birds of the Galapagos

I suppose I was more attracted by the birds of the Galapagos than the reptiles, much as I loved the iguanas.  & it was the albatrosses that made me travel there during August, when the sea was cold and choppy, because the entire world population of this species breeds during the northern hemisphere summer on Española Island.  This is the most southerly island of the archipelago, far from the main group, so it also led me to do a two week trip rather than the usual one week.

All well worth it, as not only were the albatrosses amazing, but the whole two weeks was amazing. The photo above, of these goose-sized birds, shows a movement from a 'dance' between a pair that can go on (apparently) for two hours.  They dance like this when courting, and work to perfect their moves, and then use it to reinforce their bond each year when they meet up again to breed.

Another favourite was the frigatebird, above displaying with his throat pouch all extended, but here to the right with the pouch shrivelled back up, paying the inevitable consequences of such an impressive display to the females:

I see these birds every day from my apartment in Panama, but only in flight, and never with any hint of the impressive red pouch.  They are truly prehistoric-looking birds in flight, although I'll resist the temptation to put in another photo of one as I want to show some of the other birds too.

Alongside the frigatebirds, sharing the same nesting ground, were the boobies.  Two species, Nazca boobies and red-footed boobies.  Sadly the blue-footed ones have decamped to an island where the tourists do not have permission to go, and although we still saw a few of them, we weren't able to wander amongst a breeding colony.  I was lucky to see one pair doing their 'foot-waving' dance, whilst everyone else on the boat was snorkeling in the cold water, but too far away to allow me to get a photo with my little makeshift camera.

With the other two species, however, we had our fill.  I particularly liked the red-footed because their feet were so amazing - webbed, yet prehensile, so they had no problem perching on small tree branches - or on one occasion, in the rigging of our boat.

One unexpected Galapagos bird (for me anyway) was the short-eared owl.  We saw several of them on different islands, but on Genovesa Island, at a colony of storm petrels that nest in tunnels in the lava, the owls have learnt to hang around waiting to catch a petrel unawares as it leaves its tunnel.  Apparently they are also known to hide in the entrance of the tunnels, waiting to grab a petrel as it flies in.  We didn't see them actually catch anything, but we did see them hanging around the nesting colony, well-camouflaged in rock crevices.  I prefer this picture of one on Isabela Island however as you can just about see the short 'ears' which are not that often visible.

There were also storm petrels, and hawks, and more common birds such as a few heron species, oystercatchers and flamingoes - all rather easier to approach and photograph than is the case elsewhere.  But I can't finish this without referring to the famous Darwin's finches.  We didn't manage to see all 14 (I think it is) species, nor did we see the sharp-beaked ground finch doing its vampire feeding - where it pecks at the base of feathers of boobies and feeds on the blood.  Although I did sit for a while on a rock on Española Island with a couple of Hood mockingbirds pecking very hard at my toes - trying to draw blood, I am sure!

Some of the species were difficult to tell apart, in particular as the medium and small ground finches are know to hybridise, but I believe this is a small ground finch.

reptiles of the Galapagos

The islands are named after a saddle (the Spanish word), based upon the shape of the shell of some of the tortoises, which have evolved to be able to stretch their necks up high, to get the juicy leaves from the cactus that has evolved long trunks to keep the leaves up high out of reach of normal tortoises ... I do not have any particular interest in tortoises but they are hard to avoid in the Galapagos Islands.

Now there are only some estimated 30,000, and this following plenty of work by conservationists to breed and reintroduce them to parts where they had died out.  It is estimated that when Darwin visited the islands there were 250,000 there.  But people came and hunted them, with ships filling their holds with them, stacked alive and upside down, as they would stay alive like that for up to a year, providing a store of fresh meat for the sailors.  Away from such a cruel end they are long-lived - one taken by Darwin in 1835 only died (in Queensland zoo) in 2003.  They are also quite fascinating - did you know that as youngsters it is not possible to determine their sex, but that when they mature, in males the undershell changes to a concave shape (to enable them to mount a female), the tail grows longer and the penis migrates from its internal position to the end of the tail?

But I much preferred the iguanas, both the land and the marine varieties.  The land ones mostly seem to have a kind of smile on their face (although this one looks quite grumpy) and are very pretty, in varying patterns of cream, yellow and black.

