Tag Archives: Wildlife

Galapagos 4 (Wednesday): Rays your game before a Dolphin Shower

4th April 2018

So, here we are at the half way point of an intensely enjoyable week. What could Wednesday bring, we wondered? “A mixed bag” was the answer.

The morning was spent on Floreana Island, at Punta Cormorant, which seemed a bit of a misnomer, as not a single cormorant was on offer. There were flamingoes;

even including a juvenile (marked out by the lack of pink colouration);

Noddy terns;

a flycatcher;

some beautifully colourful crabs;

inevitably, some Frigate birds;

and, excitingly, Eagle Rays swimming near the beach.

But not a single cormorant was on show – although there were some blue-footed boobies doing their fishing thang, which is not dissimilar to the cormorant’s diving style.

We were lucky to see the flamingoes – Jane and I visited the same place later on in the morning for a beach visit (which included an abortive attempt at snorkelling on my part which basically has put me off the idea for the rest of my life), and by that stage almost all of the flamingoes we’d seen earlier had vanished.

Later on that day we took a ride in one of the pangas (Zodiacs, RIBs, whatever you like to call them), which enabled us to see that the marine iguanas on this island were bigger than those of Española (though much less colourful).

The bird you can see walking among them is an American Oyster Catcher.

On the panga ride we saw rays and sharks in the water, and also some turtles, which occasionally came up for air (although apparently they can stay submerged for up to four hours, slowing their heart beat to around one beat per minute, down from the usual frenetic pulse of seven or eight).

The most dramatic photo opportunity came as we headed back to the ship, as it became clear that there was a pod of dolphins in the area, and they wanted to play.

and, indeed, were in very exuberant mood!

In the final part of the day, we visited another part of the island, called Post Office Bay, for the good reason that there is a post office there – of sorts. To be precise, it’s exactly the same sort of post office that can be found in Patagonia, at Wulaia Bay; a barrel where you put your postcard after you’ve taken a look at the cards already there to see if any are addressed to someone living near you, or in an area you plan to visit. So, a reliable delivery mechanism it ain’t; an opportunity for serendipity it certainly is.

Here is Natasha, one of our guides, explaining the idea in front of the barrel

after which everyone had a go at finding a card to deliver (ours will be to Chalfont St. Giles).

This was a busy, eventful day with many memorable moments. But the time with the pod of playful dolphins is one which everybody on the Origin saw, some got great underwater footage of and which was a highlight for everyone who was there that day.

To see the highlights of the next day (Day 5), click here.

Galapagos 3 (Tuesday): Nazca raising and shark fishing

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3rd April 2018

Boobies seem to form the majority of the land-based wildlife action of the first two days on this cruise. Today, the activity was based around the Galapagos island of Española, at the south-eastern corner of the archipelago. The morning excursion was basically a hike around the island to see what was on offer. Apart from the ubiquitous sealions

it became clear that there was going to be some serious marine iguana action, as there were plenty on the beach and surrounding rocks.

and after a while, it became equally clear that actually one had to watch one’s step, as, even though keeping carefully to a prescribed path, there was a serious danger of stepping on one. But it was great to see so many of them, in all of their various colours.

As well as the iguanas (marine iguanas exist only in the Galapagos, but there are 13 different varieties here), we also saw Sally Lightfoot crabs

and much bird life, including the Galapagos Dove

the Hood Mockingbird (largest of the various species of Mockingbirds found in the Galapagos)

the brown Pelican (the only sort found in the Galapagos)

a Yellow Warbler (called, very charmingly by our guide Natasha, a “Yellow Wobbler”)

and one (who knows which) of the thirteen species of Darwin’s Finch, the key to identification being the size and shape of the bill.

All this was within a few metres of the start of a 2-mile hike in increasingly hot conditions. But it got more and more interesting as we walked around.

We saw a site where many, many iguanas were setting up and guarding their burrows. This involved a certain amount of aggro as one female iguana tried to make sure that no other females came near her burrow.

A post shared by Steve Walker (@spwalker2016) on Apr 9, 2018 at 6:26pm PDT

And the other side of the track, there was a cliff down which iguanas could be seen climbing, and entering the sea to feed.

We also caught a glimpse of the other kind of sealion to be found in the Galapagos, the furred sealion.

But actually our attention was mainly taken up with a colony of Nazca Boobies, the largest of the three sorts to be found here.

There were lots and lots of them, from newly-hatched youngsters

many of which were demanding to be fed

through “adolescent” birds

to adults, many of whom were raising chicks.

And of course the whole area was shared with the island’s other wildlife.

Around this point, at the northern end of the island, some people swore they saw an albatross. If so, it would have been a very early arrival, as they arrive during April to mate and breed and this was April 3. Maybe they did, maybe they didn’t. I certainly didn’t.

A little further on we had a bit of geological entertainment in the form of a blow-hole, which was both dramatic and beatifully colourful

A post shared by Steve Walker (@spwalker2016) on Apr 9, 2018 at 6:14pm PDT

and we also spotted a Galapagos Hawk in the distance.

So it was a day of seeing some familiar and some new things. It was very hot by the time we finished, and so it was a blessed releief to get back to the ship and a nice cold drink. We were lazy the rest of the day (as I say, these blogs don’t write themselves) and with all of the photographic goodness from the morning to deal with, an afternoon of organising and writing and drinking beer beckoned, rather than the paddleboarding, snorkelling and beach (more bloody sealions!) offered. And so we had a relaxed afternoon, thinking we would save up energy for whatever the morrow had to offer. However, Mother Nature had one more surprise in store for us.

