Galapagos Adventure Day 3, Bartolome Island and Sullivan Bay

Bartolome Island - It was up early as usual and after breakfast, we left for our hike.  We were going to one of the most breath-taking panoramas in the Galapagos.  There are striking rock formations in shades of shimmering black, red and green and one of the most recognized landmarks, Pinnacle Rock.  But for the best view of it all, you must go to the top.  There are stairs to make it easy -- except there are 380 of them.  Probably not a recommended activity in the heat of equatorial high noon, but quite lovely in the morning.

You just can't take too many pictures of this view!

Next, we change locations and are off on another hike.  Lava!! My favorite thing!  I don't know why I love it, but I do -- in all its many forms.  This is Pahoehoe lava -- ropy, billowy, smooth.  It fascinates me!

Mud burps, whole highways of patterns, small pictures on the ground -- all frozen for all time.

Siggy and Glen have a little fun in one of the lava tubes.  By the end of the hike, the soles of Siggy shoes were melting off in the heat.  Our on-board doctor glued them back on for her -- another of his many services!

 

 

 

Sullivan Bay  Oh my gosh, after two hikes under the sun, are we ready for a snorkel!! 

  

We plunged in ...

... directly on top of some white tip reef sharks that were sleeping on the bottom!  Of course, I know these sharks as I have watched shark week for many years.  So I feel pretty expert here.  (all that is kidding -)  Anyway, I know they are relatively benign creatures and one of the few sharks that can pump water over its gills allowing it to rest on the sea bottom.  Having 32 tourists suddenly dumped on them was enough to wake them up rather quickly and they all began cruising around -- an arresting sight. 

I keep telling myself that they are white tips and not dangerous, but still, they do look very shark-ish and that tends to trigger something in the pit of your stomach.

Our group had pretty quickly scattered once in the water.  We watched fascinated as the sharks circled and cruised about in the rock formations.  I was watching the largest one as it went away from me (good) and then turned to go around a tall formation that would lead it back around to me (not so good).  I watched it disappear as it went in.  I noticed that I was alone in the water -- no one else in sight -- and I wondered if I should beat a hasty retreat ... somewhere.  There really is no such thing as hasty in the water.  Basically you are flailing and making a spectacle of yourself.  No good.  I decide to hang as still as I could in the water.  Around he came and made the next slight turn directly toward me.  Um -- can these things see straight ahead?  Be a real story if it simply ran into me.  But of course not -- another slight course correction and he cruised past me.  I could see his eyes then.  Dead eyes as mentioned in "Jaws" and completely disinterested in me. 

Yeah -- check out the eye.  Yikes.

 

 

 

 Back on the ship for some cuter creatures -- the creations of our talented crew!  We all looked forward to the new critter that would appear on our beds every night.  And the galley staff was very creative, too. 

 

 

 

 

Day 2 - Urbina Bay and Targus Cove, Isabela Island

 

 

With modern technology of these days, a child could put out a blog.  And if you happen to have a spare child we could borrow for a day or so ...  Well, soldiering on here, Day Two of our trip to the Galapagos Islands:  We are settled into our routine on board the Evolution and getting to know each other and our crew.  There are 31 "adventurers" as they call us, from the US, Canada, Australia and Denmark.  We are lucky -- it's a good group.  To take care of the 31 of us, there are 20 crew.  The crew, across the board, was wonderful -- every one of them.  Our routine was breakfast call at 7:15, breakfast at 7:30, board the pangas for the day's first land or sea adventure 8:30 a.m.  No, this is not a "cruise".  You are busy and there are things to do that can be challenging.  But we had a doctor with us.  He was a cardiac surgeon (very cute).  Amongst ourselves, we had two ER docs, a dermatologist and a psychiatrist.  That about covers anything that could come up! 

 

 

 We land at Urbina Bay and our goal is to see land iguanas.  The penguins are a bonus!

These are sea turtle nesting sites.

 We happen upon this tortoise youngster on our hike.

 He is young so he still has bands on his shell.

Hmmm.  Evidence of larger tortoises.  Would this be a turtle pat?  Careful about what you bring back to the ship!

Omar explains the delicate, complex balance of nature to the group.  And Laurie sees a ... bird? 

A flycatcher.  Maybe explains why I didn't retain more scientific information.

Or could have been a Darwin's finch

Or grasshopper.

But here is a real find -- our first land iguana!

They are huge!  The size of an overweight dachshund!

This one just getting some color.  There are pink ones, too, but on another island that we did not go to, so ... something still out there.

 A bit scary!

We return to the ship and move to another location.  Along the way we see whales!  Humpbacks and the rarer Brydes whale.

We have our snorkeling gear with us so we are ready for our next adventure.

Oh my gosh!  I didn't get a lot of great underwater pictures, but I got this one and I am thrilled with it!  Marine iguana eating algae from the rocks with his stunningly blue friend!

Aw, is this cute or what!

And here come the sea lions!  They could not resist taunting us!

Here comes the crochety Auntie Cormorant.  Out! she says! Out!  That's Bob on the receiving end. 

And me!  Little bugger!

 

!!!!!!!

 

This is late afternoon in Targus Cove.  We are hiking to Darwin Lake.  That's a newer and maybe fancier boat in the foreground, but we love Evolution.

At Darwin Lake

The end of another wonderful day.  Our ship rocks us to sleep as we travel overnight to Bartolome Island.