The Galapagos Islands

In short, animals do what they want

The Spanish who arrived there long ago saw the giant tortises that were so huge and in such large numbers, they dubbed the islands, "Galapagos". It basically means, "Turtles you can ride like horses." From the airport to our hotel we saw animals lounging. We passed across a harsh desert landscape, ferried across an absolutely crystal clear blue lagoon, bussed over tropical hillsides, and arrived at a seaside village called Puerto Aroya on Santa Cruz Island.

Here is an account of some of the interesting creatures we met.

Giant Tortoises

The slow lumbering beasts are in significant decline and endangered.

The majesty and otherworldliness of the giant tortoises who once ruled the islands in both number and longevity is hard to describe. A giant tortoise can live to 200 years old, and by the end of its life weigh over 300 lbs! But they move so slow, and have such specific habitat, they are not doing so well. Humans are the cause of their decline, but we don't kill alone. There's a host of other lethal actors brought to the island.

What Humans brought to the Galapagos that kill Tortoises:

  • Ants - They get up in the shells and carry fungus which irritates and can kill older tortoises.
  • Rats - They eat the eggs before they hatch.
  • Foxes - Same.
  • Goats - They eat everything that tortoises eat only faster.
  • Humans - They eat tortoise meat.
  • Global Warming - Here's an interesting one. Tortoises, like many reptiles, don't depend on genes to define the sex of offspring, it's temperature. A couple degrees warmer, no tortoise will ever produce a male. It'll be all females, all the way down to extinction.

Among the different islands of the Galapagos there are multiple species of turtle and tortoise, adapted to their habitat and slightly different in their form and habits. One such species went extinct in 2006 with the passing of Lonesome George

##photo of tortoises here It might take some time to get through all the different types of animals we saw. Here's the raw list, I'll update and show images and videos over time.

Seals

Crabs

Sharks

We saw a baby hammerhead!

Iguanas

They swim in the ocean much more gracefully than they walk on the beach.

Pelicans

Divebombers

Flamingos

Pink as ever

Penguins

Yes, penguins on the equator!

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