.....what? Seriously? No, I'm not writing that. No. You can't make me. I am the guest blogger, and thus have complete editorial control of..... OW! stop it! That hurts. I'm not....ow...... fine. Fine.
Ahem.
Greetings loyal followers of the great and powerful Aidan. I am Brian and I am your guest blogger, even though I am greatly inferior and you all deserve better. (Just between you and me, I think I'm awesome.)
Today was busy. Again. I am going to need a vacation to recover from this vacation, both mentally and physically. Our guide for the day was Andre, a Belgian gentleman who was also our guide on day one. Andre really, really, REALLY likes to talk about the Galapagos. My brain became full of new knowledge and I had to threaten to start to teach Andre about The Cloud if he did not take a break. That shut him down pretty good.
We started with a long hike through an arid national park where we learned about every kind of bird that exists, ever existed, or likely will exist in the area. It was actually very interesting. I can see why Darwin laid the groundwork for his later theories here in the Galapagos. The environment is unique and it's easier to understand and visualize the evolutionary process particularly "Arrival" and "Establishment" (look it up, I'm not writing all that.)
The hike ended at a long crescent shaped beach where we encountered nests of sea turtle eggs and eventually a cove containing many baby sharks, marine iguanas, hunting pelican, and a variety of fish. Also a few humans that don't bear describing.
We then ate a nice lunch in the "big" town, after which we drove to the top of a mountain and mountain biked down to the beach below, about 1,000 vertical feet below. Riding down the mountain is much nicer then laboring up it, which I did a few days ago in 1,000% humidity.
All in all a very satisfying and wildlife full day.
A typical Galapagooglian traffic jam. Is that how you say that? Galapagooglian? Let's just say that it is, because that sounds awesome.
The tracks of a sea turtle ending at a fresh nest of eggs. Very cool to come across this, because those eggs are DELICIOUS. Just kidding, They're actually kind of bitter.*
* Note: No endangered sea turtle eggs were harmed in the making of this blog.
Baby shark at Tortuga ("turtle" in Spanish) Beach. Even at only about 1.5 feet long, these little suckers are still scary when they swim right toward you. The water became noticeably warmer when this little guy approached me....
Marine Iguanas lounge on the Galapagooglian Riviera. These guys look like they have had a hard day at the factory.
Godzilla 2014 - Coming Soon to a theatre near you.
A marine Iguana exits the water in disgust after observing my terrified interaction with the shark.
A pelican diving for it's lunch. They circle above and then plunge in dramatically to capture their prey. It's awesome to watch. Maybe not so awesome for the fish. It's actually probably pretty terrifying from that perspective.
This bird is called a lava gull, so named for it's coloring, resembling volcanic rock. This little guy is one of only 900 in the world - but don't worry, this is not because they are endangered. This is simply the approximate quantity of this unique bird that the ecosystem supports. Nice meeting you dude.
Busy urban intersection for Marine Iguana traffic
Giant Tortoise moving at mach 3...
... which was still much faster than Aidan was moving after a long day.
Spanish contest standings:
Mom- 4
Dad- 25
A green sea turtle, the only sea turtle that nests in the Galapalos Islands! Great picture illustrating the parallel flipper marks of her crawl and the thin tail drag mark punctuated by tail-point marks in the center of her track. Muchas gracias.
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