Marine Iguana
Preview of Smee_elaine’sblog at TravelPod. Read the full blog here: www.travelpod.com This blog preview was made by TravelPod using the TripAdvisor™ TripWow slideshow creator. Entry from: Galapagos Islands, Ecuador Entry Title: “Wildlife at its absolute best” Entry: “The Galapagos Islands were absolutely amazing. It’s incredible how close you can get to the wildlife, which has absolutely no fear of humans. Apologies in advance for the length of this entry but I just saw so much!! On the first day I saw giant tortoises both in the wild and in the Charles Darwin station, although some of them were a little shy so hid in their shells which made a rather odd noise as they expelled the air from their lungs in order to be able to retract their head and neck. Unfortunately the Galapagos’ most famous resident, Lonesome George (the only Pinta tortoise in the world), was hiding so I didn’t get to see him, although I looked really hard!! There was also lots of baby tortoises as all of the eggs laid in the Galapagos are collected and taken to Charles Darwin Station to hatch and after a few years, once their shells have hardened, the tortoises are released back into the wild. That evening I finally got on board The Encantada (‘the enchanted’), my home for the next week. The sailing mostly takes place overnight and so I didn’t sleep too well – a combination of the engine noise and rocking. However once up on deck it was worth the lack of sleep as we had arrived at the gorgeous Post …
Video Rating: 0 / 5
Preview of Emmaireland’sblog at TravelPod. Read the full blog here: www.travelpod.com This blog preview was made by TravelPod using the TripAdvisor™ TripWow slideshow creator. Entry from: Galapagos islands, Ecuador Entry Title: “Dragon Hill and North Seymour I” Entry: “We woke up early for a morning hike and saw puffer fish swimming around our boat, with shoals of tiny fish glinting in the sun. On the way to Dragon Hill, our first destination, we saw a marine iguana swimming by as we got into our dinghy or ´Panga´. This time, we saw yellow and black land iguanas, which eat vegetation, sealion placentas and fresh sealion poo. Males are larger than females and yellow and when we saw them, they looked as if they were smiling at us. The females are smaller and black and also look sanguine. There were times when they sat only a metre from our path, although we took care not to get too close. The sand here was white, made up from ground up sea coral. Coral is an animal, did you know? Strangely, we saw a group of goats on the island – some of the Galapagos islands are still inhabited today, although much less than they used to be. The early people bought domestic animals like cats and dogs (and goats)with them. Some people were allowed to stay, as the Ecuadorian government had given them large amounts of land as incentives to live there many years ago before the nature reserves had got backing to become private. The people were asked to move and refused – its still their home …
Video Rating: 0 / 5
Preview of Bootephant’sblog at TravelPod. Read the full blog here: www.travelpod.com This blog preview was made by TravelPod using the TripAdvisor™ TripWow slideshow creator. Entry from: Galapagos, Ecuador Entry Title: “Of Lions and Boobies” Entry: “For the last few days, we have been sunning ourselves aboard a catamaran and taking in the delights of Darwin’s Galapagos. The land of giant tortoises, frigate birds and boobies (NB the latter bearing no relation to ample chested birds of the page 3 nature!) The guide book says that nothing prepares you for witnessing how tame the animals are. It was right! We jumped off the little bus from the airport and walked into a welcome party of sea lions! Indeed, when I say ‘walked into’, I don’t mean passed by, or saw in the distance, but practically tripped over! The sea lion (a seal with ears for trivia buffs amongst you) just grunted and went back to sleep 
In short, the Galapagos are an archipelago of islands 1000 km off Ecuador’s coast. They’ve always been isolated from the mainland which meant that the wildlife and flora have diverged and changed from their cousins across the water. This is what made it intriguing to the chap with the exciting beard (Darwin as opposed to the jolly chap in red) and is also why we found ourselves here — some 170 years after his visit. 95% of the original biodiversity of the islands remains intact and only 3% of their area are in use by man. It is unique on Earth. On the first day, we were …
Video Rating: 0 / 5