Galapagos Day 3: SCUBA Diving near Gardner Bay, continued!

Galapagos Tourist Fish


Barberfish


Me, yet again


Sea Tortoise


Sea Tortoise


Me with Sea Tortoise (see it? right there on the right?)


Tropical Flounder lying on its side on the ocean floor (pretty nifty camouflage, no?)

Galapagos Day 3: Gardner Bay!

Approaching Gardner Bay Beach


Sea Lions in Gardner Bay


Brace yourself: a Sea Lion pup collapses in the surf…twice!


Me on Gardner Bay Beach


Sea Lion in surf


A promising candidate for the next Sport Illustrated Swimsuit Issue cover.


Galapagos Lava Heron


Mockingbird

Galapagos Day 3: Gardner Bay, continued!

Me with Sea Lion pup (he’s there, I swear!)


American Oyster Catchers


Yours truly


Pelican diving for fish on the beach


Lava Lizard


Me with another Sea Lion pup (he’s also there, I swear!)

Galapagos Day 2: North Seymour Island and Plazas Islands

Our itinerary for the day. Yes, I was struggling to get into my wet suit to go SCUBA diving before 6:30am. Rough!

Yellowtail Surgeonfish


King Angelfish (with Yellowtail Surgeonfish)


Pacific Sierra Mackerel


School of Bigeye Scad


Galapagos Shark, resting on the ocean floor. We also saw Hammerheads and White-tipped Reef Sharks the same day.


A couple of Galapagos Sharks spotted while we were SCUBA diving.

Galapagos Day 2: Underwater Photos (continued)

This was a very exciting moment. We were gathering along the reef where Peter, our guide, had spotted a couple of sharks. When suddenly out pops a sea lion, which then joins another sea lion and a sea turtle putters by…


Green Sea Turtle


White-tipped Reef Shark


Longtail Stingray


Eagle Ray

Galapagos Day 2: Sea Lions!

Sea Lion at rest


Another Sea Lion at rest




Sea Lion Barking


Sea Lion Pup Dozing


Sea Lion having a bad dream

Galapagos Day 2: Birds!

Male Frigatebird in flight (note the bright red inflated sac displayed during courtship)


Frigatebirds in flight


Blue-footed Boobies


This is so tragic. The one Blue-footed Booby was coming over to mate with the other Booby, but just then the other Booby took off. You can see the inconsolable look on the first Booby’s face at the end of the video.


Brown Pelican


Swallow-tailed Gull




More Swallow-tailed Gulls

Galapagos Day 2: Iguanas & Lizards!

Here I am having just arrived on South Plaza Island


Land Iguana


Lava Lizard


Marine Iguana


Lava Lizard


Land Iguana


Land Iguana




More Land Iguanas

Galapagos Day 2: More Iguanas & Lizards!

Me on South Plaza Island, with opuntia cactus forest behind me (I don’t know what “opuntia” means – I need to look it up…)


Land Iguana


Me with Land Iguana – how cute is he?!?!


Marine Iguana


Outcropping full of Marine Iguanas


Another Marine Iguana


Land Iguana – riveting video!


Lower half of my head with Land Iguana (that will teach me to use the self timer) I wanted to include this one, because he’s particularly cute.


Yellow Land Iguana


Land Iguana at rest

Galapagos Day 2: Dolphins!

As though we hadn’t already seen enough on Day 2, shortly after we took off from South Plaza Island, a team of dolphins converged on our catamaran and paced the front of the boat. They put on quite a show for us, leaping and hopping effortlessly out of the water, catching quite a bit of air and high marks from the crowd. I felt just like Kate Winslet in Titanic! In the second video, keep an eye on the left-hand side around 15 seconds in…