1) One of the coolest looking birds in the Galapagos is the red-billed tropic bird with its long tail feathers. This one was doing amazing acrobatics in a stiff wind atop the southern cliff edge on South Plaza.
2) One of the most emblematic animal of the Galapagos Islands is the blue-footed boobie. In actual fact, their feet are far more striking that they appear in this photo (the bright sunlight washed out the colors). Imagine this bird's feet being a bright turqouise blue.
3) There are two distinct species of land iguanas in the Galapagos. In addition to the ones seen on South Plaza Island, there is also this species which we saw on Santa Fe island. There apparently only about 400 of this species in existence and we spotted five on our short bike. These guys look truly prehistoric. This one was probably three feet long from nose to tail!
4) Sante Fe Island looks like a desolate and foreboding place. Dried incense trees but with a thick thorny underbrush.
5) Proof that sea lions aren't without their own challenges. We saw sea lion bones in a few different spots on the beach here and offshore we spotted sharks.
6) This playful sea lion pup was completely hamming it up for the visitors. He would toss this crab shell over his shoulder and then bounce over to retrieve it. Okay, everyone saw "Aaaaaawwwwwwwwwwww".
7) Back on Santa Cruz Island, we visited the Charles Darwin Research Station. One of this research center's main goals is to breed the endangered species of land tortoises. One of the pens has the newly incubated babies, each marked with a unique identifier showing the species, gender and number of each tortoise.
8) A separate pen contains the five year old females, just before they are releasesd back into the wild.
9) The gender of the tortoises can be determined by their tail. The females (as shown here) have a shorter tail than the males.
10) A common sight among island cultures...above ground burial tombs. This is the cemetery of Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz.
11) While on Santa Cruz, we also visited the official Galapagos National Park research center. They had this interesting interactive display which showed all the islands (down to the sea floor) and the four major currents which cause such diverse temperatures in the waters here (and thus support the diverse sea life).
12) The hotel where we stayed in Puerto Ayora had a group of resident wild birds like this heron. The owners also rescued injured birds and so had a few which were basically domesticated including a one-winged pelican which hung out by the outdoor bar.
13) While on Santa Cruz, we had another opportunity to have lunch with a local family. We had a wonderful time at the home of Mercy, Peter and Jeisser. They served us a tasty lunch but what made it special was having the time to sit and visit with them, including Jeisser playing guitar and all of us singing songs together.
14) Up on the mountain in the middle of Santa Cruz are a couple of massive sink holes. These huge holes were formed when underground volcanic magma levels dropped and the surface collapsed. I'd guess that this one is at least a couple of hundred feet across and over one hundred feet deep.
15) While on our tour of the Santa Cruz highlands, we visited a farm where wild tortoises roam freely. We spent about an hour hiking around the farm and spotted a couple of dozen while tortoises during that time, including this batch which are hiding in a pond to avoid mosquitos.
16) Another neat adventure was hiking through a lava tube. We hiked about 1/2 a mile through this one. It was quite large, about 25 ft in diameter but was very rugged. Lots of fallen rock and sparse lighting. The real adventure came at the end where narrowed down to a 18" high crack which we had to crawl under.
17) Our final stop on this day was a visit to a small local farm. Unlike the farm visited earlier, which makes its money primarily allowing tourists to look for tortoises, this was a true working farm with multiple crops being grown side-by-side. Here is a large patch of sugar cane, from which a cane alcohol is brewed.
18) Another of the monetary crops is coffee. The processing of the beans is done in the open air...drying, roasting, grinding and bagging all done by hand.
19) This is a decidely non-industrial operation. The roasting of the coffee beans is done in this pan, moved back and forth over a wood fire.
20) Another artsy shot. (The coffee beans are ground by this well worn grinder.)
21) The farm's young owner showing how it is done. He pours coffee beans into a large bowl while fanning the falling beans with a feather fan to remove husks.
22) The farm's sugar cane is squeezed by a massive belt driven press. Big pieces of cane go in, paper thin fiber sheets come out the other side (and sweet cane juice drips out a spout on the side.)
23) On our drive through the Santa Cruz forest, we came across a small motocross track with families out playing on small dirt bikes. Fun fun!
24) Another artsy photo. This is the inside of a tortoise carapace. The structure here is actually the spinal column of the tortoise, permanently fused onto the upper plates of the shell.
25) Another artsy shot.
Branch of bananas,
picked clean on a winter day.
The anytime snack.
26) The last photo from the Galapagos is a critter shot. A beautiful heron sitting on a ledge overlooking the water at sunset.
Go back to the fourth '09
Peru & Ecuador Trip Photo Page.
Go forward to the
'09 Peru & Ecuador Portraits Page.
Return to Alan and Jonna's Travel Page
