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.
Day 2 awesome welcome back good to c u guys
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