The reason why I chose to go on a cruise to the Galapagos Islands is my passion for bird-watching.
Birds and all animals for that matter never encountered hostile humans, so you can really come up close and personal with the animals you want to observe and take marvelous pictures (depending on your photography skills of course).
Galapagos Flycatcher
Just have a look at this Galapagos Flycatcher: couldn’t get any closer than that!
This Galapagos flycatcher (Myiarchus magnirostris) was exceptionally bold and curious. After first sitting on the hat of our Galapagos National Park Naturalist Guide, the flycatcher went and visited the heads of most of us.
Picture taken at Post Office Beach during my visit to the Post Office Barrel on Floreana Island.
Technorati Tags: animals, cruise, galapagos islands, galapagos national park, naturalist guide, park naturalist, passion, photography skills, post office, watching birds
by galapagoscruises — published on March 21st, 2009
Baltra Island and San Cristóbal Island are the only 2 airports in Galapagos you can land on to start Galapagos tours.
When you travel to the Galapagos islands, normally you will fly from any destination of the world to Quito, Ecuador. Then you take an airplane to one of the 2 Galapagos islands mentioned above to finally embark on one of the many Galapagos island cruises.
Like other Islands in Galapagos, Baltra island is very dry. Baltra’s vegetation consists mainly of bushes and cactus.
Baltra island is not within the boundaries of the Galapagos National Park and the many iguanas you will see are not even native to Baltra island: the native Baltra iguana got extinct before the second world war.
So when somebody on those Galapagos island tours stress that Galapagos is The untouched paradise on earth, be reminded on Baltra island: where people land, wildlife is in danger…
Technorati Tags: airports, baltra, baltra island, Galapagos, galapagos tours
by galapagoscruises — published on March 19th, 2009
From Europe to Galapagos:
I took a flight from Amsterdam to Quito, but we had to stop in Bonaire and Guayaquil.
It’s a "relatively" short flight: less than 10 hours later we arrived in Bonaire to stretch our legs… Then another 2.5hour flight to Guayaquil and yet another half an hour to Quito…
All in all not easy to reach (and then you are still not at the Galapagos islands) but you are in need of a good night rest!
Technorati Tags: amsterdam, bonaire, europe, Galapagos
by galapagoscruises — published on March 19th, 2009
