I Love Boobies! (Adventures in the Galapagos)

(This is a very long entry) After 8 days on a catamaran in the Galapagos where to start? I guess I will start with some facts. Did you know that the population of the Galapagos is over 28,000 people? There are 12 islands and Ecuadorian people live on 5 of them. The name Galapagos comes from the Spanish word galapago which means saddle. So when the first explorers saw the giant tortoises with their shells that look like saddles, they named the islands. The Galapagos islands are a hot spot just like Hawaii and they have a ton of active volcanoes and lava fields.

Here is a map of the Galapagos. We arrived on Baltra island which is just north of Santa Cruz. We took the northern route and visited Santa Cruz, Isabela, Fernadina, Santiago and Genovesa islands.

There were 7 other travelers on our boat. 2 couples from London, 1 couple from Amsterdam and one post grad from Canada. We felt really lucky with our group as we all got along very well. We also loved our very patient and informative guide Diego.

The first day we spent on Santa Cruz at Puerto Ayora where over half of the population of the Galapagos lives (this would be our only stop to a populated island). The economy of Santa Cruz is 80% tourism, 10% fishing and 10% agriculture. We took the dingy/panga to shore and took a small bus around the island and it felt like any other small town on mainland Ecuador. The landscape was green and lush but most of the grasses and trees had been introduced to this island. We drove to a farm further from shore and within 40 seconds of walking with Diego we saw our first giant tortoise looking like a dinosaur in a pond.

Here is a picture for scale.

Later that day we learned more about the giant tortoises at the Charles Darwin Research Center. There used to be 300,000 giant tortoises on the islands but after pirates used them for a good source of protein at sea and the introduction of cats, horses, dogs, fire ants and goats to the islands their population fell to 26,000. In the 60's/70's reintroduction efforts started at the Charles Darwin Research Center and brought back some populations that were almost extinct (like the sub-species from Espanola island). Today there are 30,000 giant tortoises and their populations are growing thanks to the breeding programs and the eradication of wild goats from many of the islands.

Marine iguana catching a ride on his friend. In Puerto Ayora.

Baby turtles at the research center

Mom and Kari with a cool a prickly pear cactus in the background that grows what looks like a tree trunk to avoid getting eaten by the giant tortoises and land iguanas.

The next day we disembarked at Punta Moreno on Isabella island. The landscape here was completely different and it kind of felt like we were landing on the moon. We walked over a lava field which had no vegetation except for cacti. Then all of a sudden we came upon a brackish lake and in it were 7 flamingos! They were un-naturally pink (I don't think I have ever seen live flamingos) and it was just shocking to see a little lake filled with flamingos surrounded by a desolate black lava field.

This was the one time (except for when we saw owls) that we weren't able to get 2 feet from the animals without them caring at all. So excuse how tiny the flamingos look.

Then we went on a panga ride and saw tons of marine iguanas and penguins (!).

Boarding the panga

Marine iguanas

Tiny Galapagos penguin!

In the afternoon we made another landing on Isabella island. There we saw about 10 more giant tortoises as well as one hidden land iguana which are much more colorful than the marine iguanas.

Here is a land iguana.

That night we were docked in Tagus cove and we took an early morning walk over Darwin's lake. We saw some of his famous finches as well as super friendly sea lions. We kept hiking up until we were at a look out point that looked over another lava field.

Darwin's finches

The whole group: Mom, Kari, me, Nick, Rinske, Simon, Sarah, Tom, Leah and Eli with the lava field behind us.

Shortly after arriving back on the boat, Leah spotted something in the distance. It was at least 4 orca whales! We jumped in the panga and followed them out of the bay.

Here is the best shot I managed to get of them from the boat. It was really cool to watch that many orca whales surfacing together.

The days continued along with a walk in the morning and afternoon, snorkeling once but usually twice a day, delicious food on the boat and mid day siestas.

While snorkeling, we saw white tipped reef sharks, spotted eagle rays, sea turtles, penguins jetting by, sea lions, a lobster. It was a weird experience to have someone yell SHARK! and then swim as fast as I could towards them!

There were tons of sea lion encounters. Almost everyday we would stroll pass a snoozing sea lion, see some juveniles playing in the sand or water or see a sea lion swim by. Even though I have seen sea lions a ton from a distance they were probably my favorite thing in the Galapagos because they are so playful and fun to watch. Here are some of my favorite sea lion pics.

Sea lion pup. SO CUTE!

This picture is showing how close we were to the sea lions.

Sleeping

OK. I am going to try and wrap up this post because it is getting out-of-control long. Last type of animal that we saw a lot of: birds! and best of all boobies!

Let's talk about boobies.

Apparently the Spanish called them bobos because their funny colors and the silly dance that they do in the mating season reminded them of clowns. Then the English changed this to boobies. There are 3 types of boobies on the Galapagos. The red footed, the nazca and the most famous blue footed boobies. I really liked all types of boobies and could not even pick a favorite if you forced me to.

Here are my best boobie shots!

Red footed

Nazca boobie and chick

Here is another cool type of bird. The frigate bird inflates the red sack at their chin in order to attract a mate. Diego said the bigger the sack, the better.

This was our home for the duration of the trip. The Nemo II.

Jumping picture on a lava field!

Me and a seal on the hottest day ever.

And finally, the whole group with a friendly sea lion (still on the hottest day ever).

Well, I could go on and on with this post. If you have any questions or want to see any other pictures just email me. I have videos too!