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Day 2 Galapagos

July 26, 2014 By sue Leave a Comment

P103025630 September 2011

We have sailed overnight to Española Island.  Each evening Daniel gives us a briefing of what to expect the next day and what we will need.  He was previously an art teacher so we are treated each day to drawings to match what we will get with our programme. It is the cool, windy season at the Galapagos – not so good for the swimming but good for walking.  This morning is grey and overcast but we are keen to have our first real exposure to wildlife on the islands.  We board our rubber dinghies and head first to Punta Suarez.

P1030261
P1030269

Each season brings its own bonuses and we are at just the right time to see all the baby animals.  Our first stop is a kindergarten bay for young sea-lion pups.  They are all clustered together with just a few females supervising them while they sleep and practise swimming.  We also get our first exposure to the marine iguanas in their gaudy breeding colours, all crowded together soaking up whatever warmth they can get.  The brightly coloured Sally Lightfoot crabs scuttled around the rocks interspersed with other birds and crabs that blended in with the rocks.

Sea lion pups, Punta Suarez
Sea lion pups, Punta Suarez
Sea lion pups, Punta Suarez
Sea lion pups, Punta Suarez
Sea lion pups, Punta Suarez
Sea lion pups, Punta Suarez
Sea lion pups, Punta Suarez
Sea lion pups, Punta Suarez
Sea lion pups, Punta Suarez
Sea lion pups, Punta Suarez
Marine iguanas in mating colours
Marine iguanas in mating colours
Marine iguanas in mating colours
Marine iguanas in mating colours
Marine iguanas in mating colours
Marine iguanas in mating colours
Bird cleaning service for iguanas
Bird cleaning service for iguanas
Marine iguanas in mating colours
Marine iguanas in mating colours
Iguana and Sally Lightfoot Crab
Iguana and Sally Lightfoot Crab
Sally Lightfoot Crab
Sally Lightfoot Crab
Camouflage
Camouflage
Finches
Finches
P1030485
Finches
Finches
Finches
Finches

As a biologist, I was really excited to be observing Galapagos finches first hand and feeling a connection to Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution.  Although I had a guide to the birds of Galapagos, I was really struggling to identify the finches: that one is on the ground – it must be a medium ground finch but there is one over there on the cactus as well, perhaps it is a cactus finch….  Even if I couldn’t identify them all I could certainly appreciate the diversity of beak sizes and shapes and other ways they had adapted to their environment.

We walked across the island and were delighted to see albatross with chicks that were about 1 month old; blue footed boobies and Nazca boobies nesting and with chicks; Galapagos hawks, mocking birds, Galapagos doves with startling blue eyes, brown pelicans, lizards with bright red heads for breeding season.  We were told that we were to stay 1-2 metres away from any wildlife but we quickly discovered that this was impossible because if you stepped back to be a metre away from one you would be standing on something else.  The birds and animals were so unworried by humans that they would be nesting on the pathway and wouldn’t even flinch as you stepped over them.  It was a photographer’s dream; we set our cameras to ‘burst’ settings and took hundreds of photos in just a few hours.

Albatross chick
Albatross chick
Nesting Albatross
Nesting Albatross
Nesting Albatross and chick
Nesting Albatross and chick
Albatross egg
Albatross egg
Albatross
Albatross
Albatross
Albatross
Albatross
Albatross
Espanola Island
Espanola Island
Espanola Island
Espanola Island
Espanola Island
Espanola Island
Espanola Island
Espanola Island
Espanola Island
Espanola Island
Blue Footed Boobie
Blue Footed Boobie
Blue Footed Boobies with eggs
Blue Footed Boobies with eggs
Blue Footed Boobie with eggs
Blue Footed Boobie with eggs
Blue Footed Boobie chick
Blue Footed Boobie chick
Blue Footed Boobie with chicks
Blue Footed Boobie with chicks
Blue Footed Boobie Chicks
Blue Footed Boobie Chicks
Blue Footed Boobie
Blue Footed Boobie
Nazca Boobies
Nazca Boobies
Nazca Boobie chick
Nazca Boobie chick
Galapagos Dove
Galapagos Dove
Espanola Mockingbird
Espanola Mockingbird
Lizard with red head for breeding season
Lizard with red head for breeding season
Galapagos Hawk
Galapagos Hawk

In the afternoon we visited Gardner Bay for another dose of sea-lion kindergarten cuteness and some snorkelling.

Gardner Bay, sea-lions
Gardner Bay, sea-lions
Gardner Bay, sea-lions
Gardner Bay, sea-lions
Gardner Bay, sea-lions
Gardner Bay, sea-lions
Gardner Bay, sea-lions
Gardner Bay, sea-lions
Ruddy turnstone
Ruddy turnstone
P1030736
Brown Pelican
Brown Pelican
Brown Pelican
Brown Pelican

 


For similar trips see:

Explore South America with Intrepid Travel (a range of different travel styles – see my post on travel styles)

Peregrine Adventures Travel Destinations (Comfort and independent tours)

Geckos Adventures (for 18 to 30s)

Note: After people telling me they had booked an Intrepid Tour on my recommendation, I now have affiliate links with the Intrepid Travel group of companies and may receive a commission if you book a tour online within a couple of months after clicking through to these sites.  So if you are enjoying my tips and stories and finding them useful in choosing your own travel, please click on these links and help me to bring you more ☺.


 

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Filed Under: Ecuador & Galapagos, Latin America, Travel Tagged With: Galapagos

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Life’s Bounty is about all the things I enjoy experiencing, creating, and sharing. Join me as I travel in search of new experiences; coax more produce from my backyard in Auckland, New Zealand and preserve the harvested bounty; and try my hand at making anything from cider to jewellery to cards to gift packs of soap.
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