My Dream Trip

I think all the time of places I would like to go to.  Sometimes the places I'd like to go are on a beach.  Sometimes it's a historic place.  Sometimes its a place that's pretty.  Sometimes it is just a place that most people would never get to.  But of all the places I'd like to go, the Galapagos Islands are by far my #1.

I think I discovered the Galapagos Islands back in the 90's on a National Geographic show.  Charles Darwin discovered them long before I did.  Sailors of all sorts discovered them before him.  Now, I don't know anything about evolution and I really have no opinion about whether or not evolution is a reality or just a theory.  But what I do know is that the Galapagos are young islands.  And for that reason  I want to visit them.  What I think is really remarkable about the Galapagos Islands is that the animals there have seen so few humans that many of them still don't know that they should be concerned by us.  Let me tell you.....  I reviewed Facebook in the last 24 hours and they should be concerned, 'cause we're crazy!

Obviously, the Galapagos Tortoise comes from the Galapagos.  They were nearly made extinct by pirates, whalers and merchantmen who first visited the area.  They needed something to eat and so they took the giant tortoises still living, with them on their ships.  Then when they started running low on food they killed them and made soup and such.  There were originally 15 species on the islands now only 11 remain.  Their food supply is eaten by non-indigenous animals that were brought in by humans such as rats, pigs, goats, dogs and cats resulting in starvation of remaining tortoises.  They are the longest living vertebrates known averaging over 100 years.  The longest living on record was 152.  They can grow to be over 5 feet long and weigh up to 550 pounds.

Different islands in the chain have different species of tortoises which have evolved to their own island.  Some have long necks so that they can eat from the trees while others have shells that are shaped differently to protect them from the undergrowth in the area where they live.  The tortoises are one of the animals that helped Darwin to develop his theory.

In 1959 97.5% of the land area of the Galapagos was declared a national park by the Ecuadorian government protecting the land and the animals inhabiting it.  In 1986 27,000 square miles surrounding the islands were declared a marine reserve.  These measures have helped to stabilize the harm that humans were doing to the animals found there.  If you were to visit you would see many animals that you cannot see anywhere else in the world.

For instance the Galapagos Penguin is the only penguin that lives above the equator in the wild.  Everbody loves a penguin.  How could you not want to protect that?  The penguins stay primarily on one island, Fernandina and on the west coast of Isabela Island.  Although they are also found in small numbers on three or four other islands in the chain.  They stay with the Cromwell Currant during the day feeding on small schooling fish.  Then they roost on land at night.  The species is endangered with an estimated population of only 1,500.

One of my favorite animals of the Galapagos is the Blue Footed Booby.  Take a look at this guy!  I think he is much cuter than a penguin.  The thing that amazes me about these birds is that in almost every instance two eggs are laid by the female, but they are laid 5 days apart.  The first one is incubated immediately resulting in one of the chicks being born 4 days ahead of the other.  This serves several purposes.  First, it allows the first chick to get past the first several days of life when they have trouble accepting food so that the parent can concentrate on one "newborn" at a time.  Also, if a predator attacks, it reduces the chances that all the offspring are killed.

But the weird thing is that in a food shortage, the older chick will kill the younger chick taking away it's competition for food from the mother so that one of the chicks can survive.  (I have at least one brother who might have tried this if given the opportunity.)

Oh, here's one other interesting fact about the Blue Footed Booby.  Foot color matters.  Females are more likely to mate with a male who has brighter colored feet. The males do a little dance on the rocks like the one in the photo is doing to demonstrate to the females how brightly colored their feet are.  The brighter your feet, the hotter the "chick" you are likely to get.

You might wonder what's up with the National Geographic like blog today.  Well, I just wanted to talk about the Galapagos Islands because the one trip that I have wanted to go on for years is the Celebrity Galapagos cruise.  The ship is the Xpedition and it only carries 92 passengers along with 60 crew members.  Everything the ship does in the Galapagos is strongly regulated due to the fragility of the environment.  The price of the cruise starts out at $6,600 for an oceanview cabin.  There aren't any inside cabins.  You have to fly into Quito, Ecuador.  But the price of the cruise covers pretty much everything else once you arrive in Ecuador including transfers from the airport to the 5 star Marriott for two nights in the hotel pre-cruise and one night post cruise, an all day tour of Quito, air from Quito to Galapagos roundtrip, transfers to the ship, National Park entrance fees, all guided tours and shore excursions, all onboard meals, onboard house wine, champagne, liquor, beer and soda, and gratuities.  So, anyway, that's my dream trip and I thought I would share it with you.  If anyone wants to score points with their favorite travel agent you could go ahead and book this for me.  My birthday is coming up.

Have a great Tuesday and stay warm since I understand we are supposed to get another stupid cold front today.