The Galapagos Islands are Greater Than the Sum of
its Parts
by STAN SINBERG
Any second now, I'm going to stick a giant turtle up
Nadine's nose.
Nadine is counting the giant land turtles that our tour
group is finding on a turtle farm on Santa Cruz Island.
There are many, many great things to do on the Galapagos
Islands: climb up to active volcanoes, watch evolution
happen almost before your eyes, snorkle with sea lions,
or just partake of the stark beauty. Yes, the Galapagos
offers many great things to do. But counting turtles isn't
one of them.
"That's seventeen turtles so far," Nadine counts.
Heck - most people come because the place is a veritable
Jerry Springer Show for dysfunctional animals. There are
birds like the flightless cormorant that have actually
forgotten how to fly, because they traded in their once
formidable wings for a body that lets them dive better,
to grab fish; arctic birds like penguins which have decided
"some like it hot" and have forsaken the South
Pole for the Equator; birds with the improbable name "Blue-footed
booby" who divebomb headfirst into the sea by the
hundreds, looking like an aviary version of kamikaze pilots;
and marine iguanas - Jurassic Park looking creatures if
ever there was one - stacked in piles so thick to keep
warm, that they look like last year's hot Christmas toy
parked in some warehouse in New Jersey, accompanied by
a sign reading "Ten iguanas for a buck."
If you want to see how it all turns out, e-mail
Stan. |
