This is where we’re staying for 2 nights. Blogless Sandy will find this amusing, because she knows how lazy I am. There are no lifts. I’m on the top floor…

We hopped in the bus early in the morning on our way to the pier. We drove through such clean streets. The main boulevard is called Charles Darwin Boulevard which I think is really cool.

Ecuador is the only country in the world that gives animals and even the water right so basically all the animals here are protected. Liam was saying it’s like a paradise in this island. There are no homeless and everything’s clean. Weather is really good. It’s lovely.

These are Red Sally crabs.

Me being a tourist.

Sea lions exercising their legal rights.

Awwwwww.

From what I learned in the Antarctic, they’re not just having a nap. They’re digesting their food.

Frigate. They have 2 species here but it’s hard to tell the difference.

When they’re in the air, they look like pterodactyls.

Argh! So annoying.

This is a Blue Footed Boobie, chilling. In my book, it doesn’t count unless you can actually see their blue feet. Three minutes before this shot, I SAW A BLUE FOOTED BOOBIE STANDING UP. I saw the blue feet.

I frantically started prodding my phone to get a shot. Instead, I cleverly switched the lens so I was taking selfies.
omg.
By the time I realised, the boat had sailed past where it was.

I’d better get another chance at seeing a Blue-Footed Boobie, or I’ll be LIVID. What a stupid thing to do.

We landed on another part of the island for a short nature hike.

I never thought of cacti being a Galapagos thing, but here we are.

They’re all over the place. This one is a candelabra.

The cacti grow taller on the islands that have giant tortoises. The tortoises love eating the flowers, so over millennia, the cacti have adapted by growing taller.

Prickly pear… the inside is like honeycomb with water. It’s very popular with tortoises and rats.

Yes, the islands have black rats, thought to be introduced by the pirates back in the day. They’re a huge problem here.

The Galapagos animals evolved without any major predators. Now that they’re here, the indigenous species have no defences.

Cactus with a huge bite taken from it.

Our end point – the beach. Take notice of the colour of the rocks. The marine iguanas blend in beautifully.

A congregation of iguanas. They stood so still and we were very close to them.

The marine iguanas were all over the place. So captivating.

Look at the spines of the one on the right. He’s the Dad.

Blue Heron. There’s a reason the baby marine iguanas were scuttling from hiding place to hiding place. They’re a blue heron was hungry.

I took a stupidly high number of photos of marine iguanas. In my defence, it was impossible not to.

Liam has the map of the Galápagos Islands tattooed on his arm. He uses it as a reference whenever someone has a geographical question.

Red Lava Lizard. Much smaller than than the marine iguanas.

We went snorkelling after that. No pictures, because there’s no way I’m risking my phone by putting it underwater. But unlike Borneo, there was actually fish everywhere!

I was the last one back in the boat. I wasn’t keeping everyone waiting… I was right behind the second last guy, but for someone who doesn’t swim, it shows how engaging it was.

Then we moved to another island, where we went for another hike, and ended up at this flooded ravine.

We swam here for around half an hour. I wasn’t expecting to swim again, so I didn’t have a towel with me, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me!

The sea water when we were snorkelling was 25C.
This water was cooler, but it was so damned refreshing. It must have been very salty, as Lynn (I think) said that it was impossible to duck dive to the bottom.

It was beautiful. Liam jumped from the cliff, just as he did as a kid. He suddenly appeared with a huge splash behind me. I wish I had been facing the other way to have seen him suddenly appear.

When we got back into town, here’s what we found.

Look at me. Have I peed myself? Or do I just have my bathers on under my clothes?

After lunch, most of us jumped onto a mini bus to go to the beach. To be honest, I almost went back to the hotel. My back was really sunburned from the snorkelling and Liam said that there was no shade on the beach.

I was torn. But I followed my rule of always stick close to the guide, and I’m so glad I did.

Where else in the world are you going to have a giant tortoise block your way?

He’s big.

A bit further down the road, we found this bad boy. We were rushing to take photos, when Liam said, “Take your time. The tortoise won’t move!”
He’s young… more than 50.

The tortoise, not Liam.

As they get older, the carapace gets smoother. You can see that this one has lots of texture.

We’re walking through the poison apple forest on the way to the beach, like something out of a Grimm’s fairytale.

Galápagos Mockingbird.

Also known as Darwin‘s muse. This was this bird that made him start to think about the differences in animals and birds from different places.

The Pacific Ocean.
Liam mentioned that there was a brackish water place 2 minutes walk away, and there might be flamingos there. He didn’t seem to have much faith, saying, “Let me know if you see any.”

A few of us wandered up before we had a swim.

Liam came racing back when Linda went to tell him what was here.

First one… then two… then three.

Not nearly so many as I saw in Africa last year, but when I heard that there are only 300 flamingos of this species in the world, I had to lean into this experience. Because look what happened next:

One Percent of the world’s population of Galápagos flamingos were right in front of me!

How wonderful.

Dad joke of the day: