and now... swimming with PENGUINS!!!!!

The only thing that could top swimming with sea turtles and sea lions would be swimming with penguins (did I mention I love penguins?).  So that’s what happened today!!!!

 This was a very busy day.  We started with a bird watching walk on Isabella island, where we saw Galapagos warblers, several flycatchers (below),

 and many of the different Darwin finches.  Our guide had the unique ability of calling birds to him:  he would make a shushing sound, and birds would literally flock to him!  It was amazing!  Also a great way to see a lot of birds… We learned to differentiate between the different finches by the size and shape of their beaks..  We also saw an ani bird – but he does not deserve a picture here:  these were introduce to eat ticks off cattle (which at the time were on the islands, they no longer are), but is related to the the cuckoo, an thus steals other bird's nests and has been very disruptive to the local population. Also, it's just black and boring.

A Galapagos mocking bird, flew straight at Joe’s camera before posing for his close up! , also saw a few Galapagos hawks (no picture, because I posted one yesterday).

While looking at birds, we stumbled on this iguana, who was just not interested…..

 

There are few flowers and insects right now, because the rainy season is late, but here are a cotton flower, and one of the many painted locusts.

And then we saw our first tortoise:  A juvenile, probably about 15 years old- when they reach about 25 years,  they move uphill to breed. 

 This would have been the most exciting part of the day, but then we went snorkeling….

 There were many cool and pretty fishes,

They were of course many sea turtles. 

  I swam along with one that was huge – larger than me.  While following it around, I had to keep reminding myself that they are not aggressive – anything that big is a bit scary……

 We went snorkeling in a different spot in the afternoon, where there where even more colorful fishes – and then, swimming with us – PENGUINS!!!!!!! There was a bunch of them, swimming in formation very fast.  The picture on the left shows them "flying" away from us.  But one kindly stopped by and stayed for a minute or so, eating and giving us some time to take pictures.  Out entire group was giddy....

That definitely made up for the cold water – the afternoon water temperature was around 65- chilly to jump in and for the first few minutes, but ok with the wet suit.  I was so exited by the penguins, I almost did not catch any pictures…..

 After that, we took a hike up to a volcano crater that is now a pretty lake (lake Darwin).

 (Obligatory picture of Joe and me, proving he is still around... we are just a touch sweaty from the hike up.....)

  We got great views of Isabella island, and of the hills, which are very dry right now:  the rainy season is late to start.  All of this will be green as soon as it starts.

Here is some very early graffiti  (its hard to see, but the date carved in the rock says 1836!).  There is a lot of this along the rocks, all the way to the 1970's, when they started to protect the islands much more aggressively

There were also pelicans, grand vistas, oh, and nice food and people too…

This is a good trip!  😊