Wednesday, January 4, 2012

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.

3 comments:

  1. Beautiful! My friend and I are heading to Peru and were debating making a stop to the Galapagos. In the end though we decided the Galapagos needed their own full trip so hopefully we'll get there soon!

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  2. We have them in Oregon, but still ... those sea lions just stole my heart!

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