We made it to the Galapagos!
We were originally planning on skipping the islands, because it is really expensive to travel here, but we managed to find a house on San Cristobal that was mostly in our budget and we are planning on eating a lot of Top Ramen and tuna fish. We already agree that it will be worth it. In our first five days we have already started to love it here.
There is surf…
But more on that later. we have only been out in the waves one day.
The coolest thing so far has been the animals.
Every day (except the second day, because it poured down rain all day) we have taken long (sometimes really-really long) hikes, and found out why people come here for critter-watching. We have seen more here in the first four days than we did the whole time looking in treetops and under leaves in the Amazon. And, unlike in the Amazon or in the Andes, the wildlife doesn’t mind if you look at it. It doesn’t even try to run away.
Or move.
Or get off the narrow trail you are walking on.
Or get off the park bench you want to sit on.
Mostly it just lays there and looks at you with something like trust (or maybe ambivalence, but probably trust). It has been hundreds of years since anyone came here to hunt turtles and sea lions for meat to support marine voyages, and the recent generations of fauna don’t seem to have an epigenetic memory of that fear. It is amazing to share the park benches, sidewalks, roads, and docks with all these various characters. And some are really characters, clowning around and playing. The overriding rule here, regarding wildlife, is that you are supposed to stay at least six feet from everything.
Obviously, they forgot to tell the sea lions, birds, iguanas, lizards, and fish the rules, because they will just swim, flap, or stroll right up to you and lay down.
It is a constant challenge not reach over and scratch them under the chin or behind the ears.
They seem like they would like it.
We look forward to a bunch more interactions, and since we will be here for another three and a half weeks, we will probably have more pictures and video of Tam interacting with all manner of creatures.
Hopefully not any attacks.
You know she has a predilection for being attacked by various weird creatures (she is currently trying to recover from an attack by several million chiggers, and keeps trying to scratch her skin off everywhere (I may need to duct tape some oven mitts and a clear plastic cone on her)).
In the meantime, I put a video together of some recent fun we had with the locals. I really had to laugh at the baby sea lions running right over the piles of adults trying to sleep. They all made grumpy noises, but not a single one actually moved.
Hope you enjoy!
Wind, Water, Waves, Wander 