The marine iguanas were more ferocious looking, although mostly just laying around in big heaps trying to keep warm (this being the cold season in the Galapagos as the Humboldt current brings cold water up from the southern oceans).  They are black in colour, however those from Española (Hood) Island are much more colourful, particularly during the breeding season, and some appeared to have come into season early.  This made them more aggressive towards other males too, so quite entertaining to watch!

I was very keen to see a snake or two as well (I'm sure you've all seen the BBC footage of the snakes hunting the young iguana!), although not hopeful as they are not seen all that often.  But we were lucky and saw three snakes, one long black Fernandina snake and two stripey Galapagos racers.  The first snake we saw was out in the open, seemingly basking in the late afternoon sun.  We discussed whether or not it was actually alive, this being highly unusual behaviour, when a mockingbird came along to cause trouble.  It pecked at the tail end of the snake, lifting that end up, and the snake - clearly very much alive - reared up at it.  They are very mildly venomous, apparently, but kill their prey through constriction.  A battle ensued, with the bird continually pecking at the snake, seemingly trying to drag it even further into the open, whilst the snake tried to fend off the bird whilst moving towards cover.  We moved on once the snake had safely made it to the cover of a bush, although the mockingbird was still hanging around.  Wish I'd thought to video it, as my replacement camera did not take good enough photos, but these three blurry, washed out pictures give some idea of what the interaction looked like:

a camera curse

Somehow - I'm not sure exactly how, but I have been feeling a bit clumsy lately - my camera slipped out of my hands as I tried to take a photo through the gate at the top on an Inca tunnel in the Pumapango Archaeological Park in Cuenca, Ecuador.  Rather than landing at my feet, it caught a part of the gate and glanced off it sideways, into the tunnel.

Down it went, bouncing off the rocky floor, down and down. Down into the Inca underworld (this photo taken with my phone).

The guards found a key and opened the gate, climbed down, and retrieved my camera, but there was a dent in one side of the lens cladding, and the message on the screen "System error zoom" when I tried to do anything.

I spent the rest of that day traipsing round the streets of Cuenca searching for a camera shop, certain that I'd passed one the previous day.  I was going to the Galapagos and I had to have a camera!  There were plenty of stores developing photos and taking portraits, but the only cameras I could find on sale were little pocket starter ones, with something like a 5x zoom - no substitute at all for the 24x zoom Panasonic Lumix compact camera that was sitting broken in my hand.

Several stores, however, referred me to a camera repair shop called La Victoria.  I didn't have any hope that my camera could be repaired, but I found the shop and the man there was confident that something could be done and so he sent my camera off the next day to their repairman, whilst I continued to scour the outer suburbs of the city hoping to find a place selling Panasonic compact cameras, following leads from internet searches which didn't really help.

Finally the store confirmed that they could not repair my camera.without a two-week wait for spare parts - but that they had a Panasonic Lumix for sale.  It was a bridge camera, probably capable of taking better pictures than my compact, but bigger and bulkier and more complicated to use.  The kind of camera you would have to hand around your neck, rather than being able to put it in a handy little case attached to your belt, as I am used to.  & they wanted $520.  In cash.

I didn't have the cash, so whilst I was deliberating over spending that much money on a camera that was in a style I didn't like, I went to a bank to see if there was any way of getting cash with my credit card (in Panama we don't use a PIN but simply a signature); no, I couldn't.  I went back to La Victoria - what if I agreed to pay extra to cover the credit card commission?  The man telephoned his boss and they conferred for a while - and agreed that I could buy the camera with my credit card but for $600.  So, in some anguish about shelling out so much money for a camera I didn't want but would need for just my two weeks in the Galapagos, I handed over my credit card.  They refused to give me an official receipt (the one I'd need to reclaim the 12% VAT at the airport) - it seems they were on the fiddle which I suppose is why they only wanted cash initially.

Anyway, I bought the camera and transferred my 8GB memory card into it from the broken old camera.  Waiting at the bus station that night I was able to download all the photos off the memory card (including shrunken heads in the Cuenca Pumapungo museum!) and onto my laptop, and edit them as necessary to be uploaded to the internet next time I had a connection.

