Ryan's Journal

"My life amounts to no more than one drop in a limitless ocean. Yet what is any ocean, but a multitude of drops?" — David Mitchell

Near Espanola Island, Galapagos, Ecuador

Posted at 7:45 pm, May 11th, 2003

I seem to have passed my flu on to the Goob, which is not a good thing — he missed out on a snorkel today that included reef sharks, sea turtles, tons of fish, and eventually even another sea lion who was so curious that she played with JB and I for a good twenty minutes before following us up onto some rocks and sniffing at our flippers. Dr. Trey is suffering from sea sickness, which is also unfortunate — he’s definitely not doing well. And even JB is thinking he might be getting ill, so I’m hoping I didn’t infect the entire boat.

Illnesses withstanding, the trip is amazing. We all got up for a snorkel before breakfast that included rays, a few small sharks and tons of fish. We then moved to a new spot and swam through tunnels of silver fish — JB and I were herding them like sheep dogs and then charging through the middle. All of this was before 9:00 AM. We did a brief landing on a beach with sea lions before doing more snorkeling on Isla Tortuga — this was the previously-mentioned snorkel with the reef sharks, turtles and sea lion — and then motored over to one of the largest bird colonies in the islands. Walking through this rookery was one of my favorite experiences from the last trip since the birds are fearless, with some of them even nesting on the trail. The blue footed boobies were doing their dances, the Nazca boobies were out in force, and even some of the albatrosses were doing their beak fencing — watching their mating dance is like a Marx Brothers comedy as they look in all directions, duck their heads, open their beaks wide, and then bang their beaks together quickly, making a hollow thwacking sound. Greg has put together a heck of a trip, and I think everyone is loving it thus far.

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