Galapagos Day 2

We moved overnight to Isla Isabela.

The second day was amazing in terms of what we saw, in just the one day.  It started with a zodiac ride out to the White Tipped Reef Shark Canal. On the way there we saw out first sighting of the Blue Footed Booby.

Waiting for us on shore was a Sally Lightfoot Crab.

And also on shore were lots of marine iguanas. This one has a young one on its back.

Down in the water were the white tipped reef sharks.

A beautiful brown pelican.

An American Oyster Catcher.

You may have to look twice here to see the dozens of iguanas!

This sea lion gave birth not long ago to her cub.

As we walked back along the beach, the iguanas were everywhere. You had to literally step to get around them.

Then after lunch we headed back into the main settlement. This sea lion had decided one of the boats makes a good sleeping spot.

While this sea lion caught a fish.

We then did a two hour return trek up the Sierra Negra Volcano. The view at the top was fantastic. We were very lucky to manage to do it on a day with no clouds up there.

The crater (which is active) is 7 kms long and 11 kms wide.

A typical landscape on Isabela.

Back at the waterfront, a pelican at home on a roof.

Some Galapagos Penguins swimming.

An Eagle Ray under the water.

This photo is from an amazing scene which lasted 20 minutes or so. A school of fish came into the waterfront area, and the boobies were dive bombing the area like kamikaze pilots. They fly straight down into the water, and can descend to five metres below, to try and catch a fish, and bring it up. They can even steer and swim under there.

Seeing dozens of boobies dive bombing nearly non-stop was amazing.

Then we went to the lagoons and saw a pink Greater Flamingo.

After that we went to the second of the three land tortoise breeding centres where we saw Grant Robertson, Andrew Little and David Parker, with David Cunliffe heading off in the background.

Some of the smaller tortoises all bunched up together, and even walking over each other.

A Galapagos Yellow Warbler.

This is a two month old baby tortoise. You can see how vulnerable they would be in the wild to predators.

A Great Frigatebird overhead.

We then had a spare hour in the town, with this lovely beach.

The iguanas are not just on the isolated islands, but these two were just sunbathing in town.

This sea lion enjoying the park bench.

We saw an incredible variety of creatures, and all in just one day.  Apart from the density and variety of them, what is perhaps unique is how unafraid of humans they are.  Nothing runs away from you – to the contrary many of them come over to you to show off.