Our first full day in the Galapagos started off with the sound of the anchor chains being lowered. It was SO noisy. At first I thought it was may just our cabin (perhaps the cost of the cheap cabin?) but many other travelers assured me that no, it was super loud for everyone. It makes sense now that the expedition leader told us they don't bother with wake-up calls because the chains will wake people naturally. So off I sent on the nature "long walk" (kind of funny, as it was only a mile long). Worth it though because we almost immediately came upon the flamingos!
The group was large enough it definitely qualified as a flamboyance.
Bug the really cool part was that they even did a little dancing! I did not realize flamingos can get so noisy. Check them out doing their little movements seemingly in unison!
Here's a sea lion channeling Baba's skills in deep sleeping.
The long hike eventually led us to a vantage point where we could see the boat and the red beaches of Rabida.
For the plant lovers, here is the Galapagos tomato. The yellow/orange tomato fruits are so tiny!! Apparently the way you can tell if a plant or animal is only found in the Galapagos is by their name. If it is called the Galapagos, Darwin, or Lava X, then it's endemic to the islands.
I think this is a Galapagos mockingbird. I like how it contrasts against the sky.
Here we have a nice side shot of the Galapagos Dove. I'm told the blue eyes and red feet are it's distinguishing features.
Coming back to the ship, we came upon some iguanas emerging from the water.
Up close their faces look really scary/mean! And look at those claws!
Olympic rock climbers have nothing on iguanas in terms of climbing skills. Had to take a video to document what I mean:
We had all sat down on the beach with shoes removed for the water entry (you climb into the zodiac from about a foot of so of water) when we received one more wildlife visitor: sea lion .
After a short rest, lecture on snorkeling safety,and lunch buffet (I would describe the food onboard as very good, not amazing-omg-Michelin or anything like that, but reliably quite good - portions are also nicely controlled so you don't stuff yourself and become uncomfortable), we went off for some deep water snorkeling along the shoreline of Rabida. I bought some waterproof phone cases for this trip but sadly couldn't figure out how to unlock the camera on this snorkeling trip. It kept telling me face unlock was no successful 😆. So I have no photo proof of all the things we saw -- which included a wide variety of fish, including a group of 5-6 sharks, bunch of sea stars and starfish, and some interesting vegetation. The water was a bit cold...but not unbearable, but we still very much enjoyed the hot tub afterwards. The day was not ever yet though! In the afternoon, we transitioned to Salvador island for a hike. This is the adopted island of National Geographic and Lindblad -- over the course of the past few decades, they helped remove the foreign goat population that was wrecking havoc to the native animals. Our guide said we would take the counter-route, leaving the best stuff for the end. But we still started off with some nice animal encounters - the lighting was SO good.
Ian got to get some up close facetime with the iguanas.
The encounters with the sea lions here were amazing. A bunch of the pups were hangry and howling out for food -- you'd see the moms exhausted coming out and then the pups immediately bothering them to nurse.
Photo of the mom and pup (and a jealous pup in the background perhaps).
I really liked watching the sea lions. Here is one cleaning it's face with it's flippers while swimming around - so cute!
This is mainly a shot to showcase the landscape (though there are a ton of iguanas there too) -- very much the dry season - I think a lot of plants and animals are looking forward to the rains!
This was kind of cool -- essentially the tides create this little pool of water that overflows and then empties out every 5 seconds or so. Our guide said this is cheekily referred to as Darwin's toilet.
Baba's cheeky shot of me taking a picture of the toilet.
As we were approaching the shore to take our zodiacs back to the ship, we happened to see this cool phenomenon that is unique to the Galapagos: the sea lion cooperative herding/hunting of fish. Basically a group of sea lions band together and hunt a school of fish together and force them to a beach/cove where the fish are washed up on the shore and then flop there helplessly and the sea lions have a buffet. The boobies see this happening and circle the skies above because once the fish are forced on land, there is enough to feed all the sea lions and all the birds too. I recall them saying a successful hunt can yield dozens upon dozens of fish PER participating sea lion. Sometimes the birds don't wait for the fish to reach the shore and bomb dive into the schools of fish underwater.
That golden hour for photography, it is just incredible. I'll leave with this as the parting shot for today. Pretty amazing first day in the Galapagos!
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