25 mayo 2006

A Sense of Wonder

After a few days on Isla Santa Cruz, the main island of the Galápagos, a ´sense of wonder´ is the best way to describe Señor Hans´s mood. The town where I am staying, Puerto Ayora, isn´t your tropical island fantasy resort and the surrounding landscapes are interesting but not that impressive. No, there is something else here that brings about that Sense of Wonder: the beasties ...

My first afternoon was spent scouting out the town and visiting the Darwin Research Center, where they also study and grow giant tortoises ("reuzeschildpadden"). It is hard to describe the feeling of just walking down a path and all of sudden seeing a giant tortoise lumbering towards you. They are such gentle and beautiful creatures.

The next day was for Tortuga Bay, where, although it is a 30 minute walk, the best beach is for some quality sun and swim time. And sun and swim time I had ("burnt to a crisp"), but the real quality was to be found in activities by others; right, the animals. Where to start ... pelicans were soaring overhead all the time, diving kamikaze-style whenever they saw a juicy snack in the water. One of them crashed a few meters from me ... the "Blue-Footed Boobies", weird birds. They are about halfway between a pelican and a seagull, but with big bright blue webbed feet. The sea iguanas, about as long as Señor Hans´s lower leg; their favourite activities are swimming and doing group hugs. The 1.5 meter shark that came for a visit (I wasn´t in the water at the time, I was I were!). The little finches ("musjes"), eating bread crumbs out of your hand ... and it is unbelievable how tame all these animals are. You can get close, and then closer and closer, and while the Sense of Wonder is building on your face, they look at you as if it´s the most normal thing in the world.

Yesterday was just swim time, but with a special twist. Taking a short water taxi ride to the other side of the bay, and a short walk further on, was supposed to be a place where you can swim in "natural pools". Now I have this crazy thing about swimming in natural pools, I love it. And these did not disappoint me. There was a long canyon, about 20 meters high, which was filled with crystal clear, soothingly cool water (nice for the crispy shoulders). It consisted of three parts, one shallow part in the middle, and two 50 meter long and 5 meter wide canyons to swim laps in. And for most of the time I was alone there. And if there is one thing Señor Hans likes better than natural pools, it is PRIVATE natural pools :-D

More private stuff this morning. I rented a bike and went to another beach, about 1 1/2 hours away. It was tough going with the heat, the hills and my current conditional dip (which is relative of course, Señor Hans will still bike the pants off anyone who reads this). But wherever there is pain, there is usually a reward. Mine was ... a private tropical beach ! Actually two of ´em. I felt as giddy as ... well, as yesterday and the day before. My friends the pelicans were there as well, doing their dive-bomb routine again. It would have been perfect if not for the pesky stingy flies that kept using me for target practice.

Now for some education. As some of you may know, Charles Darwin´s visit to the Galápagos as a young man on the "Beagle" provided him with many insights that eventually led him to publish his natural selection and evolution theories. I am actually reading his diary of the time (1830s), "The Voyage of the Beagle", which is must-read for anyone that visited the places he visited with the Beagle (Rio de la Plata, Patagonia, Chile, Peru, Galapagos and more). See the links on the right pane for some more info on this.

As for the Voyage of Señor Hans. It continues tomorrow with an 8 days cruise around the islands here. But here are some more pictures to keep you busy for a bit:
















Next to showing you my butt again, this last one is mainly for making you feel envious (while I still can) ... :-p

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anónimo said...

ok, it's better then the 'up-your-nose'-pics......

sábado, 27 mayo, 2006  

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