Galapagos Islands, Ecuador - March 2022

We flew to Baltra in the Galapagos Islands, Monday morning, took a bus up through the Santa Cruz Island highlands, stopping at a tortoise ranch, then boarded a yacht at Puerto Ayora. We sailed through the night and arrived at Moreno Point, on Isabela Island, Tuesday morning, where we took a panga ride along the coast and did some snorkeling. In the afternoon we took a panga ride into Elizabeth Bay, also on Isabela. Wednesday morning we stopped at Urbina Bay on Isabela and hiked inland, seeing quite a few giant tortoises and land iguanas, then snorkeled. In the afternoon we stopped at Espinoza Point on Fernandina Island and snorkeled and took a hike. We saw hundreds of marine iguanas, including a few swimming in the ocean. Thursday morning we were at Tagus Bay on Isabela and took a hike up above Darwin Lake to the top of a cinder cone, where we got a great view of a Galapagos hawk, then snorkeled. Thursday afternoon we were at Vicente Roca Point at the top northwest corner of Isabela and did snorkeling and took a panga ride along the coast. Friday we spent the day at James Bay on Santiago Island, in the morning at Espumilla Beach on the north end, where we snorkeled and took a panga tour of the coast, and in the afternoon we were at Egas Port where we snorkeled and took a hike along the coast. Saturday morning we stopped at Bachas Beach on northern Santa Cruz Island where we took a short hike and saw a beautiful American flamingo. Later that morning we were transported to Baltra Island where we flew back to the Ecuador mainland.

We saw a wonderful range of wildlife. I saw a number of the Darwin finches: small ground finch, medium ground finch, small tree finch and vegetarian finch. We saw numerous marine iguanas, a few land iguanas, Galapagos lava lizards and many green sea turtles. We saw two Galapagos fur seals and numerous Galapagos sea lions. Other birds included the flightless cormorant, lava gull, brown noddy, blue-footed booby, Galapagos shearwater, Galapagos brown pelican, magnificent frigatebird, Galapagos penguin, white-cheeked pintail, Galapagos hawk, striated (lava) heron, Galapagos yellow warbler, Galapagos dove, swallow-tailed gull, Galapagos mockingbird, Elliot's storm-petrel, nazca booby, American flamingo, black-necked stilt, least sandpiper, semipalmated plover, Galapagos great blue heron and wandering tattler. In the water, besides green sea turtles, we saw orange rays, a sun fish, a white-tipped shark, Mexican hogfish, panamic fanged blenny, black striped salema, razor surgeonfish, bluebarred parrotfish and king angelfish and many more that I do not remember or was not able to identify.

Publicado el junio 17, 2022 02:54 TARDE por rwcannon57