Taking Photos of the Galapagos Islands
If I had to come up with a single word to describe the Galapagos Islands it would be difficult if not impossible to do. ‘Amazing’ is an overused word… as is ‘fantastic’, and ‘wonderful’ just doesn’t do the islands justice. Magical… enchanting…delightful… Hmmm – how do I find words? Tortoises nearly as big as a small car, marine iguanas slithering over algae-covered volcanic rocks, sea lions frolicking in the waves or sitting next to you on a city bench. 
Turtles hanging out offshore waiting to lay their eggs, blue-footed boobies doing their incredible two-step mating dance or protecting their young. Albatross, hawks, Nazca boobies, lava lizards, and the mysterious Galapagos penguin. How can words describe it all?
The Galapagos Islands were first discovered back in the 1500’s and have had a fascinating history. Whalers and pirates used them as their base of operations in the 17- and 1800’s. Colonization began in the mid-1800’s. With all those people introducing non-native species and eating the native ones, it’s a wonder anything is left for us. But left it is! The animals here allow you to simply walk up to them and get up close and personal. So much so that when Darwin arrived he commented that he could have killed a little bird by throwing his hat at it. In the water though, is where most of the magic takes place.
On our second day we take a boat out to kicker rock, where a small channel of water between volcanic rock proves a great place to swim with the sharks. (dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun…) Galapagos sharks, beautiful white tipped sharks, baby sharks at your feet, and the awesome and bizarre hammer head sharks. Terrifying. The dive instructor 
places two fists on either side of his head when we’re at the bottom of the ocean to signal hammer heads are approaching. Groups of maybe 5 or more appear, circling above our heads.
Back on land its a lot less stressful. We encounter many Marine Iguanas (only found in the Galapagos) Surprise to me to see that these lizards can dive 10m under the water. Come in a variety of colours, then shed their skin. Here’s what Darwin had to say when he saw them in 1800’s; “The black Lava rocks on the beach are frequented by large (2-3 ft), disgusting clumsy Lizards. They are as black as the porous rocks over which they crawl & seek their prey from the Sea. I call them ‘imps of darkness’. They assuredly well become the land they inhabit.”
Nearby we pay a visit to some of the giant Galapagos Turtles. To come up close and personal with these creatures is what I imagine prehistoric life to be like. With life spans up to 170 years, weighing about 400kg, moving incredibly slow (0.3 kilometers per hour), and having sex for about 4 hours at a time (grunting and groaning, the male biting the females neck for pleasure), these guys are very entertaining to watch up close. Then there’s the famous Lonesome George, the last of his kind of . He has been labeled the rarest creature in the world, and upon his death, he will thus make his species completely extinct. We spent a long time photographing what we thought was George one day only to realize we had wasted all our time of a completely different tortoise. The real George was cooped up in his small pen, only his ass visible, looking all sorry for himself.
When there’s nothing to see in the water or land anymore you can look up to the sky. To be honest, I was never keen on bird watching; Its an old folks thing I’ll leave for the retired Americans and Germans with their fancy binoculars I thought. But in the Galapagos, its hard to not want a glimpse of these creatures. I didn’t get a chance to see the biggest of them all, the albatross, but with blue footed boobies, penguins and frigate birds, with their giant inflated red sacks under their beaks (means the want to have sex) theres enough to keep me occupied.
On my final day, I head to Los Loberia, a little bay close to the airport on San Cristobel island. Whilst snorkeling, not far from the surface of its crystal clear waters, I encounter two giant manta rays gliding slowly towards me, with thousands of brightly coloured fish clearing their path. Directly beneath me is a giant turtle within arms reach (at one stage I accidently kick him). All around is fish; colourful ones, big ones, tiny ones, camouflaged ones, ugly ones, starfish, eels, sea creatures and even sea cucumbers. As I try to take in all this incredible beauty and smiling happily to myself, I wonder how its possible that life could get much better. That’s when a lone sea lion gets involved, dancing and twirling around me. Briefly, for a moment, we lock eyes with each other. I pretend to act like a sea lion and begin to mimic her moves. (your first thoughts are touch it touch it i must touch it) This sea lion clearly just wants to play, but I’m simply not fast enough to keep up with her as she darts here and there. If it wasn’t for my concern of getting sunburn after almost an hour in the water, I would have never got on a plane back to Quito. Quite simply, the most fantastic place on earth and a photographers dream.
