Galapagos

The Galapagos Islands were beyond words. But I'll try.

It was amazing seeing how all of the animals on those islands lived in harmony. Since the islands are protected, the animals weren't afraid of humans and were just as curious about us as we were about them. It wasn't unusual for a bird or sea lion to walk right up to one of us to get a better look. The animals there do have predators, but they didn't have the fear that you see in the animals in the backyard.  I think it was because they were all so happy. Since the islands were made by volcanic soil, the land was extremely fertile, so they had all the food they wanted. There was fruit and vegetation growing everywhere. The beaches were incredibly beautiful because there were no buildings, everything was as nature intended it to be. There are people living on some of the islands, but the population is very small. Most of the islands are part of a protected national park, and that was the part we explored.

This was not a typical cruise. First off the boat was very small - there were only 16 passengers on board.  The islands have a very sensitive ecosystem so most don't allow larger boats to enter. It was a nice group, we had our meals together and I met some very interesting people. People came from all over the world for this cruise. We met people from Lithuania, Germany, Canada, Isreal, Italy, Quatar, and there were 2 more from the US. Greg and I were the youngest there, but we weren't the only young people there. There were some couples who were spending their retirement traveling, and then there were some younger people taking a break from life to explore the world.

The second thing that made this cruise unique was that there was very little relaxing involved on this trip. For the most part we were only on the boat to eat and sleep. The majority of our days was spent in the sun hiking, snorkling, or riding in a dinghy around the islands. And keep in mind that the Galapagos Islands are right on the equator, so the sun was intense. We were up at 7am every morning to have breakfast and out of the boat by 7:30. The first few days were exhausting, but by the third day we got used to it.

We went snorkling twice a day almost every day (it was my first time snorking too), and saw so many great things. We swam with sea lions, sea turtles, tons of fish, penguins, and even sharks! At first it was a bit frightening to see sharks swimming beneath us, but they were very peaceful and didn't bother us. If anything I'd say the sea lions were the more aggressive of the group. Greg and I took pictures with some disposable underwater cameras but I still have to get those pictures developed, I'll post them when I do.

We took hundreds of pictures and a ton of videos of this trip, but I'll show you my favorites here.

This was the ship we went on, it was called the Millennium. As you can see it's pretty small for a cruise ship, but we had a nice dining and living room area.

The first day we got there, after we got all settled in from our plane flight, we saw giant tortoises. 

The more nutrients they get, the more round their shell. As you can see, these guys were very healthy.  There was passion fruit on the ground here from the trees, so we were eating delicious passion fruit we picked off the ground as we saw these guys. 

Speaking of fruit, Ecuador has many delicious fruits that I've never even heard of since its soil is so rich. A lot of the new ones I tried I couldn't even pronounce, and you can't find them outside of Ecuador because they don't export well. There were plenty of coconuts and bananas on the islands, as well as coffee beans. I saw quite a few places selling organic locally grown coffee. Here's a pictures of a coffee tree.

And one of the many coconut trees. Some of them had coconuts lying around their base. Greg and I ate a few fresh coconuts while we were there.

The next day we saw sea lions and iguanas hanging out on the beach. There were sea lions everywhere, and there were quite a few babies nursing from their mothers. Here are some pictures from the beach.

These guys greeted us at the entrance.

They love to lie in the sun.

Here's a baby sea lion nursing. I got a video of it as well.

Here's Greg hanging out with them.

Greg snapped this picture.

And here are some more videos of the sea lions.





This was a young sea lion that wanted to make his presence known as he charged through us to get to the beach.



The sea lions were surprising aggressive. At one point we split off into 2 groups, half of us went snorkeling and the other half who didn't want to hung out at the beach. I went snorkeling so I didn't see this, but the group that stayed at the beach was kicked off the beach onto the rocks behind it by a group of sea lions. It was a small beach, no bigger than 50 feet, and after about a minute of the people being in the water they saw a group of 5 sea lions march out of the water in a line and made them back up onto the lava rocks. Then, once the people were no longer on their beach, all of the sea lions started playing in the sand while the people sat on the rocks, waiting for their ride to take them to the boat. They were apparently trespassing on the sea lions' private beach.

We went on a hike to the top of a volcano one of the days. It was pretty foggy so we didn't have much of a view when we got to the top. There are tons of volcanoes on the islands, and their lava is why the soil is so fertile.

