Galapagos Islands

Jan 12-19, 2024

Following five days in Ecuador, it was with a sigh of relief that we left the country's conflict 1000 km behind. It felt like we were in another world where abundant wildlife played side by side and were in harmony with humans, rather than seeing us as a threat. The undersea life was phenomenal. We were weightless and timeless while swimming with brilliant colored fish, sea turtles, penguins and sea lions.

The Galapagos Islands are 97% national park. With over 300,000 visitors annually, there are strict restrictions put in place. At all times we had to keep at least 6' distance from all animals. Every day we did three excursions, each no longer than two hours. They kept a constant flow of activities going, with usually two options. There was no sleeping in. Zodiac shore-line tours and nature walks were done close to the hours of dawn and dusk. Which was great for photo ops and observing the animals at their best. It was nice that we also had time for an afternoon nap. Snorkling and kayak trips were done later in the morning. Most of the sailing was done at night, lulling us into a deep sleep with the gentle movements of the boat.

Day 1:

After 5 hours of flying with a 1-hour refueling stop inbetween, we landed on the flat island of Baltra.

We were so excited to a see a sea-lion and pelicans close-by. Little did we know how many of them we'd be seeing in the next week.

After settling into our spacious cabins, we had lunch while the Petrel set sail for the tiny nearby North Seymour Island.

The wall reads: Besides love and symfathy, animals exhibit other qualities connected with the social instincts which in us would be called moral. Darwin

A tricky landing on a rough sea.

A land iguana. Apparently they taste like chicken. They grow up to 3' long and can weigh up to 25 lbs.

Land iguanas main staple is prickly pear cactus. Their mouths are very leathery so they can eat the cactus pad whole, spikes and all.

Frigates are the pirates of the sea. They steal food from gulls and terns because their preening glands are so small, they're not able to secrete enough oils to waterproof their feathers. So they cannot dive underwater to catch their prey. The males have gular red pouchs in their neck that can inflate to the size of a football. Apparently the females find this attractive.

Booby birds come to land only for one reason: to nest. They can dive into the water from as high as 300'! Females begin breeding from one to six years. Both parents care for them, using their large feet to keep the chicks warm.

Sea lions were the most commonly seen mammals. There's an estimated 30 to 50,000 of them in the Galapagos Islands. They rarely swim more than a few kilometers from shore to avoid being preyed upon by sharks and whales.

The love between a mother and her child.

Sandpiper

The night involved sailing for 12 hours on rough seas, to the west side of Isabela Island. This is the largest of the islands and is shaped like a seahorse. We stopped at Vicente Roca point, on the chin of the seahorse. This was the first of 5 points we'd be stopping at along the west coast of Isabela. Here the seas were more calm, being protected by Fernandina Island to the west.

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Day 2:

Did an early morning panga (zodiac) ride and after that some snorkling by the cave.

Gulls.

The marine iguanas feast on intertidal seaweed & algea during low tide. Because of this high sodium diet, they excrete the salt crystals by sneezing. Their skulls are like helmets, able to withstand the beating of the waves which are pushing & pulling them to & away from the rock.

Boobie birds.

The males iguanas are larger and more colorful.

Flightless cormorants are endemic to the islands and are the only species out of 29 that are not able to fly.

Fur seals are not seen as often but their populations are similar to the sea lions. They're the smallest species of eared-seal in the world and like to avoid the sun because their thicker fur keeps them warmer.

This is the only time we saw the Nazca Boobie bird. They're the largest of the species and like to nest on cliff tops to help them out when taking off.

I didn't have an underwater camera so I took these photos off of the internet to show you what I saw. 1) Redshoulder Wrasse 2) Damsel fish 3) Snapper fish 4) Vagabond fish

1) Cabrilla fish 2) Parrot fish 3) Spotted Eagle ray 4) Long-spined sea urchin

1)Mexican Hog fish 2) Angel fish 3) Beak fish 4) Trumpet fish

Pentaceraster Cumingi starfish Chocolate Chip starfish

Wow! An orcha so close to our other boat.

