Joe and Françoise's excellent adventures!: Sea turtles, marine iguanas, sea lions, and even PENGUINS!!!!!

Starting with a picture of the most exciting part of the day again (although, that was very difficult to choose, so much around us......) First full day at sea. As I start this blog, it is only 1 pm, and we are already overwhelmed by everything we have seen. We started the day with a dinghy ride along the rugged volcanic shore, where we came incredibly close to blue footed and Nasca boobies, marine iguanas, Galapagos terns, baby fur sea lions, and a few swimming turtles. We also came really close to a Galapagos penguin (did I mention I love penguins?). We were almost close enough to touch him, but he was completely oblivious and just continued preening himself. Indeed, all the animal are completely oblivious of our presence: They know we are not a threat, and they can’t eat us…. So they don’t care. We thought that was a lot, but then we went snorkeling among the sea lions and sea turtles, which at times came so close it was hard to take pictures of them! Blogging here is all about pictures, because words won’t do it. But In fact, even with pictures, it is impossible to capture the experience of swimming close enough to a turtle to touch it, or seeing 2 bull see lions challenge each other, or seeing a baby sea lion nursing, or of sitting on a lava field, with hundreds of marine iguanas walking by, trying to mate, swimming back from the sea, all with a background of clear blue sea, and frigates and pelicans flying over.

So I will (eventually) post a lot of pictures from this morning’s activities around Isabella’s island, and of this afternoon’s walk on Fernandina island, and will attempt to describe the feeling…..

Pictures from the morning dingy ride along the coast of Isabella island:

Nasca Bobbie

Aren't marine iguanas pretty?

All of the species seem to cohabitate peacefully....

Although this iguana (above) did not seem to enjoy the blue footed boobie standing on him...... This little penguin made me very happy! (Have I mentioned I love penguins?)

Galapagos terns, blue footed and nasca boobies (below) share the cliff. Although, the Nasca was annoyed that the blue footed wanted to share this particular spot.

Blue footed boobies have a slightly demented look...

Flightless cormorants look almost silly drying their stunted wings, but they are awesome divers and just do not need them to survive!

Later in the morning, we put on wet suits to investigate the same
area, but under water. The water is not very cold, about 74 degrees (in other words, really warm by Montauk standards....), but since we stay in for an hour or so, it's just more comfortable with wet suits.

V

This is what the area looks like from the dingy. Also very barren (because the islands are basically just lava rocks), it is very pretty.

The underwater adventure was just amazing. Swimming among playful sea lions and large turtles! I was awed......

In the afternoon, we traveled to Fernandina island, where there is a huge colony of marine iguanas.

They are fascinating, but look a bit creepy, and really....

they have a face only a mother would love, and

their family portraits are a bit spooky...... (below).
This one (left) thinks he is very attractive, and is moving his chin to show the females that is ready!

When they climb out of the water, they remind me of the line from Tom Paxton's song "I'm changing my name to Chrysler" (google it, it's good!) : "when the first amphibian crawled out of the slime......"

But they do hang around in peaceful piles,
and cohabitate nicely with other species, like this little lava lizard (below)

There were also a lot of young sea lions playing in the pools formed by the uneven lava rocks.
This young male challenged a much larger bull, and it was funny to see how fast they can move, once the big one got annoyed and started chasing him....