I swam with penguins!!!

The third day of the boat trip involved walking around
Urbina cove on Isabela. There was a lot of the larger, male land iguanas who always look like they are smiling. We saw a pair of Galápagos Hawks whose females have multiple partners. And a lovely singing Mockingbird which I recorded cac-handed so I can't show it to you. From the shore, watched 6 penguins swimming and playing. I was still fighting to get my wetsuit on as they swam away. I then tried to record the sea turtles underwater but soon gave up as it was too awkward. I have a lot of Go-Pro envy on this trip.

We took a second walk on Isabella to Darwin lake - the lake inside the Darwin volcano crater, and had fantastic views out to the sea. I was a bit overheated and welcomed a snorkel later where I swam with 8 penguins, watching them come off and get back on rocks, dive for food and play. I can't tell you how exciting that was. And to cap off a great day, we were witness to several pods of dolphins swimming and jumping along an invisible undersea highway, in an arc shape across the front of the boat. No photos, I'm afraid, as I couldn't take my eyes off the dolphins.

The last day started with a walk at James Bay on the uninhabited Santiago island. There were many migratory birds there as well as the mockingbirds, fake fur seals, lava herons and dainty American oyster catchers. We found sea lion placenta which is a delicacy fought over by a number of different species, who are otherwise vegetarian, eg, marine iguana. That means a baby sea lion nearby and sure enough we found one 5 metres away.

A final snorkel was equally awesome, I saw a large, basking white tip shark .... The others saw seven but I had found a penguin to hang out with instead :-). This place especially was strewn with starfish of all colours, patterns and sizes and that alone was quite mesmerising. I tried to dive into the caves to see lobsters and the seahorses holding on to the sea weed but my beloved wetsuit is so buoyant I couldn't submerge....yet I was upside down, kicking my flippers, like a demented duck.

I shall leave you with that image.Read more