AS PROMISED

1 19

We arrive this morning, at Arica, Chile.  Our first stop in Chile.  And it is.  We didn’t expect the temperature to be this cool so soon.  In the Galapagos it was always in the high 80’s with more than 90% humidity.  When we got to Lima pier it was in the 70’s.  Today’s high is expected to be 54.  Quite a difference.  It feels warmer than that.  I guess that is due to the humidity.

Now, on to the pictures from the Galapagos Islands.

As I mentioned, the ride to the airport in Guayaquil was an adventure in itself.  This picture, taken through the muddy window, is of one of the houses along the way.  This one, if you can see it, is very fancy.  It has a design in the railing and it has a first floor.  Most of the houses are built on stilts.  The lower portion is not closed in, like this house.  We were told the reason for the open bottom was to house the livestock. 

This is the lovely Galapagos Explorer II.  It really is a nice ship.  The crew were very friendly and helpful.  The ship had all wood decor.  Not old barn wood, but nice nautical wood.  Our cabin was small, but it had a balcony.  This turned out to be a very expensive cabin.  It was not expensive on the boat, but it caused us to upgrade our cabin on the ship, the Amsterdam, when we returned after our excursion.  (we are really enjoying our new cabin, though.  It has a refrigerator, that we didn’t have before.  And it has a Jacuzzi tub.  We didn’t expect that)

Each time we either arrived or departed our boat, it was by Zodiac.  We would have to step aboard the edge of the raft then into the raft.  Actually, it was not difficult.  Even in rough water.

In the evening, the staff would make towel art on our bed.

Now to the wildlife

This is a marine iguana.  They are typically red and green, so they are called Christmas Iguanas.

The sea lions don’t care at all that we are walking around.  They do spend a lot of time laying in the sand snuggling.

And there are lots of them, everywhere.

We also saw blue footed boobies.  This one is a baby, so his feet are not very blue.

 

This one is mature.  You can see how blue his feet are.  Sorry we couldn’t get his webbed feet, but they are as blue as the tops that you can see in this picture. 

We also saw giant tortoises.  These are some of the largest.  We did not see them in the wild, but in the Darwin Research Center.  They were brought there because man had caused their near extinction and now man needed to fix that.  This fix would help bring things back to natures way.

    

Besides these tortoises, and many others of different species, there is Lonesome George.  He is the last of his species.  The scientists are trying to save his species.  George is only 90 years old.  That makes him middle aged, since tortoises live to be 200 years old.  So, they have some time to work on it.  They have tried to mate him to other species females with no success.  We will have to wait and see how it goes.  They do have 110 years to work it out.;)

This is a masked booby with her chick.  She, like all the other animals, did not mind us looking at her chick.  The masked boobies do not have blue feet.

This is a masked booby and a red footed sea gull.

This island is right off Santa Cruz Island.  It sure looks like a volcano, doesn’t it?

Besides marine iguanas there are land iguanas.  They are typically golden brown.  They are about the same size as the marine iguana.  They can climb up the cactus trees (yes, prickly pear cactus grows to tree size here).

Like I said, the sea lions are everywhere.  We did not get to see how they get on big boats.  But they do.  They seem to be on most boats that are anchored anywhere.

Even in the towns that exist here (there are people on only 2 islands) the sea lions just are out there laying around anywhere.  Sleeping on benches, porches or stairs.  Wherever they want.   

  

Wait a minute…..which one is the sea lion?

Who is more curious about whom?

Two marine iguanas out for a stroll.

We are leaving now for Arica to post this and hopefully post lots of pictures on this or the other web site.