Galapagos Trip - Animals & Birds

Dear Family and Friends,

This post contains the reason we were so excited to go to the Galapagos. If there are rules for posting to a blog, I am sure that this posting breaks the rules.....too many pictures. Even with all these photos there are hundreds that space would not permit.

Birds:

The first birds we saw were hundreds and hundreds of pelicans. They were living in the trees and we saw them fishing in the ocean. We saw two types, ones with brown heads and ones with white heads.



On our walk to the beach we saw this little fellow. I think he had an injured leg. It looks like he is saying "See my sore leg."


A gathering of birds. This one bird appears to be bragging to the others on the size of fish he caught.

This is one of the most famous birds of the Galapagos. It is a Blue Footed Boobie. This is the only picture I had of this bird, but you can see his blue feet.

Here are a couple of Masked Boobies.

and another Masked Boobie

This little fellow is a Darwin Finch


Sea Life and Animals:

We saw crabs.....this is the Sally Lightfoot Crab. Very visible because of the bright red color.

We watched the fishermen bring in their catch. They would clean it and sell it right on the dock.
Here is one fisherman's catch of the day.

We learned that the lobsters have to be caught by hand. The lobster season is about 3 months long and we were at the end of the season. A couple of close ups of the colorful lobsters.



We saw many sea lions and fur seals.



This little guy is supervising the cleaning of the fish.


We saw these little lizards everywhere. They are called Lava Lizards. They have a beautiful read throat.



We saw many colorful Iguanas.




Some were more colorful than others...

Here is a great picture of a sea lion, seal, iguanas and crabs all sharing the same dock.


And of course we saw one of the Galapagos most famous inhabitants...the giant tortoise.



We learned that when the female lays her eggs, that the eggs have to be rescued and incubated until they hatch. The little babies are then raised in orphanages until they about 5 years old. This is because of predator rats. The rats came onto the island from big ships many years ago and they have not been able to get rid them.


This turtle is the last living turtle of his speices....his name is Lonesome George.


When we visited the Darwin Center, we were surprised to find that we could walk among the giant tortoises.


Here is Chuck posing so you can see the size of these guys. They can live to be 150 years old. Some weigh as much as 500 lbs.


Some fun tortoise pictures....


This tortoise seems to be saying "Ralph, you know, life would be better if you would come out of your shell."


And another..... "Ralph, would you please get off my back?"


I will end with this guy saying "Goodbye."


Love,
Nancy

Galapagos Trip - Flowers

Dear Family and Friends,

When we went to the Galapagos islands, I was not even thinking flowers. The islands are mostly volcanic rock with little vegetation so I didn't have plants on my mind.

There are however, many nice wild flowers and after a day or two I started to take some photographs. Looking back at my pictures, most of the flowers I took pictures of were yellow, but since I wasn't really paying attention to begin with, I probably missed some other beautiful colors.

I do not know the names of the flowers, but this one looks to be related to a Hibiscus. It was growing wild. (Update: This is a Hibiscus!)


Here is an interesting plant and it was growing wild also. (Update: This is a Mimosa)


I think the following two pictures are of the same flowers. They captivated my attention so I pulled out my camera and had a grand time. Again, they seemed to be growing wild. (Update: Yellow Cordia - Coria Lutea)


Here is an interesting one. If you are able to identify any of these flowers, an email would be appreciated. I can then come back to this post and add the names.


Even the cactus was blooming.... (Update: Opuntia)

These last flowers were not wild. They were growing at a hotel we checked out. I think these might be "bleeding hearts."

Thank you Paul McFarling for your help in identifying these flowers. http://www.galapex.com/gallery_art.html

Tomorrow, I will post about the animals. I have been patiently posting about everything else but my heart is in the animal photos. I saved the best until last.

Oh, by the way, if you are thinking of coming to Cuenca in the future you might be interested in this great apartment. It is located very close to the historic district and all the tourist activities. This apartment belongs to our friends, Rich and Nancy, and they have lovingly remodeled it. If you want more information you can check out their blog. Rich and Nancy took us there yesterday so we could see the finished apartment. They have done a very nice job making it very comfortable. It will be a nice alternative to staying in a hotel room.

Love,
Nancy

Galapagos Trip - Scenery

Dear Family and Friends,

During our Galapagos trip we just saw a small slice of the Galapagos pie. We saw enough to know that it is a "go back to" place. There is so much yet for us to see and explore. In this post I will share some of the scenery of the slice of Galapagos we saw.

This was a very typical scene since our trip was land based. There were tourist stores about every third store in the town of Puerto Ayora. They carried most of the Ecuadorian crafts we get here, but most of it had Galapagos embroidered, painted or stamped on it. Very few Panama hats there, mostly cloth hats with ties for under the chin. Of course with all the boat trips, these are more practical.

