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No Jeff has not arrived ahead of schedule, this is another yellow head we met on our Treasure of Galapagos tour. |
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| Our Conrad is none too sure about all these sea-lions. |
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| Conrad gets some swimming tips from the local lads in Moreno |
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| "Who need parents I'm off to find these giant turtles my self" |
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| "Right found one, where is his head?" |
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| "Hey Daniel is his head over that side?" |
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| Doesn't everyone have their own personal volcano? |
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| Very Charlotte Ramplingish |
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Makes a handy bath too. |
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| Linsey, Danielle, Diego, Antonio, & co friendly locals onboard Farrfly |
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| Lizard not an iguana |
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| I was photographing the guy on the right for 5 minutes before I even noticed his wife on the left. They blend in so well that I nearly stood on one further up the beach. |
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| Black marine iguana |
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| grey/red marine iguana |
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| white european tourists |
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| Puerto ayora- nice town, no sea-lions. |
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| Who is the big boy in the middle? Treasure had no baby chairs or cots so Conrad grew up over night. |
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| First night in a 'real bed' he was rather pleased with himself. But still ended up, upside down!! |
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| Treasure at anchor Bartolome |
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| Bartolome.... stunning anchorages, and could this have been the inspiration for Lord Fosters Gurkin? |
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| Tropic Bird.. seemingly quite rare- Seymore Islands |
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| Spot the reptile |
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| The one on the left is tom cruise. |
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| Now this was fun.. do I keep snapping or tell them?? |
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| They soon stopped trying to fix the out-board and came back onto the Treasure. Funny thing they brought us to this spot to snorkel and everyone on the boat except Samina and Conrad spent half the afternoon in the water!! |
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| Sunset rainbow Santa Fe Island |
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| the gurkin |
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| Tropical fish shot.. rates alongside sunset shot.. yawn. |
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| Having a little domestic |
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| Believe it or not this is what they have to do to get a shag. I told Tony to buy a red balloon, its all the rage. |
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| Now this little fellow is the best reason for visiting Galapagos. He is a blue footed booby. To get a shag he has to show off his big blue feet to best advantage, so you will see him constantly shaking his foot at the boobetts. Then he has to do a dance that Ego Pinkfoot Flatly would have trouble with. I have the sequence in a book and will try to photograph it and post it. Its hysterical. Tony has decided to go for the red balloon. |
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| I can catch it, I can... |
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| Dad, let me go this one's mine... |
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| Well maybe no monkeys with scales, but maybe fish with tails? Had to be careful with fellows tail. |
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| Big ray about 5 feet across. |
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| Sea-lions messing up a nice beach. |
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| "These are the most stupid birds I have ever seen, even wearing this silly panama hat I can get this close... just a few more feet... duck for dinner...." Conrad at 19 months stalking birds with a view to a kill!! It appears that Darwin and evolution never banked on Conrad Cullen's eventual arrival. Survival of the fittest, his mother caught him before the feathers flew. And somehow I got into trouble!! |
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| Arty farty shot from that well respected photographer ..whats his name... |
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| How many do you see? They launched an attack about a minute later. |
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| The most exciting tourist spot on Santa Cruz, a hole in the ground! I am serious. This and the unbelievably boring turtle farm are 'the' two tourist locations. Some of Darwin's finches hang about here too, but we saw none. They are all down on Darwin's Foxborough Farm... More on this another day, it could put Ireland back on the tourist map. |
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| Just had to include this shot twice.. kids do really grow up far too fast. And I am not just talking about the one on the right!! |
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| Ha ha ha its all a con job, there are absolutely no animals in Galapagos. Absolutely none.... not one. I have a Doctorate in Biology and I promise you there is nothing here. All you see here are nice birds including penguins, iguanas, sea-lions and a few surviving giant turtles, which according to Darwin should be long gone by now. |
So did we see the origin of the species? Was it all so obvious. Where there fish with bikes, birds with parachutes? Badgers that swim? Rabbits with claws, Penguins that climb trees, did the flightless cormorant eat worms... where there any worms...
Well the answer to all that of course is a resounding NO. Unbelievable as it may seem; when you leave out the birds and the fish the only creatures here are sea-lions, really dumb iguanas and a hand full of Lonesome George's relatives, which by all laws of science should have been soup years ago. There are NO ANIMALS here... nothing.. and yet it is one of the planets biggest wild life tourist spots. There are more birds in the air and wildlife on the ground at (Darwin's) Foxborough farm than in this whole archipelago.
And so what makes it so special... Bloody Darwin, he spent 5 years sailing the Beagle around the world, and spent only 19 days of that 5 years here... But boy do the locals ride that hard. Of course its not all Darwin, it is the sheer stupidity of the very few creatures that are here. As there is no water on all but one of the islands, which are plonk in the middle of the doldrums. Humans could not get here or if they did they died... so the turtles, iguanas and some of the birds... NOT ALL, as Conrad proved in the Hotel dining room... evolved without fear of people. So you can get close to the iguanas, frigate birds and boobies which of course is nice. But would you travel 6000 miles from europe to stand beside a frigate bird?? No of course not.. but my buddy the blue footed fellow, well he is a different story all together... more about him later...
And what was the disaster that befell our intrepid travellers in Moreno...?? Why are they in a Hotel... The 'spot the boat thing' hasn't moved or worked for 2 weeks... why has it taken so long for these blog updates.. something's up... or down....