Next morning, waiting at the Quilimbe bus station in Quito for my onward bus, I got to use the new camera for the first time - a distant snow-capped peak (Cotopaxi) with a thin strip of cloud across it.  It certainly wasn't as easy to use as the old one (way more features!) but the picture looked nice.  I was going to have three days to get used to it in Mindo before heading to the Galapagos.  One thing I particularly disliked about it was its size and its sticking-out lens, which made it feel quite fragile, especially as it hadn't come with a camera bag.  So I packed it back carefully into the bubble-wrap the shop had given me and into my day-pack before boarding the bus.

As I got on, a gentleman who I assumed (from his dress and manner) to be a bus official asked for my destination and then told me where to sit, doing the same for the two people behind me.  I placed my day-pack carefully on the floor between my feet, one strap wrapped around one leg as I always do, but the bus man asked to put it up on the overhead rack for me.  I told him I'd rather keep it with me, but he referred to the regulations and said it had to go up top.  "Careful with it!" I said, as he took if from me, "It has a camera in it, it's fragile".  & he placed it, carefully enough I suppose, up on the shelf behind me.

I wasn't at all happy about this.  I am always so careful with my belongings when I travel, with my bag always not just in sight of me but attached to me somehow.  I saw he'd done the same to the woman (another tourist) who got on behind me, but in the ten minutes before the bus was due to depart she decided to use the bathroom, and so retrieved her bag when she got off.  I noticed that she kept it with her when she got back on and nobody invoked 'the regulations' at that point. More and more people got on the bus, some of whom had to stand in the aisle, and I was watching carefully to ensure that no-one was getting off with my bag.  I was really unhappy about it not being with me - or even within my sight - a real sense of unease that I can't explain.  Finally I couldn't stand the stress of it any more and pushed past people standing to go and retrieve the bag.

I cannot describe the sinking, dreadful feeling as I moved the bag - still in the same place, and with all the zips done up, but only weighing half of what it should.  My laptop had gone, my mobile phone had gone - and my brand new $600 camera had gone.  I accused the bus conductor of being in collusion with thieves for telling me to put my bag there, but it turns out that the man who told me to put the bag there was not a bus employee but an imposter.

The police were called and I agreed to file a report, so they collected me and drove me back into the heart of Quito, to the tourist police office, and filed my report.  Afterwards they took me back to a bus station, but via a photo development place where I bought one of those poor quality, low zoom starter cameras - I had to have something for the Galapagos.  & again, they would only take cash ($180) which left things pretty tight for the rest of my trip.

I went through several days of alternate tears and anger over this, cross with myself that I hadn't acted sooner on my instinct, and frustrated that despite the CCTV camera on the bus I didn't get the feeling there would be much effort made to catch the perpetrators.  It seems that the bus route I was on is notorious for thefts, though I don't know whether they always use the same trick they used with me; if I lived there I'd be more than happy to take the same route again and try to entrap them!  Fortunately with the combination of my new small camera and a new large memory card, and a very kind cabin-mate on the boat with a good Panasonic camera who was happy to lend it to me - and wildlife that tended to stay there and wait while we switched memory cards - I was largely able to get the photos I wanted from the Galapagos.  More frustrating was the short trip to Mindo that preceded the Galapagos, where I saw birds such as plate-billed mountain toucan, giant antpitta and bronze-winged parrot, but was unable to photograph them with the tiny replacement camera.

Then when I got back to work but with no laptop and no phone ...  & discovered how many of my regular websites had been 'open' on my old laptop with me no longer remembering the passwords; clicking "forgotten my password" so they can send a code to your registered phone number doesn't work either when your phone was stolen alongside your laptop.  You might notice from comments on the previous post that I struggled to get into here to post this!  There was a glimmer of hope financially when I discovered that the trip is probably covered by my employer's travel insurance (as I used my annual home flight allowance to buy the air ticket), but I cannot produce a receipt for the stolen camera, only a credit card slip which says I bought a 'product'. Attempts to contact the shop reveal I did not even buy it at the well-known La Victoria, but at a little unnamed place next-door which capitalises on such confusion.  I just have to keep reminding myself though how lucky I was they did not steal my passport (which was with the phone), and presumably did not find my purse with money and credit card inside.  That would have made things far more difficult.

For those wondering, by the way, the photo of the Inca tunnel had already been uploaded to the cloud from my hostel before my phone was stolen!