Sunday, April 29, 2012
Sea Lions
Amazing to approach a nursing sea lion. The mother doesn't bark at you. You can even hear the baby suckling away. On the other hand, we have seen an abandon baby sea lion whose mother went out fishing and likely was eaten by a shark. The other sea lions don't adopt orphans, so the young sea lion lay there dying. The Naturalists aren't allowed to help. It's Natural Selection at work.
Land Tortoises
The giant land Tortoises are so awesome and plentiful!!! So huge! We witnessed them walking along the path, stretching their back legs. They don't hear us but feel our vibrations and sometimes fearfully retreat their heads inside their bodies. We saw so many, even went searching for them in the mud.
The Albatross
Most amazing were the albatross (large birds). We found maybe 50 of them nesting. Got real close to one sitting on her huge egg, see picture. The albatross didn't squawk at us.
Too many Iquanas..
The land animals have no fear of humans because there are no predators so they don't scatter or fly away as you approach. We walk past many Sea Lions, both marine and land iguanas (seen enough of those), birds, land tortoise, and lizards, they don't run away.
Snorkeling
We've taken 5 snorkeling trips, all with amazing sights. We've swam with so many green sea turtles which float around like gentle giants. Some are 4 feet long. We've seen swimming underwater marine iguanas, so unusual and playful sea lions joining us on a snorkel.
The 411
This is a very active trip. We start each morning at 8 AM with an excursion, starting on a zodiac ride to either explore an island, snorkel, or tour the shore line. We are accompanied each journey with a naturalist. They are extremely knowledgable and long winded. It's wonderful until the morning cool and breeze dissipate being replaced with heat and humidity, then no one wants to listen anymore. We return to the ship for lunch, a little rest and then another excursion. The heat takes your energy away.
Roz gets sick
Roz had the worst ever food poisoning on Day 2, never been sicker. When she annouced at 4 in the morning that she was prepped for her colonoscopy, Glenn called the Doctor. Thank goodness for the onboard Doctor that gave her a shot, some pills and electrolytes, she bounced back within the day.
We arrive in Galapagos
The Galapagos Islands are very serious about protecting the islands. On our flight over, the overhead airplane bins were opened and insectiside sprayed throughout for assurance. We are not allowed to remove anything from any island or even swat at a wasp, kill a bug, anything. The islands are pristine, no random trash, grafitti, or toilets. This is Day 5 for us and we even haven't seen a settlement. We are not allowed to try and get any signal for a phone or internet on any island. The ship's internet is practically non-existent. However, we understand that the population of 35,000 people among the 4 settlements do have Facebook and Twitter accounts, so go figure.
The Galapagos Islands are very serious about protecting the islands. On our flight over, the overhead airplane bins were opened and insectiside sprayed throughout for assurance. We are not allowed to remove anything from any island or even swat at a wasp, kill a bug, anything. The islands are pristine, no random trash, grafitti, or toilets. This is Day 5 for us and we even haven't seen a settlement. We are not allowed to try and get any signal for a phone or internet on any island. The ship's internet is practically non-existent. However, we understand that the population of 35,000 people among the 4 settlements do have Facebook and Twitter accounts, so go figure.
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Our visit to the Equattor
We Started our Trip
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Friday, April 13, 2012
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