Ecuador, part two, Galapagos

Me, swimming among the Galapagos Islands.  That was our boat, The Galaxy.  It held the 16 passengers, plus our guide and the 6 or 8 person boat crew.  We ate all our meals on the boat and travelled at night to our next day's island.

Galapagos sea lion sleeping on an anchored boat by a port city.  Some boats had barbed wire wrapped around them to keep them off, I assume.  The yellow zodiac is what we travelled on from boat to shore or boat to snorkel location.

We were seeing islands like this all over the place.

A land iguana.

Pacific sunset on the clearest, hottest day during our Galapagos part of the trip.

Blue footed boobies on lava rocks.  The red crabs are Sally Lightfoot Crabs.

Galapagos pengiun!!  The only place in the northern hemisphere where penguins live.  The cold current from the south brought them here and creates an environment where they can survive, even at the equator.

My dad, trekking up to a lighthouse, in front of spatter cones.  Spatter cones are a lava formation.  But on the Galapagos, what ISN'T a lava formation.

At a private nature preserve, the famous land tortoise on Santa Cruz Island.  They live in the higher elevations and we had to take a bus to get to this preserve.  They can live to be over 150 years and there is basically a separate subspecies on each island.  One island's tortoises were hunted to extinction, even though 30 years ago they found the last one.  They still consider his species extinct because it cannot reproduce anymore.  Lonesome George is at the Darwin Research Center.

Gorgeous beach.  The sand was so soft...  Lava rocks, mockingbirds, marine iguanas, sea lions, warblers, finches, sea turtles.  Interesting to see people's responses on this beach to a sea lion pup whose mother had abandoned it in favor of her older pups.  The baby was crying and will starve to death.

Marine iguanas.  The only iguanas in the world that have evolved to feed in sea water.  They dive off cliffs and swim down and chew algae off of underwater rocks.  They can only last 20 minutes or so in the water because they are coldblooded and their muscles seize up. 

On the zodiac headed to a snorkeling spot.  My first time snorkeling and it was so amazing.  Sea turtles, marine iguanas, sting rays, white tipped reef sharks, starfish, and so many cool tropical fish!

The best picture from my disposable underwater camera.  Of course, the one day I remembered to take it snorkeling was when the water was the murkiest.