Pablo's Travel Blog: January 25th, Snorkeling With Penguins

Happiness is a warm lava rock - Marine Iguana, Isabela Island, Galapagos

Keith had seen some flamingos late yesterday, so this morning, he got me up early and we headed over to a nearby mud flat to check it out. We arrived at about 5:45 am, and it was barely light enough to see. Sure enough, we spotted about 10 healthy looking adults strutting around in the water, preening their feathers, and occasionally dipping their heads for food.

I finally got some good use of the big camera lens and tripod, which up until this point had been a lot of extra weight to lug around. As the sun slowly crept up, the lighting kept getting better and better, and before I knew it, I had burned through 308 photos! Yikes! Some editing is in order, but I think I got some nice shots. The pink feathers, combined with some nice reflections off the water were just too beautiful for words.
After breakfast, we split the group into four boats, and headed out to a nearby islet called Isla Tortuga.

The island is actually a half moon shaped crater, with the potential for some amazing snorkeling and diving. Unfortunately, the surf is up today (being a surfer, I never thought I would say that!) and the conditions were too dangerous for our group to get into the water.

Swallow-tailed Gull

Instead, we did a slow tour of the cliffs, where we got to see some amazing birds, including the endemic Swallow-tailed Gull (the only nocturnal gull in the world), some Blue Footed and Nazca Boobies, Red-billed Tropicbirds with their beautiful white streaming tail feathers, and hundreds of Frigatebirds, displaying with their red gular pouches and soaring overhead looking for fish to steal. With the largest wing span to body weight ratio of any bird, they are amazingly agile in the air, and relentlessly harass any bird with food in it's mouth, a form of kleptoparasitism, until they either give up their fish, or regurgitate whatever is in their stomach.

Frigatebirds

Nazca Booby Nests

After the tour, we cruised back to another small island of Tintoreras where we were able to approach some incredibly large and tame Marine Iguanas, and see some Sea Lions in the water and on the shore.

Sunbathing local

Beach Master

Lava Heron

We also saw some white tipped reef sharks in a natural channel, and were able to photograph them from above. After the hike, we cooled off with a nice snorkel session near Tintoreras. As I was hopping into the water, a huge Green Sea Turtle swam by the boat.

Green Sea Turtle

Soon after that, I was lucky enough to be greeted by a Galapagos Penguin. He bobbed at the surface for a few seconds, and I watched underwater as he dove and gracefully sped off and out of sight.

Galapagos Penguin

These guys are the second smallest penguins in the world, the only penguins north of the equator, and it is still amazing for me to see them on a tropical island. Later in the snorkel, I spotted a couple of Marine Iguanas feeding on sea lettuce. They seem pretty comfortable in the water and the guide told us he has seen them as deep as 45 feet and for as long as 30 minutes under water. Once out of the water, they sneeze any residual salt water out of their noses, which I experienced first hand when I got a little too close while taking some close up photos on land.

After the snorkel, we had a late lunch and headed off to the site of an old prison. After the US built a base here during WWII, the Ecuadorians turned the site into a prison encampment.

The guides showed us a large rock wall, called the wall of tears, built by the prisoners as a brutal form of punishment. Highlights for me were some nice lava lizards hiding among the rocks of the wall, and some friendly Darwin's Finches, Yellow Warblers, and Galapagos Mockingbirds.