Santa Cruz
At the beach, looking inland.
This woman made an attempt at joining Rocky in hanumanasana...
She soon gave up : )
I brought my two little animals everywhere. They will get their own post.
One of them is not really impressed with me.
Highland vs coast
What it takes to keep you from getting eaten.
Puerto Ayora is the biggest city in the Galapagos. The locals say there is about 20.000 people living there. Officially it's 12.000.
Even with all these people the animals are still there. The animals here are just not that affraid of humans.
Again getting the best out of sharing with humans.
The fish market at Puerto Ayora
Pelicans were all over the place, snatching a fish when they could.
This sea lion seemed to live in this spot. Probably the most well-fed sea lion I have seen.
A Heron. It was not as bold as the pelicans so he didn't get any fish.
This sea lion tried to jump into the boat everytime the fisherman looked away.
North Seymore
Last daytrip. North Seymore is a tiny island, close to Santa Cruz but it is packed with animals.
A dead sea lion pup with a lava lizard on top.
Male frigate bird. They try to impress the females with their red ballon.
Baby bird, not super charming : )
Young frigate bird.
Blue Footed Boobie
Land Iguana. The guide threw a catus fruit on the ground and this female went for it. She rolled it around first to get the spikes of.
Male iguana. According to the guide, then he was always under this catus.
Flamingos!
They where in a small pool just behind the beach.
Trying to defy gravity. This time I actually didn't fall face down in the sand : )
Usually these crabs were quite shy for a galapagos animal but not on this beach.
More snorkeling with sea lions!
Taking a breath.
We had a very cool guide, who let us snorkle right next to North Seymore Island. The water was clear and there were 2 playfull sea lions.
They would follow you with the eyes when they swam around you. You got to see the white in their eyes.
Fish. These were "trying" to hide on the rock.
Isabela Island
After 8 days on santa Cruz, the yoga retreat was over and I went to Isabela. Isabela is the biggest Island in Galapagos but much of it is national park and you can't go there.
The city, 3rd biggest population. This was a nice place. More what you would expect of remote islands.
The harbour at low tide.
I went to visite a volcano. The hike started in the highlands, in rain and mist.
After a couple of hours, we got a glimpse of the lava landscape. This is not an explosive volcano. The lava picks the weakest spot in the area and flows calmly.
Voila!
In the middel of all the lava.
Back at the harbour.
Too cute!
One of my animals got pretty close..
Marine Iguana. He just got out of the water and needed to re-heat.
Lava tunnels.
There were so many turtles, rays and sea lions swimming around in the tunnels.
Blue Footed Boobie. A very iconic animal at the Galapagos. They do a funny little dance when it is mating season apparently.
Parent and kid.
In the water, there were sea turtles everywhere!
Sea turtles are a lot easier to keep up with than sea lions but also a lot less playfull.
Whitetip reef sharks. They get about 1.5 meter long and is not dangerous. We went into this little pool with a bunch of them.
Sea horse!
This little guy just looked so guilty.
Here's the same fish swimming. They can inflate them selves to a ballon with spikes.
Eagle ray.
I really like their "noses". They seem to be vacumcleaning the bottom.
More sea turtles.
This one was a tiny bit curious about me but it wore of fast.
Marien iguana swimming for shore.
Back on land.
White tip reef sharks.
Heron
They have a breeding center on Isabela. These small tortoises are 4 years old. They will stay another 4 year and then be released in nature. At 8 years old they are safe from predators.
The breeding center is only nessesary because humans almost cleared the islands from tortoises and brought in a lot of domestic animals that went wild. Now the tortoises that didn't have any competition or predators have to compete with wild goats, rat, cats and dogs.
The smalls ones got quite agressive when it came to food.
Old one.
Young one taking a nap, using his foot as a pillow.
More flamingos!
Inca cola. It does not taste like cola at all.
Quito
Traveling back home again, I had two days in Quito on the mainland.
The city lies 2.800 meters above sea level, very different from the islands I just came from.
The historic centre was beautiful.
well of course : )
Man selling princess dresses for dogs.
Hot chocolate with cheese... hmmm
Animals in the big city.
Miami
I had a 7 hours wait in Miami on the way home so I went to the beach : )
Fitting right in.
