直至有天遇上 eagle ray! 那天,牠就突然在jo 那邊出現,大概四米水深,jo 先潛下去跟牠找個招呼,然後有個意大利團友也拿著Gopro跟在後面,我在較上面的位置,正好拍下他和 eagle ray 一起,那就可以比較到牠的大小,到團友氣盡上來,我才下深一點和牠水平拍攝… 牠只是匆匆略過,對我們幾個 fans 看來沒有什麼反應,只是繼續悠閒的拍動雙翼,但在我眼裡已覺得很優雅漂亮了!和diamond ray 真的很不一樣,diamond ray 游動時只像一隻菱形大碟,碟邊波浪式推進,而 eagle ray 卻真的像一隻鷹在飛翔!
By: Jo It is very exciting to see sea turtles in the sea, and we have seen a good number of turtles this time. But, seeing a baby sea turtle, smaller than my palm, when he just hatches from the egg and swim to the sea the first time, is so much more exciting. I have no words that will describe how we felt, when we saw that by surprise.
I still remember 2 days ago, we landed at the Bachas beach when it was raining. The beach is full of sand holes where the sea turtles have lay their eggs. We saw a few big birds kept flying over a spot in circles and our guide Leo said that there must be something wrong. When he ran to the spot, he saw a big blue heron just took a baby turtle and flew away. This poor baby has become the heron's meal before he even sees sunlight, I hope the rest of his brothers are safe. This is how it happens in nature, the survival rates of turtles are very low. If they do not choose the right moment to run to the ocean, they are almost certainly eaten. Today, we landed on Espumilla beach in the morning, and have a walk inland and come back to the beach. When we were busy watching the Galapagos hawks, someone screamed "there is a baby turtle"! Based on what happened 2 days ago, everyone seem to know exactly how to react now, we all run to the baby turtle and at the same time kept an eye on the sky for any potential predators. So, the eleven of us surrounded the baby turtle and witnessed his first journey!! He made it to the sea and will survive! Leo said that they are safe once they make it to the ocean, the mystery remains though, very rarely do we see a baby turtle in the sea, where were they during the period they make their first entry to the sea until they become an adult turtle? I wish you all the best, and hope to see you again in the sea in the future! By: Jo
Everyone comes to the Galapagos for a reason. For me, it is obvious that I come here because the wild animals that show absolutely no fear for human beings! These islands, where Charles Darwin studied the law of evolution, until today, is still the best showcase for evolution.
South Plaza island is a very small island where a lot of cactus grow. If you look closer, each cactus has a Galapagos land iguana living underneath!
Land iguanas are solitary animals who also defense their territories very strongly. You seldom see two land igua
nas living at the same cactus.
However, about 8-9 years ago, a lot of cactus on this island died because of the drought and the land iguanas were short of food supply. As a result... some of these vegetarian land iguanas have evolved and became omnivores. Those who cannot find themselves a cactus go to the rockeries and feed on the sea lion poos. Today, we even witness a land iguana eating the dead body of a bird... this is clearly evidence of how these animals are still evolving on the island.
By: Jo We are the penguins that live at the most northern location on Earth... once upon a time, my grand grand grand ... parents somehow arrived here and fell in love with this paradise at the Equator and built their colony here. A lot of people rather believe that there are penguins at Madagascar and don't believe that there are penguins at the Equator... but we are real!! Although we live at the Equator, when the sea current from the South get here, it cools the sea down. We are small penguins, we have evolved from our ancestors and become an endemic penguin species only found in the Galapagos!
If you wish to see all 17 species of penguins in the world, I am not to be missed!
We started planning the Galapagos trip in the second half of March, by estimating when we were going to leave Brazil, and we started our search online.
I have decided upfront to find a 8 days cruise (which proves to be correct decision). And based on the dates we can make, and the fact that there are only a few economic ships, we quickly narrowed it down to 3-4 choices.
Unfortunately, this week's itineraries are not my ideal option, yet, on the flip side, the itineraries have more visitor sites which I have not been to. One of them is Punta Pitt, where we landed in the second afternoon. This location is why we choose the Flamingo, because we would be able to see all three types of boobies here.
Of course, we did see all three types of boobies - the blue footed, red footed and nazca boobies. However, the best came at last - the courtship dance of the blue footed boobies!
When landing, we can only walk on designated paths, when we are more than halfway done, our guide Alfonso said he heard some blue footed boobies nearby. At first, we were skeptical, but then we saw them just right near the cliff in front of us.
We slowly approached and they flew away. Alfonso said they really don't care about us, they flew away just to find a better spot. That was true, because they landed right near the trail in front of us just then, and start their courtship dancing which we usually only get to see on a documentary!!
The male and female both like each other, and started their courtship dance and making of their sound. I really love to see the blue footed boobies walking as they have this very special steps. They are the cutest bird!!
First, let me give some background information, if you wish to understand details of travelling in Galapagos, welcome to ask.
The only way to get to the Galapagos islands is by flight. Among the many islands, there are only three that are populated. Except for these three towns, all of the Galapagos islands are owned by the national park, within which only close to 100 sites are opened for visitors. There are also areas designated for snorkelling and diving.
We lived on the main island Santa Cruz for three nights and then spent 8 Days 7 Nights on board a traditional wooden boat. When we are resting, the boat will be sailing to the different visitor sites.
The name of boat is Flamingo, it is one of the four in the same class - the lowest and cheapest. The most luxury class cruise ships can be up to 100 passengers. Flamingo can accomodate 10 passengers, the captain, 2 sailors, an engineer, a chef and the tour guide, 16 people altogether.
The cabin is so small, and not to mention the bunk beds, so, if possible, we stay on the deck.
Life on board is simple yet fulfilling.
The daily routines are pretty much the same. We have breakfast and go onshore for walking and then followed by snorkelling nearby. After lunch, we usually rest for a while before we go onshore again for a walk and then snorkelling again. After dinner, we are free to rest, we also gather around to chat and kill the evening.
It sounds really routine and boring, yet each landing and snorkelling is full of surprise! I think we were very lucky because we had a lot of "first time", some of which also a first time for our tour guide....
How many will have a chance to visit the Galapagos twice in their life, and still want to go again?
This is an amazing place. .....
So happy that everyone on the ship were super high leaving the trip, because it created many "first time" in people's lives! Imagine everyone sharing their first, second, third, fourth and fifth best of the trip!
There are so many amazing things at the Galapagos.
The wildlife that stay closest to human, if we continue to respect them.
The most passionate travellers and wild life lovers who travel all the way!
We stayed three nights on land and then seven nights on board a boat. When I landed today, I felt the land rocking, our backpack and everything inside are kind of wet smell like sea water. The room is smelling the old laundry waiting to be cleaned. I'm tired and need to rest before I can organize my thoughts and share with you all.