Galapagos Part 1 (Days 1 - 4)

We've just returned from an amazing week in the Galapagos Islands off the coast of Ecuador. We spent 8 days on board the motor yacht Samba, traveling to the central, southern, and western islands. We traveled with 12 other passengers, who we greatly enjoyed getting to know during the week, five friendly crew members, and our guide Mauricio Garcia, who has 22 years of experience in the Galapagos. Since we saw so much, we're going to divide this blog into the days that we traveled. Warning - many pictures ahead!

Day 1 (November 22nd)
We flew out early in the morning to Baltra where we were met by our guide. We were transported out to the harbor where we saw our first wildlife - sea lions, cruising frigate birds, and boobies diving for fish. Once on board the ship, we enjoyed what was to be the first of many excellent (and filling!) meals by our master chef Freddy. In the afternoon, we cruised to South Plaza island, which is fairly small but filled with wildlife, where we were greeted by sea lions and marine iguanas (that´s our boat in the background). Here, the prickly pear cacti have evolved to look more like trees to keep their pads out of the reach of the hungry (and colorful) land iguanas. During the dry season, the ground cover (sesuvium) turns this beautiful bright red. The cliff on one side of the island is home to many seabirds, such as the swallow-tailed gulls (red-rimmed eyes). Also, this is the home of the bachelor male sea lions who don't have a harem of their own. This is the time of the year when sea lions give birth, and as you can see we were very excited to see our first baby sea lion.... he seems interested in us as well!



Day 2
We visited Santa Cruz island, home to Port Ayora and the Charles Darwin Research Station. We spent the morning visiting the latter, observing the breeding program for the giant tortoises where they range from cute little babies to massive adult males (they can weigh 250 kilos!). The giant tortoises were strange-looking creatures, whose heads reminded Karen of ET and Ben of a sock puppet. The shells of these tortoises vary by race depending on how they eat, and the islands were named after the saddle-backed variety (galapago means "saddle" in Spanish). The red-necked little gal is a female lava lizard.




In the afternoon, we traveled up to the highlands to eat lunch with some inquisitive finches and a resident barn owl before spending quality time with the giant tortoises in the wild (they really love their mud!).




Day 3
We spent the morning on a beach in Gardner Bay hanging out with the multitude of sea lions. They really know how to make sand look comfortable. We were a source of amusment for the baby sea lions, who spent a fun-filled 5 minutes chasing our shadows (we wish we could post the video!!).



In the afternoon, we went for our first snorkel and were amazed at the variety of life under the water, as well as on the land. We snorkeled once or twice every day after that, and we've scanned in some photos from our "top-of-the-line" underwater cameras and we will put them together at the end (of part 2). After snorkeling, we visited Española Island, and saw amazing bird life, including the Galapagos hawk, nesting Nasca boobies, blue-footed boobies, and the highlight of the day - waved albatrosses (up to a 10 ft wingspan!) performing their courtship dance. The one that looks like Big Bird on a bad day is a juvenile albatross. This is the only place in the world where these birds touch land - they can stay at sea for 2-5 years. Also, the marine iguanas on this island were out enjoying the sun, and the males had started to show their mating colors.




Day 4
We came ashore to the greenish beach of Floreana Island (the green is caused by the presence of olvine crystals) before heading inland to a lagoon filled with flamingos and other wading birds. We walked over to a white coral beach where turtles lay their eggs and stingrays "nest" in the shallows (they feel very wierd gliding over your feet). Other inhabitants of the beach were red Sally Lightfoot crabs, which we saw on practically every shoreline we visited. In the afternoon, we visited the barrel at Post Office bay, which visitors to the island have been using to send mail for many years (since the buccaneers).



The "high-speed" internet here in Quito doesn´t really live up to its name, so after 3 hours of uploading photos, we´re taking a break. Stay tuned for Part 2 with the remaining 4 days!