Galapagos Islands. Arriving in Santa Cruz.
Feb 2010. Galapagos Islands, Pacific Ocean.
The Galapagos archipelago is a group of volcanic islands on the equator 600 miles west of Equador.
It’s an amazing place and within minutes of arriving on each island we were welcomed by the natives!!
Annie and marine iguana.
The enchanting islands are famed for their unique wildlife.
Charlie and Sheila…….hello girls!
So remote and untouched are the Galapagos Islands, that the course of evolution has led to many endemic and indigenous species not seen anywhere else in the world.
Galapagos penguins.
The Galapagos are a province of Ecuador.
The government has very strict rules in place to help preserve this very special sanctuary.
Even the cockroaches live happily on the pontoon legs!
Dinghies are not allowed in the bay so all trips to shore are done by water taxi.
Going ashore with Jeremy from Chizol and Pete from Bali Blue.
Tony Diment, Blue Water Rally organiser helping the fleet to anchor as we arrive from the first Pacific ocean leg.
There are even anchoring rues here to preserve the bay of SantaCruz.
The volcanic islands were found by accident in the 16th century by the Bishop of Peru whose ship went off course!
For 300 years Galapagos was used by as a base for pirates sealers and whalers.The native giant tortoises can survive many months without food or water.
Tortoises are so slow to move and unafraid of preditors that they would be easy prey for the hungry sailors of long ago.
Thousands of tortoises were captured, carried to ships and kept alive upside down in the hold before being eaten as fresh meat the alternative diet for sailors so long ago would probably have been, rotten vegetables, stinking pork, rum and beer as even fresh water was difficult to keep.
A sleepy tortoise.
Naughty children from Miss Tippy don’t even bother the tortoises.
Please join us on our adventures around Galapagos and meet some of our friends we shared the sailing and fun with in the next few blogs.
Bye for now, from the Tippy crew, Brian, Sheila, Charlie, Freddie and Annie.
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