Hidden Galápagos and Peru
September 11-26, 2021
Mike and Judy Henderson
I'll leave the trip diagrams on each page so you can see where we are.
9/21/2021 (Tuesday) Punta Mangle, Fernandina Island. We can't go ashore on Fernandina Island so we're going to take a Zodiac tour along the coast.
Here some Blue-footed Boobies are preening.
A Flightless Cormorant extending its small wings, probably to dry them.
A Galápagos Penguin at the equator.
A mess of Marine Iguanas. A group of Iguanas is called a "mess" of Iguanas, and that is exactly what they leave behind.
A congress of Blue-footed Boobies.
More Blue-footed Boobies.
And then we headed back to the ship for lunch.
It was Paula's birthday, and the crew had a surprise for her.
The ship moved from Punta Mangle, Fernandina to Punta Moreno, Isabela. Fernandina and Isabela were named after Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain who financed the voyages of Columbus.
We took another Zodiac tour, this time to Isabela. We were in a red mangrove area, at first.
A school of Golden Rays floated by.
A closer look at the rays.
We also saw baby sharks and other fish, but getting a good picture through the water is difficult.
We next moved to a rocky area. Here's another mess of Marine Iguana.
A waddle of Galápagos Penguins. In the water, a group of penguins is called a "raft".
A close-up of a marine iguana looking at me. He has the sort of face that only a mother could love.
Iguanas are difficult to photograph because, most of the time, they're almost the same color as the background rocks. This guy was on a light colored rock. This photo was not re-touched.
A mess of iguanas with the Silver Origin in the distance. How many iguanas can you see?
That was the last excursion of the day. We had dinner and then to bed.
9/22/2021 (Wednesday) Santa Cruz Island We have an excursion this morning to see the Galápagos giant tortoises and to sample some of the coffee grown on the island. We had an easy dry landing on Santa Cruz. It's a populated island.
When we arrived at "The Tortoise Reserve" it was misting. Everyone had some type of rain protection.
We began a walk through the reserve, and immediately saw some of the giant tortoises.
Here's a creep of giant tortoises in a mud hole.
Judy and I had our picture taken with one of the tortoises.
Then we went to a building on the reserve were we had a coffee tasting. The name on the building was "Montemar", which I think is the brand name of their coffee.
They had set places for us with all the things we'd need to taste coffee the professional way.
Including a place mat with the various flavors that might be in the coffee.
One of the owners instructed us in how to taste coffee.
She demonstrates how to inhale the aroma of the coffee.
Unfortunately, most of us didn't really like the flavor of the coffee.
As we were leaving, I got this close-up of one of the tortoises. I'm a bit unhappy with the iPhone pictures when I use telephoto, but this one was pretty good.
We took the bus back to the dock. The sea lions have no fear of humans, and can make a real nuisance of themselves. Here's a young one that took over a bench for a nap.
That afternoon, we had a wet landing on Santa Fe Island.
We were greeted by a herd (or raft) of sea lions. They generally pay no attention to people. They don't even wake up.
Here's Jamie taking a picture of a two young sea lions.
Even the birds don't have any fear of us. I think this is may be a mockingbird.
Sea lions are very social. And they were all over the island.
A sea lion just out of the water, with the Silver Origin in the background. Even after climbing over rocks and sand. his fur still glistens.
A couple of land iguanas.
A close-up just to show how cute they are.
The trail was somewhat rough and rocky, but nothing like a later nature walk.
