Galapagos Landscapes

 There are 15 large islands in the Galapagos, but on any cruise through the area you will also see many of the 100+ rocks and islets which are smaller than a single square kilometer but make for very striking landscapes. This is a fine example of a rocky islet that most people pass by and has been largely untouched by man.

 Even the larger islands have a feeling of desolate weirdness which takes awhile to get used to. We landed on the island of Santa Cruz at a place called Dragons Hill which has lush vegetation around the base and then very parched and dried out trees reaching up part of the hill. Ecuador is trying very hard to prevent any further plant and animal introduction on the islands so the plant and animal life there is largely unlike anything we'd seen anywhere else.

Kicker Rock is particularly striking from this angle. For scale, the small white dot at the lower left tip of the island is a boat for about 20 people, so the cliffs are sheer and the spires are looming. This particular formation is very different from the back, with the spanish name being 'Leon Dormido' or 'sleeping lion' as the back looks like a giant cat with its head on its paws.

Ecuador and the Galapagos

 We recently took a trip down to Ecuador, a spanish-speaking and largely catholic country in equatorial south america. We landed in the city of Quito, the political but not economic capital of the country, located in the centre of the country. We spent slightly over a week in the galapagos and then 5 days in the amazon rainforest in the eastern end of the country.

 While they are 972km from the coast of Ecuador, the Galapagos Islands are still part of the country and consist of dozens of islands and smaller rocks created by a volcanic hotspot. Though they look small on most maps, there were too many to visit in a single trip, so our cruise held predominantly to the east end of the archipelago, following a path similar to the one below.

The people of Ecuador were incredibly helpful and friendly throughout and we both encourage anyone considering a visit down there to prioritize it on their list. From mountain cities to volcanic islands to rainforest we saw a lot of variation, and Ecuador actually boasts the highest level of biodiversity per square kilometer of the country. The environment is a priority to the people as well and is legally protected by their constituion, though I'm sure that the reality on the ground is often different as they are also one of the largest oil exporters in south america.

Marine Mammal Roundup

This summer marked my third year of volunteering with Marine Mammal Rescue.  The season is going super long with 157 seals coming in over the summer.  It's incredibly rewarding especially seeing small newborn pups grow up to me big huge fat seals.  I was lucky too as I got to go on 2 releases, one with the marine police!  I'll do a release post later.  The success rate this year was around 80% which is excellent. There are still 40-something animals on site.  One of the highlights this year was Flash Gorden: a California Sea Lion who had swallowed some salmon tackle and it was embedded in his esophagus.  Fortunately this stately fellow survived his 50% chance and was released on the island several weeks back.

Another interesting story is that of Jack. Jack is a male harbour porpoise who was beaching himself (basically trying to die).  He was only 6 weeks old when he was brought in.  He had somehow lost his mom and pod.  He had lost muscle tone and had to be in a sling as he could not support himself.  He is 12 weeks old now and doing really well.  Here he is with me at 10 weeks old.  We play with him to exercise his muscles.  I am in a dry suit and really bouyant.  He pushed me over then swam over top of me and pushed me around a bit by my arm. 

And below is a Yarrow who is known for supervising the whole site.  He is big enough now to peek over his tub and takes an active interest in watching all the stuff going on.  He will be going into the pre-release pool soon and then home! 

Quebec and Ottawa Highlight Reel

We still have a few topics and travels to cover from our summer in Quebec and Ottawa, but since the highlight reel is close enough to done, I figured we'd get it out and online sooner than later. Since this trip was more work and visiting than extreme animals it has a different feel than our Africa footage but I'm still pleased with it and feel that it captures the vibe of our time out east nicely.

Many of the events in the footage already have their own posts so if you want more details on anything you see there it is likely already available. Thanks once again to Yves, Anne, Jason, Natasha, Eugene, Carrie, Ben, Paul, Alex and Susan for helping to make such a fun and memorable trip. Hope to see you all out west before too long.

I sometimes find Vimeo is picky about playing embedded like this, so if it won't play for you, just right click on it and choose 'Watch on Vimeo' and it will work... I normally prefer Youtube for these things, but the music was disabled because I would apparently have cost Robert Plant thousands of dollars :P