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Today was a long day.
Last night as I wrote, sitting on deck, I heard snuffling sounds. I looked alongside, and in a small pool of slight spilling from a ship's window I saw two big sea lions playing in the water - I had been hearing them.
We woke up somewhat early (for me) at about seven. A nice big breakfast and by nine we were embarking on zodiacs to take a short hike of 2 miles on Espanola Island. This island is unique in that it is the only one in this archipelago which has red marine igusnas, or which we saw many.
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We embarked in groups of 10-15 and took our hikes as those groups. The going was slow as we often stopped to look at the wildlife. And there certainly was a lot to look at! We saw myriads of blue footed boobies - a gull-like bird, nasca boobies, a few albatrosses, some frigate birds, a few Galapagos hawks, some more Darwin's finches, and even an albatros chick - half downy brown and half feathered.
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We saw marine iguanas, the ones with red, piled atop each
other for warmth. We saw blue footed boobies engaged in mnating rituals -
whistling (male), honking (female), and dancing and nest building. Lava
iguanas were constantly underoot - little ones with red throats which
performed push-ups to scare us away.
Seeing these marine iguans it is easy to see how they would be used as
stand-in dinosaurs in 50's films.
On the way out on the trail Ian Fletcher (not Christian), an English gentleman on our trip, spotted a nine inch centipede: reddish black with dark red legs. A very convincing argument not to camp on the Galapagos Islands (although one can evidently obtain a permit for it).
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