Galapagos 2008

Day two started very early at 6:oo am on the bridge with hot chocolate to witness the crossing of the equator... it was actually our second crossing of the Equator, but the first one happened at 3:00 am and we didn't get up for that.

From the Bridge we could see the Island of Isabella, and we watched as the GPS went to 0... our Captain did not want any of us to miss it, so after crossing the line, he put the ship in reverse and went over it again... you'll notice that in the first picture we're south of the equator and the third picture we're north, that's because we were going in reverse at the time... so we effectively crossed the equator 4 times...

Here's a Sea lion feeding in the water, and a bunch of birds hoping she's a messy eater...

And here's a Panoramic VIew of Isabella from the ship

The Plan for the morning was a 1Km walk... we took the Panga's to a dock that was typically covered in sea lions

Beth made friends with the tiny pup

Fernandina is home to a large colony of Marine Iguanas, they vary in color from island to island, these were mostly grey... not how they ignore pretty much everything and lie all over one another in the sun... there's even a lizzard using one's head as a perch

Here are some males vying for dominance (it's all about sex again)

This one seems proud of himself... notice the crab in the background, it's called a Sally Lightfoot, and they come in a variety of incredible colors... beth liked them  a lot, so I'll  apologize  up front for all the crab photos.

Here's an Iguana coming out of the water

And some crab photos

And some young Sea Lions playing in a tide pool... the little ones don't go into the ocean where they might get eaten...

Beth, as she occasionally does, stole the camera to take this picture... I think it's the best photo from the trip.

Here's a shot of La Pinta with the Marine Iguana colony in the foreground

And a view over the Lava Flow we were walking on

and another reminder of survival of the fittest

Here's an Iguana pushing another Iguana off a rock

And back to mating, here's a Flightless Cormorant (stubby little wings - they've lost the ability to fly because they don't need it, but they still hold their wings open in the sun to dry them after fishing) the male is bringing the female a gift of sea weed to build their nest

And a baby seal playing at the edge of the water... notice the color of the beach, it changes with every island, black, white, red, green, and even somtimes from place to place on the same island....

Beth and I stop for a landscape portrait

And some crabs, did I mention the Crabs?

Yes, that baby Sea lion snuck into the last picture, and here's a Lava lizard, and me next to the sign that says we can't go any further....

They're called Marine Iguanas because they feed underwater on the algae growing on the rocks... here's a few headed into the surf

And a Masked Booby flying by (lighter color, no blue feet -- there are also Red Footed Boobies, on another island, but we didn't see any.)

THis bird is called a Wandering Tattler

Then We came upon a Green Sea Turtle on a  stretch  of sheltered beach if you look very carefully at the sand, it's mostly mad up of the broken spines of the Pencil Sea Urchin (those sort of elongated reddish brown bits... there's not much coral growing here so only a few of the beaches were the  familiar  white corraline sand. (which as you know is really parrotfish poop.)

A moment of cuteness, with baby Sea Lions

And some Death, with the skeleton of a whale... (moved from the beach and laid out on the lava flow for the benefit of the tourists... it's skull is missing)

Looking out at the ocean, we spotted what looked like a pod of Killer Whales

And as our naturalist explained, "this is an Expedition, not a cruise" so we cancelled the rest of our walk to chase whales...