Lunch time. The food was great!

A late afternoon walk on Fernandina Island, from Espinoza Point.

The skeleton of a young Bryden whale.

La Cumbre volcano in the background.

1)Lava lizards are the most abundant reptile on the island. They're only about 5-6 inches long and have the ability to drop their tails as a method of defense. The tail keeps moving and attracting predators. Eventully the lizards frow new ones.. They can also change color if they're threatened or if there's a change in temperature. 2) Oyster Catchers

The average rainfall on the island is only 4-12" annually. This Lava Catus absorbs the moisture in the air and makes life possible for fresh water mammals like the Rice rat and bats.

The Brown Pelican is about 4' long with a wingspan of 6.5'. They nest year-round.

This island had the highest concentration of Marine Iguanas. They're the only sea-going lizards in the world. They come ashore often to warm up.

A small racer snake.

A sea urshin.

This pup looked like it had just been born.

It was fun watching the sea lions surfing.

Just hanging around.

Flightless cormorants.

We saw many Sally Lightfoot crabs on the rocky beaches on all the islands.

Rather cuddly creatures.

At night the Petrel sailed back across the channel to Caleta Tagus Point on Isabela Island.

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Day 3:

We started the day with a "power walk" before breakfast. Only four of us went, following Luis at a brisk pace. Some of the graffiti here dates back to the 1800s when pirates and whalers carved their ship names into the rock.

Darwin's lagoon.

A vocanic tuff cone.

Darwin's finches.

A finch nest.

A Bryden whale!

We went kayaking later in the morning. And after that, snorkling.

This is an internet photo. We lost track of how many sea turtles we saw while snorkling. It was always exciting. The female is twice the size of the male. They mate in the sea so when he pushes her under water while doing the deed, she's more able to get herself back up again.

Lunchtime on the top deck.

Some playful penguins.

During our naps, they sailed south along the coast to Bahia Urbina.

An older land iguana. Geiger

We gave this Giant turtoise a wide berth.

Captive Galapagos turtoises can live up to 177 years! Most adults weight 500-600 lbs.

Mangrove Warbler

Hawks

Many (about 3000) of the giant turtoises live in the hugh caldera of the Alcedo Volcano (3691'). On the sandy bank is a nesting ground for sea turtles. Once they lay their eggs, they cover them with sand and then abandon them.

Flycatcher Hermit crab

Sally Light-foot crab.

Happy hour back on board.

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Day 4:

Come morn, we were parked in Elizabeth Bay.

We were drifting in the panga while listening and watching, as instructed. A male sea lion was bellowing in the bush now and then. These three penguins were looking up at the Brown Pelican.

Red & black mangrove bushes are ideal habitat for sea turtles. They also help prevent erosion.

Spotted Eagle rays.

I was leaning over the front of the zodiac, only a few feet away from this penguin. As awkward as they are on land, they're like torpedos in the water. These are the most northernly penguins in the world.

Mantra Ray

Blue-footed Bobbies.

Jasminocereus Cacti to the left and Opuntia Cactus to the left.

Why are these cormorants flightless? Look at the size of their wings.

Golden Ray

It looks so cute how they hunch forward while shuffling down to the water.

Fighting males.

A nursing mother has an audience.

A sea lion howls. This older pup wanted to nurse by the mother who was nursing a newborn. She let him know that that wasn't going to happen.

A group of iguanas paying homage to a boobie bird.

Mother fending off her older pup.

After our first-of-the-day morning excursions, we'd always be welcomed back on board with warm wet facecloths to wipe our hands on and these delicious treats. The juice was always pure and freshly pressed.

A half loop night sail to the centre south of Isabela Island, stopped at the sleepy tiny town of Villamil Point.

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Day 5:

First order of the day was a hike to the Sierra Negra caldera. The bus drove us to the highlands (not this one).

Hyacinth.

A finch by a tree covered in moisture wicking moss.

