Proper Galapagos Trip report part 1 of several

[ratcliffe]

Wow, top report Jules, I love the very blue photograph at the end of the first installment, for some reason that photo blows me away. A great report, well written. Wish I could go there, but I tend to have several nice trips, rather than one longer WOW one...

[DanE]

That's brought back some happy memories

Nice report.
dan

[Narked@50]

I'm glad Jules has got round to doing the trip report, nice one Jules, way better than I have the patience to write, - she took notes on each day where as I have yet to download my computer after the trip .

I can only re-iterate what Jules said - AWESOME - does not describe it, you really had to be there.

I have put in a few pictures over a couple of posts to help fire the imagination, but you just have to go.

Lets start with what was a regular site both above and below the water on many of our rhib rides three times a day:



And then of course we have to have some sharks.................



Some of these were so close I could have bumped them with the camera, bare in mind this is a 35mm lens, not zoomed or wide angle!

I just have to have a couple of hammerhead shots:







Post two next:

[Narked@50]

And remember what Jules said about the eagle rays?? I snapped these on the way down when the rhib dropped us on top of them, some of these were huge, you honestly think you have seen big stuff till you do the Galapagos, these were half again the size of anything I had seem before:



WHAT THE HELL IS THAT B****RD FISH DOING IN FRONT OF THE CAMERA AGAIN! - SOMEBODY SLAP IT! (Oh, they did??)



This is better - a red lipped bat fish, allegedly only found in the Galapagos?? I think the jury is out on that one as it appears to have some very similar cousins close by.



Whale sharks - Just what we needed. Like Jules says, these are massive. Again, I have seen these before, but not like this, I reckon I seen around 15 personally, and some of these were 12 to 14 meters, yep, that's around 45 feet!





And I can't post these without the obligatory turtle and general fish shot:





Hope this helps, as a picture speaks a thousand words, and Jules is way better at that than me.

James

[ardhill]

That's the way the sea should be - full of life!

I bet Lou was in her element

[Noel Johnson]

Top stuff. Great reports and pictures - mind blowing.

I really want to go now...

[principia]

Originally Posted by ardhill

That's the way the sea should be - full of life!

I bet Lou was in her element

It was crap, I only managed to find one piece of metal, a 2 foot by 3 sheet on the first dive. All that way and not a single wreck....

J.

[Narked@50]

Originally Posted by principia

It was crap, I only managed to find one piece of metal, a 2 foot by 3 sheet on the first dive. All that way and not a single wreck....

J.

Yea, and as I remember, a Sealion played in front of us for 20 minuits to distract us on that dive .!

James

[Jules]

Final chapter of trip report is in production now.... including boobies.. (blue footed variety)

[Jules]

Wednesday 10/10/07

We went for a long walk on San Christobel in search of Giant Tortoises in the wild. I don’t know what I was expecting in terms of size. They were big though, and quite sleepy.

One went for a little walk whilst a few of us watched it.


The terrain was interesting and we heard and Saw mocking birds too.


There’s a problem here in that Goats and other mammal introduced by man put pressure on the environment and thus may affect the long term survival of the tortoises. Many people will know that when the Galapagos islands were first discovered there were loads of tortoises and they were plundered by just about everyone as a good source of meat for long voyages. Basically the ships filled their holds with them and they stayed edible for many months with no water or food.



After the long walk we went to civilisation… the main town in San Christobel where we purchased t- shirts and drank beer in bar (obviously just to do our bit for the local economy)

After retiring to Deep blue for dinner and watching the guides videos we returned to land by Rib to visit a local bar . And had the most bizarre game of pool ever. I should say at this point that firstly I am rubbish at Pool and secondly it makes it difficult when people are manhandling parts of your body.
Gary nabbed the best seat in the place


and the rest of us had a few polite beers.



Pic shows Kev, Jamesy and Ricardo (Rick to his mates)

We only went out for a couple but somehow that turned in many and some of us were a bit the worse for wear when we eventually returned to the boat.



Pic shows Lou, Kathy, Luis the dive guide, Kev, Jason, James, Rick