Pelican Bay was in the center of town. This is where the fishermen bring their catch of the day, clean it and sell it. Pelican Bay is a very descriptive name as there are hundreds of pelicans that park themselves nearby in the trees. The boats are fishermen boats.


You can watch the fishermen clean their catch. In this photo you will see it was more than humans who had their eye on the cleaning process.


Here is one fisherman's daily catch. The people of Puerto Ayora just come down and see what is available, buy their fresh seafood and go home and feast.


We had only a couple of days when the sun really came out. Most of the time it was overcast. This had it's good and bad points. When the sun is out, colors are more vibrant and photographs come out nicer but one can get severely sunburned. When it is overcast it tends to be hot and humid but you stand a chance of not getting burned if you use sunscreen. Also, your pictures come out dull.

Here is another shot of the bay.

Chuck and Linda went on a adventure walk to the beach at Tortuga bay. In order to get to the beach, you have to walk 2.5 K through the lava and cactus...on a paved walkway. They came home with grand tales of how this is the most beautiful beach they had ever seen. So, one overcast morning, Larry and I accompanied them to the beach.

Here is a picture of Chuck and Larry admiring a cactus tree on the walk to the beach.


When we got to the beach, it was deserted. Of course it was, it was overcast and on the verge of rain. Since the sun was not out, we missed the beauty that Chuck and Linda had witnessed. This is because the beautiful blue and green ocean depends on the sun to make it so.


The long walk through the cactus and lava was very hot and humid. If I were to do it again, I would pick a sunny day because even though the walk might be very hot, the view of the beach at the end of the walk would be brilliant.

We took a day trip to the island of Floreana. The sun came out and the scenery was fantastic, the ocean was blue and green and the stark rise of lava jutting up out of the ocean was stunning.



Although the islands are far apart, we could see another island off in the distance.


We took a land tour which included a trip to the top of Floreana island. Even though the day was sunny, the top of the island was almost like a cloud forest. We learned that the first human child born on this island was born in a cave. The story told to us was that a German couple was escaping Germany in 1929. They asked to be let off the large ship on this island. The woman was pregnant. They were able to survive on this island, living in a cave. Their child, a son, was born the same year. He is still alive and lives in the Galapagos islands.

Inca Head

Our guide explained how the father, because they were living in isolation, wanted to educate his son. The father caved this head in a rock to teach his son about the Incas who had once inhabited the South American Andes.

Full face...



It is now a very popular thing for people to have their pictures made with.

On the next post I will share some pictures of the flowers we saw.

Of course, I am saving the best to last.

Love,
Nancy

Galapagos Trip

Dear Family and Friends,

We just returned from a week's trip to the Galapagos Islands. We have had friends return from there and tell us all about their wonderful adventures. Because it is so expensive, we knew that waiting to get residency in Ecuador would be to our advantage. As residents we receive a price break on airline tickets and park entry fees.

Last month Chuck sent out an email inviting friends to join us in a trip to the Galapagos. Larry and Linda responded that they would like to join in the adventure. Chuck found a house to rent online, so we shared a house on Santa Cruz for the week.

There is too much to share in one posting, so after pondering how to post about our trip, I have decided to divide it into this post and 3 others.... Scenery, Flora and Animals. This is the first of four posts about our trip.

Here is the first sight we saw after getting off the airplane. It is the Galapagos airport. The airport is on the island, Baltra. The airstrip was built during WWII by the USA military. It was used as a Pacific defense sight during the war. Other than the airport there is not much else on this small island, so in order to get to Santa Cruz we took a small boat.


After getting on the island, we took a taxi to the town of Puerto Ayora. This is the most populated town in the islands. The population is just under 10,000 residents. With tourists it is quite a bit more. Our taxi driver ended up being a tour guide of sorts. He took us to see a huge sink hole in the highlands of the island on our way to our destination.

Here we are in front of the sink hole.

We got settled into our house and then walked around the town. On the second or third day we took a boat tour to Floreana Island.

Here is Larry and Linda ready to head out.


When we got to Floreana Island, we went into the highlands for a great tour. We saw giant tortoises, iguanas, sea lions, many birds and beautiful scenery.

Here we all are gathered around listening to the tour guide tell us about the giant tortoises we were viewing.


Here is Tarzan Chuck leading the way.

And here we are trekking through the muddy, slippery highlands.


Linda and Chuck went snorkeling. Chuck said the fish were beautiful...big and very colorful.

Chuck doing his Lloyd Bridges impression.


Two members of our party of four were very active. Two members were more relaxed and savored the atmosphere in a more low key method.


One thing we especially all enjoyed was trying different restaurants.


This post is just an overview of our trip. The best is yet to come.

Love,
Nancy