What a crazy 8 days and how fast they flew! La Floeana was a great boat to live on for a week, lots of sun, relaxation, and plenty of water! Our days were more or less routine with breakfast at 7 AM, land activity at 8 AM, snorkeling at 10 AM, lunch at noon, snorkeling again at 2 PM antoher hike or walk at 4 Pm and finally dinner at 7 PM.
In 8 days we managed to hit up 8 Galapagos Islands: Genovesa, Santiago, Bartolomé, Santa Cruz, Isabela, Fernandian, Rabida and Baltra. We saw tons of wildlife including black and white tipped sharks, manta rays flipping up and out of the water, common dolphins, penguins, red footed boobies, blue footed boobies, Nazca boobies, Great and Magnificent Frigate birds, brown pelicans, seat lions and fur sea lions, and many beautiful tropical fish! I had been a little nervous about snorkeling since the only other time I did it was in the 8th grade in Mexico, but I´ve decided that it is a ton of fun and nothing beats an afternoon spent swimming along the rocks with green sea sturbles and Galapagos penguins! On top of that, the colors of life below the surfact are amazing! Even the smallest Christmas tree worm wrapped up in their rocky homes display delightful bursts of color. Then we have all the fish, King angelfish, parrotfish, Moorish Idols, Razor surgeonfish, hogfish, Rainbow wrasses, grunts, sea stars, triggerfish, hawkfish, Guineafowl pufferfish, concentric puffers and schools of salemas and pelican barracudas, cornetfish and so many more!
We did quite a few land visits on the islands as well. My most memorable was our first return to land after getting on the boat. After motoring all night we woke up in Darwin Bay of Genovesa Island, in the NE part of the archipelago. At 8 AM we took 2 bright yellow dinghies from the Floreana to shore. We were greeted by 100s of red footed boobies and frigate birds. In less than 5 minutes I had the supposed good luck of getting shat on, right on the top of my head. Welcome back to land, here´s my poo?!
Anyway, the male frigates put on quite a good show with their huge, red throat pouches all blwon up like balloons. Along with their striking pouches they make some ear catching songs that even attracted my attention. That same day, in the afternoon, after 2 great snorkels we went to El Barranco for another hike. There we saw 100s of Nazca boobies, mid courtship. Birds sure are fascinating creatures...
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