As yet another good dinner on the excellent M/V Origin drew towards a close, there was an excited announcement from the naturalist leader on the boat – sharks!

So we all congregated at the stern, where, in the ship’s lights, we could see shoals of fish swirling about. Two things made this unusual: firstly, the shoal was being hunted by maybe a dozen 2-metre long Galapagos sharks; and secondly, these were flying fish. There followed about half an hour of extraordinary scenes as sharks rushed in to attempt to take fish and the fish, in turn, took to the air to escape. It was an amazing scene, but very difficult to capture. Here’s the best attempt I made to capture the somewhat febrile atmosphere of the whole thing.

This was a remarkable, very unusual scene, and something we felt privileged to have seen. It’s been a lucky excursion – boobies with three eggs and indeed elsewhere with three chicks; leaping dolphins (you’ll have to read the next entry for that); fighting iguanas; juvenile flamingoes; we feel that we’ve got great value and insight out of our time here – and it’s not over, by any means.

Click here to see how day 4 went.

Tierra del Fuego – 1: Ventus Australis, Ainsworth Bay and the Tucker Islets

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16th – 17th March 2018

A three-hour coach journey from Puerto Natales brought us to Punta Arenas and the first slight hiccup in what had been an otherwise flawless logistical flow. Our itinerary instructions said that we would be put on the coach (Buses Fernandez) to Punta Arenas and met there to be taken to the port to board Ventus Australis, a brand-new (started service in January 2018) 200-passenger ship which would take us around Tierra del Fuego, Cape Horn, the Magellan Straits and other evocative destinations (though the Beagle Channel sounds a bit more like a TV service that hunt followers or Snoopy fans might tune into).

What became apparent as we approached Punta Arenas was that there were multiple stops in the city, starting at the airport and working inwards. When we got to the Buses Fernandez terminal and everyone looked to be getting off, we followed suit. But there was no friendly face above a card with our names on it, so we spent a few angst-ridden moments wondering if we should have stayed with the coach. Jane got on the phone (thank God for mobiles) to our tour organiser’s local contact, who also professed to be puzzled as to the absence of reception committee. To cut a long story short, some moments later a driver showed up, full of profuse apologies and muttered Spanish among which Jane thought she heard the words “pneumaticos”, so we charitably assumed that he’d had trouble wth a flat tyre. Anyway, the practical upshot was that we got to the port, checked in – and found that we had three hours to kill before they’d let us join the boat.

So it was that we headed off into the bustling metropolis of Punta Arenas, in search of coffee. Although it has a much larger population than Puerto Natales, there isn’t frankly, a lot to see in the town; but we did stumble across the buildings that were the “palaces” (very grand residences) of some of the pioneers of the vast sheep-processing business whose buildings now form part of the Singular hotel in Puerto Natales, including Sara Braun and Jose Norgueira. Fortunately their palace had found modern use as a hotel with a bar, so we had lunch there, in the Shackleton Bar, whilst (inter alia) watching a DVD of Shackleton’s ludicrous folly of exploring Antarctica and reckless gamble taken to rescue the men he nearly killed doing it. I had a local Pale Ale, which the barman charmingly called a “Pally Ally”.

Well, we had three hours to kill before they let us board Ventus Australia. What’s a chap to do. Time for the bar, eh @mikeeeboreham? This beer was charmingly pronounced “Pally Alley” by our waiter #Chile #Patagonia

A post shared by Steve Walker (@spwalker2016) on Mar 16, 2018 at 1:42pm PDT

There was WiFi available at the boarding terminal, and so the pre-boarding hall was awash with people taking their last sip of internet before four days off the grid. I was one of those people.

We were eventually allowed to board, and discovered that the Ventus is indeed a very fine ship, with great facilities, good food and obliging service. There was also hot water available at the coffee points. See, I knew it was going to be worth bringing those tea bags with us.

For those with cruising experience, the next hours would follow a familiar pattern – welcome drinks, introduction to the crew and tour officials, safety briefing (including how to cha-cha-cha into a Zodiac rib), then the trepidatious journey to dinner to find out whether you’re going to get on with whomever it is you’ll be eating with. We struck lucky, with a nice Australian couple d’un age not dissimilar to ours – Lynette and Ken.

The next day saw the first excursion, to Ainsworth Bay, where our guide, Rodrigo, led us along an easy ramble through bogs and forest, explaining at various points what we were seeing – plants, lichens, moss, trees. Oh, and glaciers. Our starting point offered us a great view of the Marinelli glacier:

You can see it either side of the central hill in the photo above. Rodrigo gave us, as evidence that this, like most glaciers in the world, is receding, the nugget that 100 years before the glacier reached to the point from where I took this photo. Evidence from original photos by Alberto de Agostini.

The ramble took us through a very photogenic environment.

And then we were offered hot chocolate and whisky before being whisked back to the ship

On the way back, in a lovely piece of serendipity, the Zodiacs were accompanied by a pod of playful dolphins, which spent a couple of hours frolicking around as the ribs went back and forth to pick up groups from the shore. What is it about dolphins that makes seeing them such an engaging experience?

The other expedition that day was to the Tucker Islets, where the advertised attractions were Magellanic penguins

and the common cormorant, or shag.

and, while it was nice enough to see them and learn a little about them, what was more interesting to me was some of the other action going on. For example, there was a turkey vulture glowering at proceedings, presumably hoping for a spot of lunch

and several skuas squabbling and fighting over whatever opportunities they found

These two expeditions, and a couple of G&Ts at the bar, closed off what was a very good day one, and left us with the mouth-watering prospect of an expedition to a glacier on day two. Stay tuned for the next thrilling (and probably chilling) instalment!