Galapagos Cruises » animals

Why traveling to Galapagos Islands?

galapagoscruises — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 00:00:51 +0000

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

Baltra Island Galapagos

galapagoscruises — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 00:00:42 +0000

The first Galapagos Island we set foot on was Island Baltra. Unlike in Antarctica, where you first impression is: gosh: what a smell (penguin droppings…), in Galapagos your are struck by the diversity of animals "just minding their own business".

What I will never forget and what sets the stage for your whole Galapagos vacation was the sea lion coming to greet us!

Sea lion’s welcome on Galapagos!

2 things are special on Galapagos:

you are only allowed with very tiny groups on each and every island at one time, so it’s all but mass-tourism
the animals just come to you in stead of you needing to wait hours in order to see a glimpse in the distance!

It’s just unforgettable!!!

Technorati Tags: animals, antarctica, baltra island, diversity, first impression, galapagos island

Please do not sit on the… iguanas

galapagoscruises — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 03:00:37 +0000

I keep on repeating this: the animals on the Galapagos Islands just never learned that they should be afraid for humans…

Which is great for us, so we can come up close to them, but sometimes it can be bad not to fear humans with "bad eyesight"…

You have to experience it before you believe it: the first Island we embarked on was "Isla Bachas". After some strolling around and seeing some flamingos and Galapagos marine iguanas, we wanted to sit down and take it all in…

Until the guide shouted: "don’t you sit there"!…

Because "there" looked like this:

Galapagos marine iguana not moving an inch…

One of us almost sat down straight on an iguana… warming up in the sun before diving back into the cold water. It’s true: a cold reptile doesn’t move that fast, but these iguanas… you can just sit next to them and they pretend you are not even there!

Technorati Tags: animals, Galapagos Island Animals, galapagos island wildlife, galapagos islands, iguanas, isla bachas