Galápagos Islands, Ecuador 🇪🇨
We didn’t navigate all night so it was a calm boat and everyone slept well. There was excitement at breakfast as the boys managed to spot Hammerhead Sharks circling the boat last night, my excitement was for the pile of pancakes served up to start the day.
Our first stop was a dry landing onto Isobela Island for the views from the top of the hill of the volcanos and of Darwin lake. The snorkelling on the shore nearby gave us more fish and a couple of turtles before I hit a few jellyfish and decided climbing back into the dingy would be safer.
We spotted Fin Whales just before lunch and the boat turned around so we could spend time observing them swimming around and spraying from their blow holes.
The afternoon was spent off Fernandina Island, the youngest of the Islands to the west of side of the archipelago. The snorkelling was amazing, so many Marine Turtles at one point I didn’t know where to look and was worried I would tread on them as they munched on the vegetation below.
Our final stop in Espinoza Point is for a short beach walk. This was fabulous, we had piles of Marine Iguanas sat on the lava rocks where we docked, sneezing the saline solution through their noses. There were hundreds of sea birds diving for fish including Flightless Cormorants, Pelicans and Boobies. The bay has lots of Turtles poping their heads up from the water, but the best part was the Galápagos Sea Lions. The pups were between 3 weeks and 6 months old, and just really adorably cute. The mothers did not like you getting too close though.
