The Galapagos Islands are a part of Ecuador, they are a national park and a biological marine reserve. The islands are well known because of their association with Charles Darwin. It was in the Galapagos Islands that Darwin's observations and collections contributed to his theory of evolution by natural selection.
Our cruise took us to and around the eastern islands of Galapagos where we observed for ourselves a lot of animals.
Tortoises
The first place we went was a tortoise preserve. The baby tortoises are in danger from other animals so they are protected until they get bigger and numbered so they can be tracked. The introduction of other animals to the Galapagos particularly rats threatens the tortoise population.
The last place we toured was an area where tortoises return every year to mate.
This is like a hot tub for tortoises. Looking at all these tortoises in this dirty smelly pond looking for love made me laugh. I thought does one look more attractive than another?
This is one of the few tortoises walking around, not sure if he was in a hurry to get there or out of there.
It is a singles activity for tortoises.
Iguanas
Ick, I don't like an iguana hiding in plain sight next to me.
They were everywhere and sunned themselves noticeably on rocks
and others not so easily recognizable.
Watch where you step, there are iguanas everywhere and anywhere.
I cringe thinking how Eric ate these on his mission.
Penguins
This particular island looked like Mars and not where you would expect to see penguins. I guess we have stereotyped their home to always be winter.
Fur seals
There is a baby in the center of the photo, they blend in well with the rocks.
This one woke up when we came by and wandered out of that little space. I didn't notice the iguanas on the ledge until I looked at the photo.
Whales or what use to be a whale?
Sea Lions
I grew up going to the Sea Lion Caves on the Oregon coast. You walked down the stairs and their were sea lions everywhere and they were noisy and smelly. I remember going to a similar place when we lived in California.
These Sea Lions were in town and everywhere else.
The boats that were empty in the harbor had sea lions sunning themselves on board.
If you like laying around in the sun on the beach
and playing in the surf some
you would enjoy being a sea lion.
Those lumps of black are all sea lions.
We saw lots of baby sea lions with their mamas.
Maneuvering your self over these rocks could be painful even without the crabs.
Star Fish
Emily and Lonny snorkeled everyday and said that is where they saw the most animals. We are just going to have to take their word for it though, since we don't have an underwater camera.
Birds
The Blue Footed Boobie. We saw t-shirts, mugs, signs and everything else claiming "we love boobies." So let me explain if I may, they love this bird. The feet were pretty awesome.
And where there are birds there is bird poop.
There are baby fur seals in the middle of the photo which were darn cute.
Red-footed boobie below.
The birds would fly really low and slow like they were posing for a photo.
and lots of bird poop.
Crabs
I don't remember ever seeing so many crabs on dry land (or wet rock) but they were everywhere.
Black crabs
and orange and red crabs crawling all over the place. They were numerous but small.
The Galapagos Islands was like one giant zoo and took a five day field trip to explore.
