The Galapagos Islands - Beginning of a Beautiful Adventure

The Galapagos Islands are a National Park and World Heritage site off the West coast of Ecuador.  They were discovered way back in 1535 by the Bishop of Panama - by accident.  The name Galapagos is a Spanish word for saddle or saddleback tortoise.  The islands were all the heyday in the late 1700's for British whaling.  It's first resident was in 1807 - an Irishman...then in 1832 Ecuador annexed the islands.

The most famous naturalist, Charles Darwin, came in 1835.  His findings inspired thoughts of evolution and his theory of natural selection and origin of the species.  The islands today are very protected.  The number of tourists is limited...conservation is paramount...while there are many residents in Santa Cruz and Puerto Ayora the islands are essentially uninhabited by man.  Large scale tourism began in 1970 and it has placed increasing pressure on the natural resources.

The flight from Guayaquil, Ecuador to Baltra on the Galapagos was a short hour and thirty minutes.  The airport is only 1 runway...and isolated...

I was picked up at the airport by the boat I was going to use to transverse the islands.  The boat I selected was the Samba....but more on that later since within 1 hour after arrival I was in a field with giant tortoise....

A stop for lunch in this bush area provided me an opportunity to see this owl in the barn....

The lunch stop was surrounded by the tortoise....an open air dining room...with the shell of a tortoise...check out the size of this baby....

...just a hundred feet from the dining room is this guy....

 ....on the move...by the way....I was about 8 to 10 feet from them...and as long as I did not make any sudden movements they carried on as usual....my only sudden movement would have been his tugging at my pant leg!!

These tortoise are 80 to 100 years and more in age....

I should point out...it looks as if just one of these guys is being photographed over and over...not the case there are many others....

Within the National Park area....a breeding/conservation area for the Giant Tortoise....from baby to full growth under protected circumstances.  Similar to the Panda preservation in China.

I was so taken by the tortoise on that first day I almost forgot some of the beautiful birds....

Several times in the 8 days I was on the Galapagos Islands I encountered these guys....the Galapagos Mocking Bird.....these having and afternoon meeting!!

How could I forget the Iguana.....

It is getting close to evening on this first day....time to head to the Samba boat where I will spend the next 7 nights....more on that in the next blog.

Photo of the day...well a couple....I have often told my friends about having been fumigated when leaving South Africa for London.  Now....on the approach into the Galapagos Island airport at Baltra...at about 25,000 feet...we are fumigated along with opening up all the overhead lockers....the plan is to kill all the insects so as not to bring them into the Galapagos....

Tomorrow....Sea Lions...and much much more....