Woke up at 5:30am to watch the sunrise again. Stunning.
We snorkeled after walking Rabida Island, which is still part of Santiago Island. It was a great snorkel. We saw 8 White-Tipped Reef Sharks (tame), 1 sea lion & 2 huge Eagle Rays (3-5 ft wing span) & oh so many beautifully colored Starfish in bright reds, yellows and oranges.
So very awesome.
Red-Footed Booby enjoying her photo shoot!
Dolphins racing with our yacht!
It was a great morning hiking & snorkeling. At 5:30am, I watched the sunrise from the top deck overlooking a volcano, while doing yoga - a routine I’m quickly beginning to love. By 6:30am we were at Santiago Island, a black volcanic sand & lava island. Black lava is basaltic lava.
We were walking around sea lions again. I never get tired of that.
Tiny Galapagos flycatchers kept landing on my camera lens and one even touched my cheek. I felt his tiny fluttering wings on my face. Loved it. So cute. We saw a Great Blue Heron & Fur sea lions originally from Chile. Then we went snorkeling and I saw a White-Tipped Reef Shark! It was about 4-6 ft. So cool. They are tame and safe to snorkel with. We all loved it! One person decided not to go and just relaxed on the boat. The boat crew is so flexible & great with everyone!
Snacks, fresh squeezed juice & yummy melon were waiting for us when we returned to the catamaran. So nice.
OK, so just got back from snorkeling again, saw another White-Tipped Reef Shark! Woo-hoo. Everyone is loving this! Did a small walk before that to a beach where a lot of sea turtles have buried their eggs, you could see fresh tracks & we even saw a large sea turtle on a beach when we arrived.
So, I can’t say it enough but this trip has been simply amazing so far.
Such great food, great people, the boat is lovely & so clean, rooms are actually cleaned 1-2 times a day. They make little designs out of our towels when they clean our room. The staff is incredibly nice & professional, the food is fabulous & so fresh and there is always a large variety. I love eating outside on the open air deck. They set the dinner table with different colored table cloths and each night has been a different color. There’s 6 crew members for 12 passengers, they navigate at night so we have the full day at our destination. There’s free coffee & tea, snacks & drinks in the afternoon and 3 wonderful full meals a day including a full cooked breakfast and nothing was repeated. I especially love the fresh squeezed juice in the morning and along with our afternoon snack.
Great all around!
I haven’t been everywhere, but it’s on my list.
- Susan Sontag
Nazca Booby neighbors in a territorial dispute.
Oh, where, oh, where are you little penguins? Oh, there you are! And you brought along a sea lion friend!
Another absolutely glorious day in paradise.
Last night while we were anchored, we had the pleasure of sharing our evening with a lone sea lion. A sea turtle came by too. It was fun watching the sea lion while he visited with us. He even propped himself up and slept on our boat at one point. And this morning a group of 4 penguins joined him! So wonderful. Those little penguins are so cute.
Oh, my, I almost forgot the highlight of the night, a pod of dolphins followed our catamaran. What an incredible sight. They were frolicking, jumping & swimming with us, it was truly fantastic.
Before that I was thinking that the day could not get any better but being in the Galapagos, of course, it did!
So, back to today. Up early and went hiking. Btw – while I write this, I’m eating snacks and drinks that the crew just brought up to us on the deck.
This is the life.
So this am, we hiked to the base of the Darwin Crater in Tangus Cove on Isabella. After breakfast we went on a panga ride and saw sea lions, sea turtles, flightless cormorants and blue-footed boobies. Came back to the boat and picked up our kayaks for a cruise around the bay. Penguins & sea lions were swimming all around us. So awesome. Oh, and flightless cormorants too. So very wonderful.
After lunch we went on another walk, and yet again, just when I thought the day couldn’t get better, we approach Fernandina Island and instantly stepped back into the Jurassic Period. Black marine iguanas were swimming within the black craggy lava flows. We were running by iguanas to see sleeping sea lions, which were also everywhere! Sea lions playing, sea lions sleeping, sea lions upon iguanas upon Sally Light Foot Crabs in bright beautiful autumn colors, upon sea turtles. We even saw a Hawksbill sea turtle and another Galapagos snake.
What an incredible day. And approaching this island was surreal – to see so many iguana swimming around all those lava fields was incredibly amazing. We all loved it and couldn’t stop talking about it that night. Oh, and we saw lava lizards sleeping on top of iguanas too. Really, where else on earth can you experience this?!
Wow, so again, just when I thought the day could not possibly get any better, we caught the sunset as we passed incredible volcanoes – the Ecuador Crater and Wolf Crater were 2 of them, shrouded in low lying clouds just minutes before crossing the equator at 6:30pm, bringing us north. We’ll pass the equator 4 times this trip. The 2nd time tonight to go south again at about 2am. When we were passing the volcanoes, there were 2 little penguins playing and as we were so close to the equator, they were the closest penguins north in the world. The whole scene was really spectacular. And then we had champagne that they had bought us for our anniversary. Fabulous.
(Source: annabananainacabana, via musicaltrees10)
Frigate Bird with puffed pouch in the Galapagos Islands!
Some of the Galapagos locals.
What a glorious morning!
Yoga at sunrise while watching penguins & sea turtles!
I woke up early to do some yoga on the top deck while the sun was just rising brilliantly in the sky. An added bonus was catching playful penguins & sea turtles going about their own morning routing. It was simply wonderful.
So we started at Punta Moreno this morning and we began our day walking across lava flows within the shadow of a volcano Cerro Azul & Cerro Negra. It was pretty awesome walking across lava fields and then became even more awesome when we saw 6 pink flamingos in a fresh and saltwater lagoon (so the shrimp could live in it). We then saw one of the pink flamingos fly above us. Very, very cool.
After that we took a quick dip in the water before our morning got even cooler by snorkeling with sea lions. The sea lion pups were very playful, diving all around me and a big one kept swimming right past me. Fabulous.
We saw more blue-footed boobies, massive iguanas, a flightless cormorant AND little Galapagos penguins!!! When I was in the water, a few of the penguins were on a rock right next to me, they were literally a few inches from me! I was just a few inches from penguins, SO cool! In South Africa, I saw many penguins on a beach not far from me but never have I been this close to penguins. It was amazing!
We then came back on the boat for a yummy lunch, they made me a special vegetarian dish. They are so accommodating, it’s great. The food is so fresh and wonderful. The meals have been excellent and inventive. After lunch we walked around Urbina Bay and saw several more land iguanas and tortoises. Cool.
Loving this trip, it’s more than I had ever imagined.
