Today was the first day of my five-day cruise - my first live-aboard cruise ever! My boat is called the Darwin, and it has space for 16 passengers and the crew.
I was quite surprised to hear what some of the other passengers had paid for the cruise. They had pre-booked the cruise from home, and paid more than twice a much as I did. I guess there's a lot to be said for booking cruises last minute on the Galapagos.
This is Puerto Ayora, seen from the top deck:
On this first day, we made a trip to the highlands on Santa Cruz island. We saw many cut little yellow birds fluttering around:
But the main attraction, without doubt, were giant tortoises.
They live in the highlands during the year and migrate to the coast only to lay their eggs. As long as food is available, they eat. Incessantly. Our guide described them as very greedy. But then again - in bad times, they can go without food or water for about a year, so I guess their greediness has a purpose ;-)
They are quite shy and retreat when people come too close. Since they don't hear very well, however, you can sneak up from behind and jump and shout all you want without the tortoise noticing. They also don't seem to mind birds running around on their shells:
Next, we visited a lava tunnel. It's quite fascinating how these came to be. When a lava flow starts cooling down, the outside hardens first, while the inside continues to move. When the eruption stops, there is no new material being added to the inside flow, resulting in an empty tunnel.
Before we went back to the boat in the evening, we had a chance to look around the pier and discover the colorful crabs living on the lava rocks.
Apparently, they are called Zayapas in Spanish - a word that seems to be too much for my dictionary ;-)
I was quite surprised to hear what some of the other passengers had paid for the cruise. They had pre-booked the cruise from home, and paid more than twice a much as I did. I guess there's a lot to be said for booking cruises last minute on the Galapagos.
This is Puerto Ayora, seen from the top deck:
On this first day, we made a trip to the highlands on Santa Cruz island. We saw many cut little yellow birds fluttering around:
But the main attraction, without doubt, were giant tortoises.
They live in the highlands during the year and migrate to the coast only to lay their eggs. As long as food is available, they eat. Incessantly. Our guide described them as very greedy. But then again - in bad times, they can go without food or water for about a year, so I guess their greediness has a purpose ;-)
They are quite shy and retreat when people come too close. Since they don't hear very well, however, you can sneak up from behind and jump and shout all you want without the tortoise noticing. They also don't seem to mind birds running around on their shells:
Next, we visited a lava tunnel. It's quite fascinating how these came to be. When a lava flow starts cooling down, the outside hardens first, while the inside continues to move. When the eruption stops, there is no new material being added to the inside flow, resulting in an empty tunnel.
Before we went back to the boat in the evening, we had a chance to look around the pier and discover the colorful crabs living on the lava rocks.
Apparently, they are called Zayapas in Spanish - a word that seems to be too much for my dictionary ;-)
