Galapagos Islands... the animals!

So where were we?   Oh yes, we had just landed in Baltra.

The flight from Quito was a quick two hours.

After going through customs we were met at the airport by the Cruise Director and a couple of the onboard Naturalist Guides who accompanied us to the ship.

We took a bus to the pier, where we boarded the zodiacs to take us to the ship.

Riding on the zodiacs was really fun and was how we got to each island.  No docking at a pier for the ships sailing the Galapagos.

Our home for the week

Once everyone was aboard we set sail around 1pm for our first island, North Seymour.

Let me just say that the animal sightings were plentiful in the islands, it was great!  Since I had worked in Alaska before I knew the chances of seeing animals there were slim… not the case in the Galapagos.  They were everywhere.  They also could have cared less about all the humans.

Since the Galapagos are protected land, these animals have never been hunted so they have no fear of humans.  They never flinched when we walked by.  It was incredible.

I know people are most interested in pictures of the animals, so here you go…

Male Frigate bird

Male Frigate bird trying to impress the female with his red pouch

Baby Blue Footed Boobie trying to fly

Sea Lion... isn't she beautiful?!

We were so close to her!

Some other Sea Lions along the beach...

the male was trying to hit on the female and she was not having it :)

Blue Footed Boobie - love those blue feet!

Pelican

Crab

Sea Lions

Marine Iguanas

Marine Iguanas

Nazca Boobies

Baby Albatross

Hawk

Galapagos Friends :)

Sea Turtle

Hawk

Marine Iguana

Penquins!

So cute!!

Land Iguana

Also so cute!!

2 iguanas fighting

we were very close to the fight

one ended up bleeding!

Sweet baby Sea Lion

Lonesome George, the last of his kind

Scientists try to mate him, but he is not interested.

Giant Tortoise

The second morning, we did a sail around Kicker Rocker.  It was beautiful!  Kicker Rock is a large rock formation off the coast of San Cristobal island, the size alone was impressive.

Each evening as we returned from our excursion, there was a snack table/bar set up on the back deck where we could grab a drink, sit outside, watch the sunset and talk about everything we saw that day.   

Everyone really came to enjoy that relaxing part of the day!

Next up, a little more information about the cruise itself.