Galapagos Islands 2023

Jan 22

Isla Plazas

We woke up off the small Island of Plazas, our first excursion was a dry landing. We got to walk around to look at Boobies, marine iguanas, and Sea Lions, so many Sea Lions.

The terrain on this island is different again, much more colour, and medium size cacti, but still very dry and rocky.

Cactus trees are being replanted to try and provide more stability to the island.

Look at those little Blue Feet!

As we are watching the wildlife perched on white stained rocks, Gallo tells us a story...

I probably don't need to tell you this, but on one excursion I did, there was this lady, and I saw her lean over and wipe her finger on the white part of one of these rocks. I was trying to figure out what she was doing and then she lifted her finger up and licked it, saying "This doesn't taste salty". I had to to tell her the white was not from the salt water, but from the iguanas and boobies you are looking at. So I am saying to you, please don't lick the ground!

We were all dying laughing, and this became a recurring phrase for the rest of the trip...

don't lick the ground, and don't eat yellow snow.

We've seen the Marine Iguanas, we've seen the Blue Footed Boobies, time to pull anchor and head to Isla Santa Fe

Along the way we are accompanied by a flock of Magnificent Frigatebirds, floating effortlessly with the drafts from our ship.

Isla Santa Fe

Our main excursion for Isla Santa Fe was snorkeling, clear waters were so much better! Sharks, turtles, rays, sea lions, huge schools of fish. We had two hours and were taken to two different spots.

Before we even got in the water we had company.

Mats was diving again and the Sea Lion was happy to swim around him.The diving stopped after we spotted the first Shark.

This time when more sharks showed up, and were much closer to us, Norine had had enough, and our zodiac driver Angel quickly came over and let her hold onto the ladder and took her away from the area. I kept taking pictures.

We came out for a bit, and they took us to another area, this time a little more sandy bottomed.

It's a little hard to see (that's intentional camouflage) this Ray burying himself in the white sandy bottom.

About the same time my camera starts fogging up again, a ray and a big turtle come floating by. Luckily Craig got some better pictures

Foggy lens syndrome... time for a new underwater camera

Just a couple more Galapagos sharks just resting on the bottom, no big deal.

After a short break on the boat we were back in the zodiacs, this time for a wet landing on Santa Fe beach. A chance to walk around and look at more Sea Lions, boobies and marine iguanas.

Another rare bird to see is the Galapagos Hawk, one of the rare predators on these islands.

The cactus trees here have adapted to become taller, to protect themselves from the cactus eating iguanas.

Everybody's tired after a long day, and it's time to head back to the boat, but first a couple more pictures of a couple dozen Sea Lions while we are waiting on the beach.