Grab shell dude!

So we arrived in our last (new) destination of the Galapagos Islands, starting on the island of San Cristobal where we were met with two main things:

 

1) Lots and lots of sea lions!  They were everywhere in the small town, including under police cars, sleeping on park benches and of course, in the water.  Very cute (we took a lot of photos of them during our stay on the islands) and a bit smelly..



 



 

2) Football fans celebrating that the Equadorian Barcelona team had won the championship.  There were lots of happy people and celebrations across the street from our hotel.

 

After having a quick look around the town, we went for a Galapagos lunch before our day of activities.  You don´t get much food more from the sea than this guy... Very tasty though (although we didn´t eat its face!).

 

 

 

 

Then we had a day of cycling around the island, starting at the top of the highlands where we got a great view of the sea and surroundings. 

On the way we were shown this bizarre tree house which was several stories and has been used as accomodation by some tourists.  It even had a basement under the tree!

Inside the elaborate tree house with kitchen and bedroom

View from the top of our tour group in the garden

At the end of our trip we arrived at a beautiful beach (one of many to come it turned out) where we met some more seal lions.  Here there was a family with lots of babies too!  We stayed until the sun set...

We know.. so incredibly cute!

The next day was the first of our snorkeling trips.  We started in a shallow bay so we could get used to our snorkeling gear and the sea temperature (which was nowhere near North Sea or English Channel temperatures, but still a bit nippy).  Here we were joined by an inquisitive sea lion (who swam straight at us before disappearing) and a few sea turtles.  It was a fantastic start to the snorkeling and we loved it.  The next stop was to a place called kicker island (as it looks a bit like a shoe apparently).

Kicker rock in the distance..

And up close

Us ready for snorkeling trip #2

Not sure how we looked so calm when we were told that the reason for going to this small island to snorkel was to see sharks! Apparently these sharks weren´t interested in humans, and as we survived the trip, they must have been full on fish already.

After snorkeling it was time for some education, so we visited something called the interpretation centre which had information on the islands´geography, geology, climate and people.  One of the most interesting parts was learning about when people found the islands and the various stages of people moving to the island, and to Christine´s surprise, so of the earliest settlers were a group of Norwegians.  Due to poor weather conditions and crops they weren´t very successful however and left a few years later.  Oh dear..

Opposite the interpretation centre there was another group of sea lions enjoying themselves on the beach.  The below is the bull of the group surrounded by his harem of women.  He later chased one of our fellow tour group members when she got too close to one of the lady sea lions.. He was pretty grumpy.

There were more baby sea lions, so we couldn´t resist taking some more pictures of them.

We were on a land based tour (whereas most tours are mini cruises where groups sleep on their boats) and travelled from each island by speed boat.  Dorita was our speed boat for the trip, and here were our crew.



We saw lots of amazing wildlife on our journeys between the islands, one of the first being lots of dolphins swimming alongside us.  We were able to sit on the bow of the boat to watch them and take pictures.  There were probably about 100 dolphins around us, but they are quick so can be difficult to catch on camera.

Galapagos is known for its amazing variety of wildlife, in particular its birds, so we were excited to see an Albatros on our second day.  They really are as big as they say and did look like the pilot in the Rescuers!

Along the shores we also founds hundreds of colourful crabs.  They probably have a proper name, but we´ll just call them Galapagos crabs.

The Galapagos is also of course known for its giant tortoises and we visited three locations on our trip.  The first was a conservation centre where about 22 rare tortoises lived.  They were fenced in, but had lots of land to roam around.

At feeding time.. although we waited until we got to a restaurant..

 Later we went for another snorkeling trip where we saw more turtles and a few big stingrays.  There were also lots of beautiful fish and corals.  (We do have pictures from the snorkeling, but they are on an old school waterproof disposable camera. We´ll post them later..).

 

On the way to a iguana nursery we had a very exciting sighting of penguins and a blue footed boobie.  We´d seen a few boobies before, but not so close up.

Boobie, iguana and a penguin.. all posing perfectly for us.  Thought for a moment it was staged by the tour company..

At the iguana nursery we found a very strange lava landscape, which suits the iguanas very well as it is sheltered and they blend in very well!  There are probably at least 20 in the below picture, but it is hard to find them..

There was also a water channel where reef sharks were found.

Nearby we got to see some sea turtles mating (or as the guide called it: "happy hour").  One female would struggle a bit in the middle whilst one male climbs on top of her.  In the mean time several other males try to muscle in.  Apparently this can go on for hours.. we felt a bit sorry for the female..

One of the iguanas chilling out..

Us with an iguana.. Christine is providing a hint in case you can´t see him.

On the other side of this island we found a small group of sea lions.. wait for it.. playing with a penguin!  The penguin was riding the sea lions at points and it was all very entertaining.  We have a video of this as well that we´ll put up at some point.

They seemed to even communicate with each other whilst playing..

Then we travelled to the island of Isabella (one of the largest).  This was on our way back to the hotel.

One of the other spectacles of the Galapagos are the active volcanoes.  We hiked to the top of one which had its last eruption 7 years ago.  We experienced a bizarre landscape as well as a dramatic change in climate from misty and cold to dry and hot.

Christine in front of a lava field...

More craters in the distance



 A cactus and a big crater

Mars like terrain

At our lunch spot we found a young Galapagos hawk calling for its mother.. The mother was busy hunting for food no doubt..

Finches were always interested in being around for lunch time.

Two of our hotels were by the beach which gave us beautiful views all day

On Isabella we visited a tortoise breeding centre.  Below are samples of tortoise embryos at various stages, each 4 weeks apart approx.




And here is a newborn

The tortoises were kept in groups (although usually solitary in the wild) and it was easy to see how natural selection worked on all of them.. Each area had tortoises of the same age, but some were a lot bigger than others.. Below is a big tortoise pulling food away from a smaller one..

One our walk back to the hotel we stopped at a lake to watch some wild flamingoes.. they were very pink, as expected.

Another iguana by the harbour..

Another famous galapagos bird that we saw on a number of occassions was the Frigate bird.. We were there at the start of the mating season so got to see quite a few males with large red inflatable pouches.  They only develop these during the mating season to attract females (the redder, the better) as well as doing a wing dance for them.

Our last island was Santa Cruz, which has the largest population of approx. 10,000 people.  Here we went to another Tortoise place where they had the biggest kind (out of 10 species in total).  We'd seen so many tortoises by this point that we started to turn into them...

On our final full day we visited another beautiful beach and mangrove area where we got to see some more wildlife whilst kayaking. 

Very large marine iguana

Mocking bird near the beach (the bird that can impersonate other birds and noises)

In the evening we strolled through the streets and souvenier shops.. along the way Christine picked out her dinner..

Before

After

 

Our final night was spent in a street restaurant eating lovely bbq food and relaxing before heading back to Quito.

 

 So we thought the Galapagos would be incredible, and it was.. Amazing wildlife everywhere and fantastic scenery.

Underwater pictures to follow when we can develop and scan them in (fingers crossed).