North Seymour and Cerro Dragon, Galápagos Islands, October 27, 2017

The Galápagos include 13 major islands ranging in area from 14 km sq to 4588 km sq.  There are 6 smaller islands only 1-5 sq km and many unnamed islets.  Only 5 islands are inhabited.  The archipelago was discovered accidently in 1535 by the first Bishop of Panama - Tomas de Berlanga.  He got lost sailing from Panama to Peru.  The first time the islands appeared on a map was in 1570.  Scientific exploration began in the late 18th century.  Ecuador claimed the Galapagos in 1832 and for a century, the islands were sparsely inhabited and used as penal colonies.  Charles Darwin arrived in 1835 and stayed for 5 weeks, making notes and collecting specimens to support his theory of evolution.  He mostly observed and ate the sea tortoises.

After a great breakfast, we had a dry landing on North Seymour Island-

which is 1.9 sq km.  Here we saw many frigates.  The males puff out their red throat bag when they're mating.  They also make a clucking noise as the females fly nearby.  The females lay one egg at a time and it takes a month to incubate, then the lone babies are raised until they're about 4-5 months old, then mating happens again-

Juveniles-

We also saw swallow tailed gulls-

Sea lions-

Land iguanas-

Blue footed boobies-

and juveniles-

We came back to the boat for a few minutes and then went snorkelling.  I am very glad I've rented a wet suit and fins for the week.  Masks and snorkels are free.  The current was strong and the water about 18 degrees.  I saw quite a bit:

Parrotfish, yellow tailed grunts, and trumpet fish-

White banded king angel fish, damselfish and corral- 

White tip sharks which were on the bottom so very far away, puffer fish and butterfly fish-

Octopus before and after Edgar our guide dove down to scare it-

We came back to the boat for lunch and a couple hours rest, then we headed off to Cerro Dragon on Isla Santa Cruz.  The beach rock is black lava-

It's summer so the trees are dormant and everything is super dry.

Our boat is on the left-

Tree bark-

A cactus-

More cacti-

We came across a land iguana on the middle of the path.  Edgar pulled a fruit from a nearby cactus and threw it on the road.  The second that iguana heard the plop, he was on the fruit.  He dragged it around in the dirt, trying to knock the spines off and then in one mouthful, devoured it-

Look at his teeth!

We also saw marine iguanas on the shore-

We snorkelled in a small bay, looking for turtles.  I was following a huge one, snapping pictures like crazy, until I looked at my camera screen and saw.... Nothing.  I pulled my camera out of the water and noticed the battery/picture card door was open and my camera was full of water.  Bone Head!  So now my camera is in a bag of rice.  Hmmmm.  WTF.  How could I do that?

Tomorrow we're off to the town of Puerto Ayora which has a population of 12,000 to visit the Darwin Museum.  We've also got a couple hikes planned and 6 new passengers will join us.  I hope I don't have to share my room!

Bachas Beach, Isla Santa Cruz, Galápagos, October 26, 2017

The airport is 40 km from Quito and at 6 am, there isn't much traffic.  Something was going on just down the street from the hostel so the police had it blocked off and about 20 cops were standing around.  This meant I couldn't get a cab right in front of the hostel but had to walk a few blocks to the main road.  My backpack is too heavy for that!  

I was at the airport plenty early, and after paying a $20 Galapagos fee, checking in, having breakfast and finally boarding, I was on my way.

Quito is built on the floor of the valley and goes on for miles and miles.  The streets either go up or down, so I was doing a lot of huffing and puffing while walking.  I miss the flat from home-

My first view of the Galapagos.  Am I on the moon?

After landing and paying the $100 entrance fee, I found my name on a sign, met Edgar my guide for the next 8 days and we were on a bus heading for the port-

I met the other two guests: Martin and Veronika from Slovakia and soon we were in a dinghy going to the Floreana.  The cook must have been feeding these frigates-

After getting settled, we had a safety meeting and talked about our itinerary for the next 8 days-

Our first stop was Bachas Beach on the island of Santa Cruz where we saw many Sally Lightfoot crabs-

The babies are black but as they mature, they become very colorful.  Their underside is a beautiful blue-

We also saw a couple of sea lions-

This fellow appeared injured, maybe from a shark-

There was a Greater Flamingo eating crustaceans in a small brakish pond.  They get their color from what they eat-

Next to the pond were marine iguanas.  They are herbivores and very fat and lazy.  They never moved and we were within 3 feet of them-

There were a couple of brown pelicans diving constantly into the water after fish-

The female brown pelican has different coloring on her head and neck-

There were a couple other boats visiting Santa Cruz:  Galaxy II and Darwin.  While planning this trip, Darwin was my other choice but for some reason, I chose the Floreana-

Cool cacti-

There are very strict rules about visiting Galapagos: no touching, no taking anything away, stay at least 2 meters from the animals, group visits are timed and only so many boats may visit an island in a day.  One thing really strange was that none of the animals was afraid of us; they acted as if we weren't even there.  A little yellow finch on the beach just kept getting closer and closer-

After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, it was feared that the Panama Canal might be next, so the Americans set up a base on Bachus.  They were here for a couple of years and left in 1947.  The land was given back to Ecuador in 1949.  All that's left today are some foundations-

We had a debriefing meeting just before supper to talk about our plan for tomorrow.  We'll have a couple of dry landings and two different spots for snorkeling.  

Both lunch and supper were delicious: meat, salad, vegetables and dessert.  6 more guests are arriving on Saturday.  I hope I don't get a roommate, there's hardly enough room for me in my cabin!

Looking forward to North Seymour, Santa Cruz and Cerro Dragon tomorrow!