Floreana and Isabela Islands
When people come to the Galápagos, they arrive expecting to find giant tortoises and marine iguanas, to walk on Darwin’s footprints and rediscover his finches, and observe the volcanoes he described with so much accuracy. And we all do that and even more: we see the species Darwin saw, and the ones he never saw. We visit the four islands he visited and even more. However, very few people anticipate that they are going to have such close encounters with marine creatures. Few know that Galápagos is also the third largest marine reserve in the world, with a high degree of endemism in the underwater realm. Today we were exposed to one of the best snorkeling outings ever around Champion Islet. The seas were calm, warm and clear, and the schools of fish never ended. One school of yellow-tailed surgeon fish was followed by a school of Creole fish, then some barracudas and king angelfish, and finally some white-tipped reef sharks. One after another, a never ending parade of colourful species, in a world so different to the one where we spend most of our lives. And talking about parades, we could say that the “cheer leaders,” the “prima donas,” were the sea lions. Dozens of babies played with us, showed us their wonderful flexibility, and led us down to their fascinating world, proud of sharing their secret caves and rocks. It was an amazing snorkeling experience! We learned about Galápagos history early in the morning, visiting Post office bay, and we saw the giant tortoises in the afternoon. We have indeed being doing not just what we expected to do, but even more.
When people come to the Galápagos, they arrive expecting to find giant tortoises and marine iguanas, to walk on Darwin’s footprints and rediscover his finches, and observe the volcanoes he described with so much accuracy. And we all do that and even more: we see the species Darwin saw, and the ones he never saw. We visit the four islands he visited and even more. However, very few people anticipate that they are going to have such close encounters with marine creatures. Few know that Galápagos is also the third largest marine reserve in the world, with a high degree of endemism in the underwater realm. Today we were exposed to one of the best snorkeling outings ever around Champion Islet. The seas were calm, warm and clear, and the schools of fish never ended. One school of yellow-tailed surgeon fish was followed by a school of Creole fish, then some barracudas and king angelfish, and finally some white-tipped reef sharks. One after another, a never ending parade of colourful species, in a world so different to the one where we spend most of our lives. And talking about parades, we could say that the “cheer leaders,” the “prima donas,” were the sea lions. Dozens of babies played with us, showed us their wonderful flexibility, and led us down to their fascinating world, proud of sharing their secret caves and rocks. It was an amazing snorkeling experience! We learned about Galápagos history early in the morning, visiting Post office bay, and we saw the giant tortoises in the afternoon. We have indeed being doing not just what we expected to do, but even more.
