Galapagos - Day 5: Isabela & Fernandina

I am starting to think all those sample itineraries they had in the cruise marketing that start at 8am were intentionally misleading because we once again have a 6:15AM activity start day...I apparently slept through the anchor chains this time though so actually felt fairly awake and well rested when we were heading out on the pre-breakfast wildlife viewing zodiac ride for our new location: Isla Isabela (the biggest island of the Galapagos, shaped like a seahorse. We did not go very far before seeing the elusive Galapagos penguins! Penguins on the Galapagos don't create huge colonies the way that the other penguins do -- so the naturalist guide noted that our sighting of 4 or so was actually quite a large crowd.

I didn't manage a shot of this, but the real highlight was watching the penguins one by one plop on their bottoms and just slide down the rock here into the water. Looked like a lot of fun!

More blue-footed boobies -- hard to believe these could ever become "meh" but honestly after having seen so many yesterday, we weren't even that excited. 

There were SO many birds flying around and landing that everyone on the zodiac was very thankful for our hat cover!

Can you count all of the birds in this picture? Hint: I think it's at least 20-30. 

The birds literally find any small rock to use as a landing spot. It almost reminds me of the patterns drawn on a Greek vase.

We even saw some Galapagos Flightless Cormorants hanging out in the rocks.

The rock formations also created some fun blowhole-like phenomenon:

Yeye has gone separately on the hike to a view. Which was beautiful, but I think this was the actual highlight -- there was a sea lion completely blocking the stairs going down. So Salvador pretended to be a male sea lion and scared it down. 😂 

So much seen before 8am!  But the morning was far from over. We ate a quick breakfast before we set off at 9 for some wildlife viewing by kayak in Tagus Cove. I am happy to report I did NOT tip the kayak over this time. 

We saw a number of birds again, but the highlight was definitely the sea lion who followed our kayak around for a few strokes!

I honestly was worried I would hit it with my strokes so I had to stop paddling. 

After this we did a glass bottom boat excursion.

Unfortunately there were a number of bubbles in the glass that made visibility hard at times, but the most interesting thing was the collection of brilliant yellow sea sponges -- there were also a number of giant turtles swimming by - made me a bit more excited about the snorkeling this afternoon (I had been on the fence as they said the water would be even colder...and yesterday was already QUITE cold). But seeing the turtles and penguins convinced me that I should it a try. 

But this wasn't all for the morning, we also had a paddle-boarding adventure today! 

This was not for wildlife viewing, this was purely for the spectacle of seeing who would fall in. 😆 I can say I did NOT fall in...but that is also because I never stood up. I did attempt to stand:

But quickly decided kneeling was quite enough. 

Perhaps best shot of the trip (credit: Baba), the sea lion who decided to commandeer the zodiac while it was unused!

Baba actually did make it up...for about 1 second. 😆 

It did actually feel like a decent workout because my legs were clenched so much the entire team trying to maintain my balance.  They were offering complimentary massages in the lounge...clearly not going to pass that up!

After that it was perhaps the most important activity of all: naptime.  There was a photography presentation about how to shoot better smartphone photos which I probably would have benefited from. Nainai, who did go, told us the basics are don't pinch to zoom, just go to ×2 and then crop it later. Also get down low to the level of the animal. And finally, place the eye of the animal in one of the intersections of a pretend 9×9 grid (in other words, avoid putting the animal in the dead center). Let me know if you think my animal photography skills improved after this day...

Onto the snorkeling -- because the sun was shining quite brightly today, the water ended up not feeling quite as cold as I had been dreading. It made for a fairly enjoyable snorkle -- especially because we saw such cool things! Photo proof, you ask? Well...so we learned from a fellow passenger that you can double click the side button to open up the camera and then click the volume buttons to take a photo. Armed with this knowledge, I set forth confidently, ready to take some amazing photos in that carrier case. The results were...less than amazing. 

I mean...I guess you can tell this is a turtle, right?

They were much closer than the photos make them appear. 

But we've snorkeled with plenty of turtles in Hawaii, this next one was a new one for me...can you guess what it is? (Hint, the eyes are the focus point).

Yes, a (granted quite blurry) Galapagos Sea Lion! And the last "spot" of the day! Marine iguanas! There actually were two of them but this is the only shot that was even remotely passable. 

I guess the iphone case is NOT the answer for underwater photography! After we got back, it was time for a super fast shower and change of clothes because we were immediately headed out again for a sunset wildlife walk on yet another new island: Isla Fernandina -- at Punta Espinosa in particular. Onto the zodiacs again!

 The vegetation here was again different from what we saw on Rabida or Isabela. 

This part of the island had some amazing displays of the lava cacti. Again, since it's the LAVA cactus, it is endemic to the Galapagos Islands. The gray parts are basically the ones the plant has decided to sacrifice. Eventually those will fall off in hopes of saving the rest of the plant. 

Gotta take advantage of the amazing lighting for people photos too!

This was the outing where I actually got a little tired of the iguanas. At first it was still pretty cool to see them so up close and personal.

But then you saw there was so many ALL over the place. 

It really helped explain why the name for a group of iguanas is a "mess."

Here's a cool video of the iguanas doing their territorial head bobbing - apparently the dominant males do this to chase off the challengers. 

After the iguanas came the sea lions and fur seals. The facial resemblance to teddy bears helped them stay cute regardless of how many we saw.

Sunset shot of our traveling quad! (Yes that's our ship in the background).

The sea lions were so close by that we all had to get our own individual shots with them:

The sea lions really are too cute. Especially as they try to scamper on land. 

Another day complete. Zodiac back to the ship for cocktail hour and then dinner and then sleep!

I have to say Lindblad really packs these itineraries. So far every single excursion has been really unique and our schedule has just been packed back to back from sunrise to sunset. 

Galapagos - Day 4: Rabida & James/Salvador Islands

 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!