Sunday, January 17, 2010

Day 119 Galapagos Islands

Friday morning it was, once again, up very early… After breakfast we did a dry landing visit to Santa Cruz Island. Here, we first visited the Charles Darwin Research Station. Here we saw Giant Tortoises and very cool land Iguanas. We also saw “Lonesome George”, the last remaining member of his Giant Tortoise subspecies…. So sad! Here we learned about the work of the research station to preserve the giant tortoise population and their breeding program. After our tour it was off to the town of Puerto Ayora. It was time to shop for souvenirs…. I got a souvenir that I will not forget for a very long time. I smashed my toe on the foot that just healed from my Waikiki incident…. Bummer. The town was nice and I did pick up a souvenir or two. It was a great morning (aside from the foot thing….). In the afternoon it was off again for a wet landing, this time at Rabida Island with its red sand beaches. First, we went on an amazing hike with beautiful scenery, sea lions, marine iguanas lava lizards, brown pelicans and mocking birds. I went snorkeling after our hike and the water felt great. Putting the fins on my damaged foot was unpleasant but since this was my last real chance to snorkel I went for it…. The seas were up a bit and the skies a bit overcast but the snorkeling was better than expected. My underwater photos were a bit disappointing… a result of a new camera perhaps. The fish and sea lions swimming around was great…. Another fabulous day!

1 comment:

Holly said...

wow............