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.
