After a couple of long travel days (4 flights, 2 bus rides, and a zodiac ride), I was happy to finally board my ship, the National Geographic Endeavor and unpack my bags. Much of the afternoon was spent settling in. We had a safety briefing and an emergency drill, and I was happy to learn that unlike the Titanic, the ship has enough space in their rescue boats for twice the amount of passengers.
After lunch, we visited Las Bachas, a white sand beach on Santa Cruz island. One of the naturalists told me that this visit wasn’t so much an interesting spot, as an opportunity to practice getting on and off the ship via zodiacs which take us to shore. The name Las Bachas comes from barges that the US military drove onto the beaches during World War 2, when they built an air force base on the neighboring island of Baltra (it is now the airport!) Remnants of the barges can still be found on the beach.
After lunch, we visited Las Bachas, a white sand beach on Santa Cruz island. One of the naturalists told me that this visit wasn’t so much an interesting spot, as an opportunity to practice getting on and off the ship via zodiacs which take us to shore. The name Las Bachas comes from barges that the US military drove onto the beaches during World War 2, when they built an air force base on the neighboring island of Baltra (it is now the airport!) Remnants of the barges can still be found on the beach.
Besides the white sand, black lava rock and turquoise water, as soon as you step onto a beach in the Galápagos, you are surrounded by wildlife. Animals in the Galápagos are ecologically naïve (meaning they have no fear of predators). The animals that lived here all arrived by sea or sky or by a raft that brought them for land. Because of this, carniverous predators never made it to the islands, so the animals here live without fear of being eaten by a bear or a tiger and are entirely undisturbed by visitors to their islands and will let you get extremely close. I had read about this and expected it, but it is unbelievable when you actually experience this. Last night we were on a beach surrounded by pelicans, blue footed boobies, gulls, warblers and frigates. All of the animals go about their business, guarding eggs, diving for fish, eating algae off the rocks or stealing their dinner from another bird, without taking any notice of you. It takes a minute to get used to the sensation of a frigate birds with 6-7 foot wingspans, flying directly over your head and landing just a few feet away or the sight of a blue footed booby floating above the water and then diving into the water at a speed of 60 miles per hour to catch his dinner. |