Bartholome Island
“Awesome” is the word of the day. For some reason not totally understood, the penguins of Bartholome Island have been gathering in larger-than-normal numbers in the last few weeks. Today was spectacular. No sooner had the Zodiacs closed in on the beach, than a “flotilla” of penguins appeared right off the lava coastline at the entrance. One group was more than 20! It was a very rare sighting indeed. As soon as we hit the beach, in record time almost everyone had donned his or her snorkeling gear and we were off. I had the digital camera in it’s underwater housing. Our Video Chronicler Tove Petterson had the video camera in it’s underwater housing, and meanwhile everyone else had their own cameras out at the ready as we flippered vigorously towards the action. It wasn’t long before we saw the reason for the gathering. Underneath us were compact schools of small, black-striped salemas. There were several of these, tightly-grouped (and I don’t blame them), hanging about in the area, and so I decided to hang out, knowing that at some point one of these Galapagos penguins would come shooting through, and so they did. It was AWESOME! Several times the same penguin (I could recognize the same individual by some unusual markings on it’s back) was so close to me that the photos came out blurred, never mind that all what filled the frame was belly, foot and wing!
Our Video Chronicler got some absolutely amazing footage of penguins among the snorkelers, and when I say among the snorkelers, there is one sequence when we could see the penguins push off someone’s back, better to get on with the job of chasing salemas! They were all over us. Pecking the lens of the camera! This evening Tove showed us two minutes of her edited footage. With some intense musical accompaniment appropriate to the experience, one showing turned out not to be enough, so we showed it yet another time. It will be included in the final production, of course. Without a doubt this footage will be cherished for years to come, and show many others that the unbelievable is reality in Galapagos.
“Awesome” is the word of the day. For some reason not totally understood, the penguins of Bartholome Island have been gathering in larger-than-normal numbers in the last few weeks. Today was spectacular. No sooner had the Zodiacs closed in on the beach, than a “flotilla” of penguins appeared right off the lava coastline at the entrance. One group was more than 20! It was a very rare sighting indeed. As soon as we hit the beach, in record time almost everyone had donned his or her snorkeling gear and we were off. I had the digital camera in it’s underwater housing. Our Video Chronicler Tove Petterson had the video camera in it’s underwater housing, and meanwhile everyone else had their own cameras out at the ready as we flippered vigorously towards the action. It wasn’t long before we saw the reason for the gathering. Underneath us were compact schools of small, black-striped salemas. There were several of these, tightly-grouped (and I don’t blame them), hanging about in the area, and so I decided to hang out, knowing that at some point one of these Galapagos penguins would come shooting through, and so they did. It was AWESOME! Several times the same penguin (I could recognize the same individual by some unusual markings on it’s back) was so close to me that the photos came out blurred, never mind that all what filled the frame was belly, foot and wing!
Our Video Chronicler got some absolutely amazing footage of penguins among the snorkelers, and when I say among the snorkelers, there is one sequence when we could see the penguins push off someone’s back, better to get on with the job of chasing salemas! They were all over us. Pecking the lens of the camera! This evening Tove showed us two minutes of her edited footage. With some intense musical accompaniment appropriate to the experience, one showing turned out not to be enough, so we showed it yet another time. It will be included in the final production, of course. Without a doubt this footage will be cherished for years to come, and show many others that the unbelievable is reality in Galapagos.
