ablutions, flapping their wings in the water and snapping up the odd fish. A few red billed tropic birds were fluttering offshore from the cliffs with the frigate birds in hot pursuit. In fact there was a cloud of frigate birds soaring on the updraft - we wondered how so many can be supported by their piracy mode of life. Some fur seals were comfortably curled up on the rocks between the nests of swallow tailed gulls. It was a lovely circuit of the island to say farewell to many of the wildlife we had become so familiar with, but I was very sad when we turned away to head towards the Itabaca Canal and the airport on Baltra.

 Nemo II

It was a wonderful week, seeing more wildlife at very close quarters than I had dreamed possible. It is really good to see the islands and their wildlife being so well cared for and appreciated, probably much more now than ever before. The tourist boats and visits to the islands are all strictly regulated, and we mostly had to keep to formed paths. Although fishing is restricted in some areas (where we snorkelled), there still must be a lot of fishing, judging by the amount of fish we ate during the week. At least I saw no evidence of potting or netting.

The Nemo crew provided an informative and comprehensive if busy schedule. They even put up the sails when possible to save fuel (but never actually turned the motor off)!

Now we were flying up to Quito to explore more of Equador: next stop - back down almost to sea level again in the Amazon Basin.

Farewell lunch and dinner

 

Saturday afternoon, June 1st

Lunch today, our last full day, was an Ecuadorian special with ceviche soup and battered guinea pig (coy), large puffy white kernels of native corn as well as fish braised in coconut sauce, served by our friendly steward, Ernesco.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After lunch there was time for the usual short siesta for some, while others took their last chance to read one of the ship’s library books local on birds, fish, reptiles or volcanos.

Then we headed over to Darwin's Cove for a wet landing and walk on the lava behind the cove. The white beach was coral sand with lots of broken coral pieces. There used to be quite a lot of coral reef around the island, especially on Darwin and Wolf islands, until they were devastated by the warm currents in the last two severe El Niño events. Now only about 3% of the reef remains – large dull grey boulders.  

 

Behind the beach were some inlets with clear pools where yellow-crowned night herons roosted beside the tide pools that would be replenished when the 2 m tide rose.

Swallow tailed gulls

 

Large cactus bushes grew against the cliffs, many with yellow flowers. More red footed bobbies and frigates were nesting here, and also a lot of handsome swallow tail gulls. It was interesting watching their courtship displays and nest building activities.  

Back at the beach we changed into our snorkelling gear and snorkelled around the edge of the rocks, seeing some lovely spotted eagle rays feeding and a larger mottled ray. Drew saw some rays and sharks from his kayak, and a pair of sharks apparently followed us into the beach, where they could be seen from the rocks swimming in the shallows just where we had been swimming! They were probably Galápagos sharks since they had no white or black tips. (I have since learned that they were the most dangerous of all the sharks, even more than the hammerhead!)

 

Back on the boat, quite a large shark could be seen swimming under the boat, waiting for food scraps or the unwary swimmer?

 

All the crew dressed in their whites for our farewell dinner, toasting us with a fruit cocktail, followed by turkey, pickled pork and a special chocolate cake. Meanwhile Diego had coached us on what we were expected to give as tips to him and the crew, and gave us their evaluation form. The $40 bill for a bottle of ordinary Chilean wine was a nasty surprise. No wonder all the passengers had been very restrained in their alcohol intake, apart from the occasional beer.

Hollyand David, both entomologists from South Dakota Univerisity, and Patricia, Jenny's cabin-mate and an engineer from California, shared the table with Jenny, Drew and Jane.

Then the anchor was raised and we headed back across the equator to the Southern Hemisphere towards Daphne island, close to Baltra island and the airport. As on most evenings, passengers retired early as the ship stared to roll in the open swells. I had a last look up on deck before retiring, to see if I could see the lava gulls feeding at night, lit up by the lights of the ship, and enjoy the stars above and phosphorescence below in our wake.

 

Flooded crater - Genovesa Is.

 

Saturday, June 1st

We awoke surrounded by the walls of a flooded crater that comprised Genovesa Island, frigate birds, boobies and gulls wheeling overhead.

 

 

 

 

 

Although still very much a volcano, Genovesa, like Marchena and Pinta in the NW and Darwin and Wolf in the NE, were not created like the rest of the archipelago from the hotspot in the crust, but from friction created by the Nazca tectonic plate sliding under the South American plate.

 

The misty overcast 'la garua' season due in June had arrived right on time and thankfully provided cooler conditions for our walk.

 

 

The panga took us to El Barranco, a notch in the cliffs where steep steps had been constructed to the top of the cliff.

 

On the rim, Nazca and blue footed boobies were nesting on the ground, and red footed boobies and Great frigate birds (different from the Magnificent on other islands: all black except for some iridescent green on their backs) in the bushes, many right beside or even on the path. Many of the male frigates were on nests with their red balloons inflated to attract females.

