A Guest Blog from the Galápagos
On my recent trip to the Galápagos Islands with my family, we were joined by our friends, Jayne Hinds Bidaut and her eight-year old son, Max. Here, Max shares some of his own photos, videos and thoughts from our amazing journey.
The trip was amazing. We went to over nine-Islands and made many naturalists hikes seeing endemic species of animals and plants. We also explored the very special volcanic landscapes we were walking through. We snorkeled in unique areas with beautiful fish, sea stars, rays, sea turtles, sea lions, sharks, penguins and more. We kayaked, had many panga boat rides and visited The Charles Darwin Research Center. We slept on the boat and traveled to the different islands during the night.
The Galapagos Islands are a group of volcanic islands 600 miles off the coast of Ecuador in South America. They lie along the equator and the oldest island is a little over four-million years old. They are the Islands made famous by Charles Darwin’s visit in 1835 during his five-year voyage on the ship the HMS Beagle. There he collected animals and plants, and his observations of the endemic animals and plants, as well as the land, helped lead him to his theories on evolution and the origin of species.
Have fun looking and please ask questions in the comments section!
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On Sombrero Chino Island (Chinese Hat), we got to crawl through a Lava Tunnel. We loved it. It is a playground made by nature. As molten lava flows, an outer layer of the flow hardens, which insulates the still moving melted rock inside. This helps to keep the lava hot and moving along until all the lava has passed through and just a tube is left.
Our guide had an accent and I thought she said “Lava Tooth Tunnel”, but she said “Tube” - oops.
I swam with a Green Sea Turtle for over 15-minutes while he fed on algae! I would have stayed longer, but it was time to leave the island. We are in shallow water with waves rocking us, so I am trying hard not to touch him. He knows I am there as Sea Turtles have better hearing than dogs do and extremely good eye sight!
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