Our Boat tour started in Santa Crúz and traveled to a few surrounding islands which included Rhabida, Bartolome, China hat, and North Seymore. Rhabida was a nice red sanded Beach area with a small hike where we saw a few Galapagos Hawks. Bartolome had a hike to the top of a hill where we were able to view the surrounding parasitic volcanoes and one of the famous Galapagos vistas. China Hat island had an interesting shape which helped relate it to its name. Here the marine life was great to observe, we caught some views of penguins and I was finally able to observe a swimming marine iguana. Following him, I watched as he clung to the rocks underwater and feasted on the Algae bed. North Seymore was one of my favorite islands visited because of the Galapagos avifauna. There were Blue-Footed Boobies, Frigate Birds, Swallow-Tailed Gulls, and some small Doves that had Blue eyes and red feet. The coolest part was that we Landed on the island around 6am so we beat the crowds and were able to view most of the courtship rituals and mating calls. When I say “beat the crowds” I’m refering to the Copious amounts of tourist groups that travel these tourist hotspot areas. It wasn’t until this trip that I witnessed the extent tourisim in the Galapagos. As I mentioned in a previous update, tourism is one of the main economic means for island inhabitants, and since Ecuador is a rather poor country, control and management of the park is a bit shady. The night son the boat were great becuase we were able to take lounge chairs to the top and watch the stars. Our tour guide, who was a fountain of information, surprised us with her complete knowledge of the night sky. She had a GPS star pointer which would tell you the names of constelations, she also had a $70 green laser to point at the stars. Very fun.
Last night was the final political rally before Ecuadorian elections so there were several large rallies throughout the town. At one of the rallies my host father organized a way for my house mate Patrick to play a short acoustic set on stage. The whole town was out that night so there were hundreds of folks there. He played a song in english with a girl from our program and everyone seemed to like it. All of the GAIAS students were ther in full support. Its been really fun becoming a temporary part of this island community.
1 comment:
Scott, What a wonderful tour. Your descriptions make me feel I'm there. Those red sand beaches must have been really cool.
Any fish??
Uncle Dave
Post a Comment