Galapagos and Southward

We took a trip to Galapagos, a trip that a recommend to everybody to try at least once in their life. There is more than enough written about the place that I don't have to, but there is something notable about actually experiencing an animal-rich environment where there were no major top predator land animals. As a consequence the animals are so tame you can walk up to them and grab them. Which you are not supposed to do. So you take photographs instead.

The area is highly protected and therefore you take a tour; it is next to impossible to receive permits to allow your private yacht access to the Galapagos. The selection of tour organizer is therefore important. You also really need to know what you want from a guide and be unafraid of hiring your own despite whatever your tour group might offer.

Several islands have airfields capable of handling a private jet, having been built to support the World War II effort. Some people are surprised to hear that the Galapagos is not deserted and in fact boasts a population of several tens of thousands of native inhabitants. Thus you can also fly in on a commercial jet from various Ecuadorian mainland cities. Either way you are greeted by signs that insist that you should not contribute to child prostitution, which I found odd.

The fascination of the Galapagos is that its remoteness and geologically young age created a distinctive laboratory for evolution. The unique flora and fauna there provide a compelling demonstration of the power of evolution to drive species into ecological niches. Unfortunately our ship was itself a demonstration of evolution in action as well; our fellow tourists adequately demonstrated how homo sapiens technological control over their evolutionary destiny has driven most of us into the niche of thoughtless, witless, pointless consumers. It was clear to me that the tour guides should have offered to guide for free but assessed a dollar for every stupid or repetitive question. Their gross receipts would have soared.

But the trip was worth it nonetheless.

From there we flew into Punta Arenas and managed to travel to Tierra del Fuego, hopping tiny underserviced airports such as Ushuaia Airport. As I have blogged before, the general area is breathtaking. We covered Torres del Paine National Park, Lake Pehoe, Nordenskhold, Laguna Amarga, and the amazing bonai forests of Quebrada de la Feria. We helicoptered to Cape Horn and viewed the angry waters of Drake's Sea and Shackleton's Endurance.

Jenny and I found peace and amazing inspiration on this trip, not to speak of the prodigious amount of learning from our guides. Galapagos provided the natural wonders and South America the physical ones. Definitely a trip to remember.

I almost forgot, this is also the first trip where I brought a real camera, a Nikon D80. Don't expect many photographs; the equipment is a real pain to carry around. But high quality digital photography is great when you are willing and able to carry the equipment to support it. Jenny has more mileage from her point and shoot digicam, but will admit that some of my Nikon shots were better.

I have since switched the Nikon for a Canon EOS 1D Mark III. The only thing I preferred about the Nikon was the extremely sophisticated flash system. Otherwise the Canon has been superior.