Darwin was seasick on much of his Beagle voyage. Our trip was much more civilized although mal de mer was always a possibility. We soon
settled into the routine: wake up call at 6:30; breakfast at 7; island visit;
snorkel; lunch; siesta; snorkel; island visit; dinner. Neither Connie nor I have been a
regular on the snorkeling trips.
Once you have played with the sea lions, watched penguins feed underwater and seen
a shark or two it becomes same ole – same ole. The water is too cold for coral, the currents are strong and
ours hasn’t been the best organized or most safety conscious of guides. And it’s nice to have the entire boat
to ourselves.
Besides, it's what's on land that we want to see. Most people
are most interested in the large animals like sea lions, sharks, rays, iguanas
and penguins so it is understandable that guides lean in that
direction. They don’t care about
birds, especially the hard to identify finches of the Galapagos and the
mockingbirds that started Darwin thinking about natural selection. Ours also
throws in a great deal of Geology 101 to explain the history of the islands. We were familiar with much of it and are surprised by how little the others know about their planet. Still, there were some 'a ha' moments.
Here are
some of the new birds we saw, many endemic to the Galapagos: dark-rumped petrel, wedge-rumped storm
petrel, band-tailed storm petrel, lava gull, brown noddy, Galapagos
mockingbird, little ground finch, lava heron, blue-footed booby, great frigate
bird, magnificent frigate bird, Galapagos hawk, Galapagos penguin, sharp-beaked
finch, white vented storm petrel, Audubon shearwater, cactus finch, small tree
finch, medium ground finch, large cactus finch, large-bill flycatcher,
wandering tattler, medium tree finch, Nasca booby, Hood mockingbird, large
ground finch, red-billed tropicbird, warbler finch, Floreana mockingbird, waved
albatross, Galapagos dove, swallow-tailed gull, large tree finch, vegetarian
finch and woodpecker finch. Photos
of many are in the album Birds of Ecuador.