 

 

We searched the deep cracks for owls but only found a yellow crowned night heron.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Male Great frigate with red throat and irridescent green backon the lookout for a female with white chest (below) to impress

 

 

 

 

 

Two males courting the one female.

 

 

 Nasca booby;

 

Nesting on the ground in the middle of the path.

Red footed boobies nested in the trees all around.

 Look at my lovely RED feet!

 Red footed male gathering twigs for nesting

 

 

 A pair of red-foots performing their greeting

Five per cent of the red footed boobies are white instead of brown, but all have beautiful pink lores and blue bills with black underneath the bill.

On the other side of the rim, the band-rumpled storm petrels that nested on the cliffface were flying above the cliffs like a cloud of butterflies, trying to avoid the frigate birds that prey on them.







The smallest Darwin ground finch was feeding on the ground plants (Portulaca),

and black carpenter bees were foraging on the abundant yellow flowers.

 

Back to the Nemo to change for our deep water snorkel on the other side of the crater, the best site for hammerhead sharks. Sure enough, soon after we got in the water, a school of about six came up from the depths of the crater to cruise over the shallower rocks (no more than 6 m deep) to check us out before returning to the depths. We all stayed in a tight group as we swam up and back under the cliffs, but I didn't see any more sharks, only a few black and yellow striped moorish idols ( a sign of warmer water) and the usual parrot and surgeon fish.  (Sadly my underwater camera had finally died so no photos of the sharks)

We cruised back along the cliffs in the panga to Nemo, getting some glimpses of the lovely red billed white tropic birds. Apparently the frigate birds chase them and pull their long white tail feathers, imitating their chicks’ behaviour to get them to regurgitate their latest meal.

Fur seals were curled up in the small caves at the base of the cliff.



 

Geomorphologist's delight

 

Friday afternoon May 31st

 

After the usual excellent seafood lunch with three salads, we raised the anchor and sailed most of the way to Sullivan's Bay on Santiago Island near Bartolome Island with its characteristic pinnacle, the most visited part of the archipelago - there were eight boats moored there, some day-trippers from Puerto Ayura.

 

 

The panga landed us on the rocks near the beach and Diego talked to us about the rocks which were the result of the youngest lava flow that tourists can visit, only 150 years old, that had almost filled in the Bay since Darwin's visit.

 

 Very viscous, ropey (pahoehoe) lava had flowed down to fill the bay from a satellite crater 4km away.







The rope and pillow shapes were fantastic, with numerous cooling cracks that showed the various mineral layers.

We walked up the lava field, seeing how it flowed between several very young cinder cones of more red, softer porous rock. 

 

 Here Diego took our group photo. Drew and Jane third and fourth from the left, Jane's sister Jenny third from the right.

 

When we got back to the beach we went for a snorkel along the shore. Some of the others saw a playful sea lion and some sharks and rays - I only saw the large depressions in the sand made by the rays. There was a nice patch of orange coral and a feeding school of yellow tailed surgeon fish, a leather fish in a crevice and the usual large parrot and Mexican hog fish.

After dinner we raised anchor and headed north-west for Genovesa Island, a seven hour, overnight navigation.

Red rocks and a Flamingo

Friday morning May 31st  

We anchored overnight off Isla Rabida. After breakfast we took a short panga ride to a dry landing on sharp red rocks, not even disturbing a sleeping sea lion on the cliff ledge by the sea.  But we did startle a sea lion pup at the top of the steps. A pair of Galápagos doves was perched on a fallen cactus tree.

 

 

 

From the top of the ridge we looked down to a very red sandy beach with a salty lagoon behind,  with a lone flamingo.

 

This was exciting as I had been really hoping to make my first sighting of flamingos.

 

 

The flamingo was walking up and down in the shallows waving his bill from side to side, sieving out the brine shrimp.

 

Apparently young flamingos start out with white feathers and they gradually turn this beautiful pink after feeding on pink brine shrimp in the lagoons. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Meanwhile, on the shore of the lagoon, a mocking bird was very curious about our shoes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A couple of other tour groups came from another boat moored in the bay, one of the few times we saw other tourists.

 

 

We had to urge a large sea lion out of our way so we could cross the dune  to the beach.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

At the end of the beach was a nursery of cubs that were very playful;  one of them was searching for his mum for a suckle.

 

Another mother was suckling twins at the other end of the beach. Brown pelicans were nesting on the cliff behind the beach. A large orange sea star and lots of green urchins were washed up on the beach among the hermit crab holes.

 

The panga picked us up from the beach and, after morning tea and a quick change, dropped us in to the same rocky bay for a snorkel. We had hoped to see marine iguanas grazing underwater on the algae, but only saw the pale patches where they had scraped the algae off the rocks. The honeycomb rocks supported lots of colonies of different coloured sea anemones and a few orange hard corals and hydroids, and long and short spined sea urchins – the most diverse animal life on the rocks I had seen.