Mocking Birds Dancing and life on the Galapagos Archipelago

My travels have taken me not quite to the four corners of the world, but not far off. Recently we made a visit to Peru, with an extension trip to the Galapagos Archipelago.

These ten island just south of the Equator, being of volcanic origin are situated some hundreds of miles off the Ecuador coast, in the middle of the Pacific, and offer an experience of beauty, with animals not showing any fear of man, we become the watched, the outsiders in another world.

This is the place where Charles Darwin in the early 1800’s, sailing in his boat the Beagle, came upon his Theory of Evolution. It was on these islands that he saw fauna and wildlife not seen anywhere else on the earth, where life had adapted to the surroundings and environment.

With not much rain, built of volcanic rock, the landscape was like a moonscape, not having much green vegetation, it was a privilege to be within and part of this world. I had seen more colonies of seals off the coast of the UK or Peru, bigger flocks of flamingo’s – thousands in a lagoon south of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, to the handful in Galapagos, but never had I been so close to nature.

In the early morning heat, we walked on a pristine beach, which only hours earlier had been visited by turtles, pulling themselves up from the sea to lay their eggs in the sand. On the rocks or lava flows, the cold blooded Iguana looking like dragons, warmed themselves in the sun, ready to dive into the sea to eat sea-weed (Ulvae).

To walk with the giant tortoises protected in the Darwin Research Center, hearing how man by introducing other species to sustain their food supplies, had put at risk the sub species, and how the locals and authorities where trying with success to remove these unwanted “invaders”.

Bird life was rich, with birds nesting on the pathways marked out and strictly adhered to by all visitors to preserve the rich unique life on the Archipelago. The Blue Footed Booby was a must to see, seen nowhere else but here.

We walked on the beach with the seals, who had no fear of man, we respected that this was their world, we were being allowed to share with them these special islands, and it is not our place to change their world. The seals were as much interested in us as we were with them, and it was them that came to us to smell, look at and to feel us, the invaders.

We watched dancing Mocking Birds on the sand – click here to watch – performing some ritual, maybe of courtship or of territorial meaning.

It is at times like this, when one realises that we humans are also evolving, making changes, adapting to our world. Sometimes we enter into another world, country, way of life, civilisation or culture, and as history has proven, changed it to our ways with disastrous results, by putting our Cat on the Mat, religion, culture, beliefs into the mix.

Are we right to put our Cat on the Mat? 

Man can make a choice. With NLP, we do not make changes, although changes are made to people, but we give people choice. By giving people new strategies, being able to take control of their own states, people can make their own pathways, do things in new ways.

When I work with people, I try not to say this is right or this is wrong, I give them choice.

We are correct in allowing wildlife of the Galapagos Archipelago to be undisturbed as much as possible, to evolve as they wish without the destructive power of man.