Quito-Orange Antbush

We were now in a tropical rainforest.

Giant turtoises cannot walk through the planted Elephant Grass.

Guave

Group shot: Al & Christine, Sofia, Case & I, Donna, Anne & Steve, Michelle & Richard, Donna

This is the second largest caldera in the world, at 6 miles across. It last erupted in 2018.

Star Sedge

Finch

This was an easy 1.5 hour hike with about 300m elevation gain.

A treat from our guide.

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After the hike we went back to the boat for lunch.

And after lunch we went back to the town.

Flamingo

Black-necked Stilt

Pin-tailed ducks

6-pic slider of Villamil

Sandpiper

We hung out at this bar by the beach which was our meetup point. No one seemed in a hurry to do anything or go antywhere in this laid-back town. That was until Chris fell and did a face-plant on the dirt road. She ended up with a very bruised face and stitches in her lip. It's a good thing it happened in this town and not in the middle of nowhere, where we'd been for the last five days.

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Day 6:

We woke in the harbour by the larger town, Ayora on the island of Santa Cruz.

Then we walked to the Fausto Llerena Breeding Center, the world-famous tortoise-rearing site.

Tiny hatchlings are bred here to increase the depleted turtoise population. More than 5000 turtoises have been bred and released into the wild here.

These are all Saddleback males that have been sterilized.

Why do the males always want to fight? The saddleback carapace (shell) allows their long necks to reach higher for branches of the cactus trees.

These land turtoises are not just slow in walking, but it takes them up to three weeks to fully process a meal and they don't reach sexual maturity till they're 40 years old! Their penises are in their tails.

Turtoises can live up to a year without food or water. They almost became extinct when in the 18th & 19th centuries, buccaneers and whalers stored them live on their ships, stacking them upside-down in the belly of the boat. They were good for fresh meat, oil for lamps and their shells were used for many things.

A Bryden whale skeleton.

Darwin has a lizard between his legs. He was 26 years old when he visited the Galapagos Islands for only 5 weeks after exploring at sea for 5 years from 1831-1836. He contracted a disease during his travels which he never recovered from. He spent the remainder of his life at home in Britain, working on the theory of evolution.

5-pic slider of Ayora

This fisherman has some interested onlookers.

The lava & Striated heron has a small 2' wing span. It's the only endemic heron in the Galapagos Islands.

Back on the Petrel for lunch.

Then in the afternoon we were bussed to the highlands of Santa Cruz where we stayed overnight in treehouses.

I used to read the Berenstain Bear books to my children at bedtime. This reminded me of the bear family and their treehouse.

The Giant turtoises are the namesake of the Galapagos Islands.

Egrets.

A nearby lava tunnel.

Some of us went for a coffee tour later. I usually don't drink coffee. But this was pretty good.

A secluded clearing in a bamboo patch.

Scalesia trees.

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Day 7:

A morning stroll before heading back to the Petrel and then sailing to the small isalnd of Sante Fe.

Catalonian Jasmine Bitter Gourd

Teak trees.

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Sante Fe.

Under water Christine and I were buddies. I was so absorbed with all the creatures I was seeing, that I didn't notice at first that no one else was around. So I bobbed my head above water and saw them congregated round the panga a ways off. When they saw me they started yelling, "Shark!" I thought, "Oh goody" and made haste, thinking I'd get to see a cute little shark as we had spotted a few times from the boat several days ago. But when I got closer they said that this was not a little shark. OK. No wonder Sofia kept yelling from the kayak.

Dominant males patrol and guard attractive beaches and develop harems of up to 30 females. There were oodles of pups here.

Lava lizards. They look silly when they mechanically bob their heads and do their push-ups to defend their territories.

Sofia is showing us the spongy inside of a giant prickly pear cactus.

Galapagos Dove

Two males (fighting again).

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Day 8:

After a final panga ride by the small Lobos Island we disembarked on San Cristobal Island and wandered through the town before catching a flight to Quito, spending the night in a hotel by the airport and then flying home the next day.