This was our view at the top. There is a big crater inside, past all of the fog.

Here are some flamingos hanging out in a lagoon.

And a sea lion hanging out on a boat. Apparently a group of sea lions paid a visit to our ship towards the end of the cruise (they just jumped on board to say hello), but Greg and I missed that. That's one of the volcanoes in the background.

We visited a tortoise breeding area, and saw a bunch of baby tortoises.

This is a 30-day old tortoise, and that's an unhatched egg he's on top of.

Here they are fully grown.

Here are some pictures of a lava field we visited. It's interesting how the lava turns into soil, but you can see some plants starting to pop up in it.

Here was a small oasis in it.

There were plenty of cactuses around the islands.

This bird is called the Flightless Cormorant. Its wings are too short for it to fly, so it just hops around.

And here were a bunch of birds hanging out on some rocks.

A sea lion and an iguana

Lots of iguanas. They typically hung out in groups like this.

An iguana snacking on the moss.



Here's a lizard hanging out on top of a sea lion sun bathing.

Some more iguanas.

Greg snapped this photo of the crab. These crabs were all over the islands.

Here were  some flightless cormorants hanging out.

These are some fur seals we saw.

And sea lions.

This little guy stopped by to say hello.

This volcano is called Chinese Hat for its shape.

We took a dinghy ride through these trees. They're very interesting because those sticks you see aren't their trunks, they're parts of the branches that grow down to absorb the salt water.

And we saw some sting rays and sea turtles in the water.

This bird is called the Blue Footed Booby, and it's a very iconic bird of the Galapagos Islands along with the Frigate bird.

This is my favorite picture. Greg sat down next to one and it got curious.

It just so happened to be mating season for them, so we saw plenty of couples and courting dances.

The courting dance involves the male stomping his feet, like this.



We also saw a bunch of frigate birds. The males were courting as well, and they do it by puffing out a red balloon thing on their chest that looks like a heart. The island that had these guys also had a ton of ginormous spiders which creeped me out a little bit, but it wasn't as scary seeing them in their natural setting as opposed to in my car.

Here were some big iguanas, enjoying the shade.

A frigate bird over a nest.

Here's a blue footed booby guarding an egg between its feet.

This was an absolutely adorable baby sea lion.

Greg and I at the top of one of our hikes.

This was the view. You can see some volcanoes in the background.

We saw some hawks at the top.

And saw some more penguins on the ride back.

We saw a fresh lava field, it was so interesting to see the patterns in the way the lava was formed. Since it was so fresh there were very few plants, and only a few lava lizards. The cracks you see in it happen when the lava cools.

One of the few plants in the lava.

This is the very beginning of the lava turning into soil. The brown you see is iron oxidizing.

These are holes that sea turtles dug to lay their eggs in. Our guide said that sometimes a turtle will dig a false hole to fool predators seeking eggs, and then lay the eggs in another, less obvious one. You can see the tracks in the sand of animals seeking out the holes.

And speaking of tracks in the sand, I thought it was cute how the iguanas always left a trail with their tail in the sand whenever they walked.

One of the beaches we visited. Not a building in sight.

A bird fishing.

Here is an octopus we saw on the beach. He was trying to build a den for himself by grabbing rocks to block off the opening.

On that same beach we also saw some baby sharks in the water! They were about a foot long. There were a few baby hammerheads and one reef shark. I tried taking pictures of the hammerheads but they didn't come out too well. Here's a picture of the reef shark, which isn't that much easier to make out, you can just barely make out its shape.

On our last day on the boat we also saw some whales while we were traveling. There was a mother and baby whale which were totally adorable, but sadly I don't have anything to show you from that. I didn't have my camera at the time, and Greg took some videos of it but since they were so far away it's hard to see them in the footage.

And then we started the long journey home. First we flew to Quito, Ecuador, spent the night there, and then flew to San Francisco the next day. It was quite a long journey to get back. When we got to Quito we had some time to explore, so we took a trolly car to the top of a volcano where we had a good view of the city.

This was on the way going up.

And this was the view from the top. You can see all of Quito from here, as you can see it's an incredibly big and dense city.

Here's Greg at the top.

And this was us on the way back down.

I told Greg not to make a funny face and just act natural.