Galapagos Day 2: South Plaza Islet and North Seymor

Overnight, we sailed to South Plaza Islet, a tiny little island well worth going out of the way to visit.  Some of the vegetation on the island is red. Combined with the giant prickly pear cacti and the blue water, it is incredibly beautiful.

The girls really enjoyed it too.

When we landed, we were greeted by red crabs and sea lions, but we quickly spotted a yellow land iguana sunning itself.

Jeff got a picture of a more active one a bit later.

He even got a close up.

Every so often, he also swung his camera to check on the rest of his family, and Judy took a family picture for us.

We were all super excited when we spotted a blue footed boobie.

As we walked along, we saw some interesting netting.  Our guide explained that these were new prickly pear cacti, and there was an effort to grow more in areas where they had been damaged.  She said that the large ones we were seeing were around 100 years old.

As we walked up the cliff, we came upon a sea lion who was done sunning himself and ready to head back down to the water.  He waddled right past our group, and we had to shift to stay out of his way.

He did stop very responsibly at the stop sign though.

Our guide explained to us that the shinier rocks had been used by sea lions, and the oils from their skin (along with other bodily fluids) had made the rocks slick.

We finished our walk along the shore spotting sea lions napping in the shade and basking on the rocks.  We even saw a little marine iguana.

We had some lunch when we got back, and in the early afternoon, they offered another shot at the glass bottom boat.  This time, Jeff and Vivian stayed on the ship, and Elena and I went off in search of sharks.  Jeff got some pictures of us on the zodiac and the fun process of transferring from the zodiac to the glass bottomed boat.

This time around we saw not one, but three Galapagos sharks resting in the rocks.  We were also surprised by a beautiful group of golden rays swimming under our boat, and, in addition to our yellow tailed friends, we found some beautiful blue fish with orange tails.  I didn't get any pictures, but my Aunt Molly did, so I'll add those as soon as she sends them to me.  It was a great experience, and Elena was completely satisfied.

The afternoon island was North Seymor, which was completely different from the other two islands.  Here, the soil was a reddish brown and the trees were in their white, hibernating state.

It was a perfect place for birds though, and we saw hundreds of them nesting.  The younger birds were more juveniles than chicks and could be distinguished by their whiter, somewhat fluffier feathers.  

The stars of the island though, were the magnificent frigate birds (magnificent is actually part of their name), who puff out a red sack as part of their mating ritual.

Jeff also got some great pictures of the great frigate bird.

But everyone got distracted by the super cute sea lion pups.

There was also a full sized sea lion napping directly across the path.  

You're not allowed to get too close to them, but you're also supposed to stay on the path, since you don't want to inadvertently step on bird's nest.  The guides consulted and found a safe alternate path for us to use to get around the napping sea lion.

As we walked along, we came across this group of trees just full of various types of birds. They didn't seem to mind each other at all.

Jeff also got some good pictures of the waves crashing on the shore and the sun setting.

It was another incredible and full day.  I had learned my lesson from the night before where the girls fell asleep at dinner.  We got them cleaned up and in their pajamas before heading to dinner.  They stayed awake this time, but were asleep shortly afterwards.  That night I dreamed of birds and sea lions and colorful islands.

Galapagos Day 1: Baltra and Bartolome Island

We were so excited to start our Galapagos adventure that there was minimal grumbling about getting up at 4am.  The Quito airport is almost an hour outside of the city, but once you get there it's quite small and easy to navigate.  They even had a play area for the girls.

We had time for a quick breakfast, and then we were on the plane.  The cruise line had booked us on the flight, and it made a stop in Guayaquil which added time and some annoyance, but we got over it. We've decided next time (because there are more islands, so there will be a next time), we'll just go directly to Guayaquil.  The cruise company had given us stickers, and it was fun to see the other people on the plane with the same stickers.  Finally, we arrived at the Baltra airport.  We were in the Galapagos!!!

We had to pay our park entry fee in cash, which we were prepared for, and the cruise line had paid our travel tax, so we had a document that needed to be scanned.  It was all pretty quick and easy.  A guide from the ship met us at baggage claim and guided us to a bus which took us to the pier.  We didn't get any pictures at the pier because we were so busy watching the sea lion which was waddling around.  They had a special kid size life vest for Elena, and then we all piled into a zodiac to get to our ship, the Legend.

We were greeted with mimosas for the adults and orange juice for the kids.  Vivian and Elena were the only kids on the ship.  There were about 50 passengers.

We were given a quick overview of the ship and then escorted to our rooms.  Elena shared with me and Jeff, while Vivian bunked with Judy.  The rooms were comfortable with great windows.

We had a bit of time to explore the ship, and then they served a very nice buffet lunch.  The ten of us had our own table.  There were two buffet stations, and it didn't feel crowded at all.  When we had been looking around, Elena had spotted the little pool, so as soon as lunch was done, she asked to go swimming.  It was a bit chilly, so she was the only taker.  Vivian and I just sat and watched.

By then, we were at our first stop, Bartolome Island.  The first activity for the day was snorkeling or going out in glass bottomed boat.  Judy and Grace went snorkeling, while Jeff and I decided to take the girls in the glass bottom boat.  

As we were learning, getting on and off the boat was always an exciting process.  The boat never docked, just dropped anchor, and then we had to jump into a zodiac which took us to wherever we were going.  In the case of the glass bottom boat, it took us to the boat, and then we had to swing ourselves from one boat to the other.  The ship's crew were always on hand to help though, and Elena got to the point where she confidently held her arms up and waited to be swung from place to place.  To their credit, no one ever fell in the water, and the kids thought it was great fun.

Our first animal sighting was actually out of the water, a sea lion sunning itself on the cliff.

We saw lots of fish under the glass bottomed boat.  Our favorites were the ones with the yellow tails, but we also had a whole school swim under us.

We thought it was great, but Elena was disappointed that she hadn't seen a shark.  She asked the boat driver for a tiburón (shark in Spanish), which I could tell melted his heart, but he couldn't find one for us.  Elena got over it when we offered her a pineapple smoothie back on the ship.  We had a bit of time to meet back up with the rest of our group, and then it was time to go ashore for our first land adventure.

The ship's passengers were divided into four groups: albatross, boobies, cormarants, and dolphins.  The ten of us were in the boobie group with three other couples.  We were all excited about our group name, and whenever we were mentioned we shouted out, boobies! Yes, it was a very mature cruise group ;-)

When they called the boobie group, we all got our life jackets on and lurched into the zodiac.  We pulled up to some rock steps and were helped out and up.

The rocks along the shoreline on all the islands we visited were covered in red crabs.  Jeff got a good picture of one at a later island.  They were so cool.

Bartolome Island is very much a volcanic island.  There are no active volcanoes, but it is covered in ash and has all kinds of interesting rock formations.  In order to preserve the island, there is a wooden walkway for visitors.  That is what we walked along and then climbed to get to the top of the island.

Along the way, we got to stop and feel some volcanic rocks.

We also met some lava lizards who were moving too fast to get a clear picture and saw some interesting cacti.

The sun was setting as we were walking, which made for some great pictures.

Slowly, but surely, we made our way back down.  We passed another group on their way up.  They said if Elena could do it, so could they.  We had pre ordered dinner at lunch, so our food was ready for us when we showed up.  Elena had asked for a hot dog, and she was very pleased with the result.

Luckily, we managed to hang on until dessert, which was also yummy.

Both Vivian and Elena fell asleep at the table almost as soon as they were done eating.  Elena barely registered being carried back to the room.  Despite being worn out, we all agreed that it was an incredible first day.