The Galapagos-Isabela and Santa Cruz Islands

After my 8 day cruise, I stranded myself on Isabela island, the largest but the least inhabited of the 4 islands and in my opinion, the prettiest of the 4. On my first day, I rode a horse to the top of the Sierra Negra volcanic crater, the 2nd largest crater in the world. The volcano is still active, but because the volcano is not cone shaped, when it erupts, the lava just stays within the top of the crater and much of the pressure is dissipated through holes located throughout the surface.


Later that day, I went snorkeling near Las Tintoreras, a small area with volcanic rock where white fin sharks rest. I watched penguins play and marine iguanas scatter and swam with green sea turtles.



The next day, I decided to walk to the Wall of Tears. Isabela island once served as a penal colony. Life at the penal colony killed many of the prisoners because the warden made the prisoners create this giant wall of lava rock. The hot sun and useless task hurt many mens' spirits. One day, the prisoners turned against their guards, killed them, and fled the island, but the wall still remains. I thought I could easily walk to it, but didn't realize until once I got there that I had walked 4.5 miles in flip flops. I ran out of water at the wall, and slowly made my way back another 4.5 miles to the nearest stand with juices.

In order to let my blisters rest, I relaxed in a hammock and watched the waves crash along the shores. Just what I thought island life is like.

After several days on Isabela, I made my way back to Santa Cruz to dive. I checked out Tortuga Bay, a gorgeous white sand beach and dove the next day. To my luck, I saw Galapagos sharks and hammer head sharks known for their eyes that sit on a bulge on the side of their heads. This was my first dive since certification and since I was so nervous, the dive master held my hand the whole time. I felt safe next to him and thankfully, didn't panic.

On my last day, I met a local throwing a party at his castle like house. He invited me to his party and so I brought along a couple of the women who went diving with me so I wouldn't be going alone. He told me about his vision to create Galapagos music with the local animals, which I found interesting as well as his vision for his castle house. I really enjoyed my time meeting his friends and learning a little more about the Galapagos culture.

The Galapagos-Lonesome George

In 1971, environmentalists saved the last remaining species of the tortoise found on Pinta Island and appropriately named him Lonesome George. Environmentalists made desperate calls to action to find him a mate and provided him with 2 female tortoises similar, although not exact, in species. Maybe they should have used match.com instead. For 36 years he cohabitated with female tortoises but did not produce any eggs up until last year. However, the eggs did not fertilize and some believe that George may be sterile. Sadly, when he dies, so will his species. He is a reminder of the destructive effect of man and introduced goats onto the islands. On a positive note for the Galapagos, his status as the single bachelor has turned into a worldwide marketing tool for the Galapagos.

To protect the giant tortoises on the islands from the goats, the park rangers created tortoise breeding centers that I visited on Santa Cruz and Isabella Islands. They took many of the tortoises located in the craters of the islands on Isabella, each a unique species, and on other islands and transferred them to these breeding centers to help spur the growth. These centers have been a success. One species almost became extinct when rangers could only find 2 female tortoises of one species left. International calls lead to a male tortoise of the same species at a zoo in San Diego. He was shipped over and immediately started breeding with the 2 females. The rangers named him Super Diego because he has successfully produced over 800 off spring as a result. Below is his photo. Many of the tortoises are reintroduced to their islands once they are big enough to fend off the introduced species on the islands.

Although not as cool as finding giant tortoises in the natural wilderness, I did make some photo opps with the tortoises there.

On Isabella island, I met some of the volunteers who cared for the tortoises. Since I arrived at the tortoise center with the volunteers, I had a chance to watch the tortoises eat and fight over food. The smaller ones crawl all over each other to get to the food. And the babies sometime flip over on their back and wiggle their feet in the air until one of the volunteers can turn them right side up.


I also videotaped them mating. The male chases the female around until he is able to mount her. Then he does his business while grunting the whole time. The female tries to escape but because the male is so much bigger, she is unable to. You can watch some of the process in the video below.

The Galapagos-Santiago and Bartholomew Islands

After viewing so much wildlife, we took a break to visit Santiago Island to admire the change in scenery. The island surface is made up of lava rock predominantly of the pahoehoe type, which is flat and easy to walk on. The surface contains either circular imprints of the lava or straight flowing. The other type, the a'a', is named as such because it hurts to walk on the rough and spiky lava rock and one might yell "aye aye" when walking on top. At least that's what my guide told me. The rock is made of smaller rocks bunched up to form jagged spikes. Both types are found on the ground and throughout the island one can see where the lava flow stopped and met the earth. I only walked on the pahoehoe and tried to blend in with the lava rock like the marine iguanas, but my sarong gave me away.



After our hike around, we snorkeled around the island and I ran into four Galapagos penguins swimming about. Galapagos penguins are the only penguins to exist in both the Northern and Southern hemisphere. Random trivia. They are the smallest type of penguins too. On land they seem rather clumsy, but in the water, they expertly dove and swam about. When not swimming, they sit on top of the water like ducks. I actually thought they were ducks. Although hard to tell from this photo, the penguins are on the water right in front of me.

In the afternoon, we sailed to Bartholomew island best known for it's pointed Pinnacle Rock that makes for a lovely photo opp at the top of the island.


We snorkeled at this location as well which has the a small group of about 14 penguins that live around the rock. For better pictures, we took the panga boat over there. I pointed the boat in the right direction and off we motored. We watched the sea gull scold two penguins for getting in her way while the other penguins played around and dried off on the rocks.

The Galapagos-Genovesa Island

After watching Hitchcock's 1963 film, The Birds set in SF, I have always had a slight fear of large amounts of birds circling overhead. I have even been attacked by birds once when I apparently walked too close to their nest. They flew out of the bushes and chased me down the street. Despite this fear, I consciously chose to ensure that Genovesa was one of the islands I saw on my cruise. Something about an island full of birds without fear of humans and without predators intrigued me. Few boats visit this island because of the distance and the remoteness made the island all the more appealing. Plus, I really wanted to see the red footed boobies which are most easily seen on this island.

The Red Footed Boobies are similar in size and appearance to the Blue Footed Boobies except in that they have red feet! The contrast in color of their red feet to their blue beaks to their either grey or white feathers showcase them as quite the rainbow.



The other Booby bird on the island is the Nazca Booby. I believe it is their slightly wide set and wide eyed eyes that make them appear a little stoned to me. They just wobble on by as though lost.

I think the bird below is some sort of heron. To me, he appears like a grumpy old man with osteoporosis.
The other interesting birds on the island, Swallow tailed gulls, color coordinate their red eyeliner with their pink socks.

The most flamboyant birds are the Great Frigatebirds. The males inflate a red sack on their chest in order to woo the women. Sometimes, the men peck at each other and pop each other's red balloon, which then means no mate for the male for at least a year until his red sack heals. When the female flies overhead, all the men flap their wings, inflate their chest and coo out. With so many male birds located so close to each other, the woman doesn't have to fly far to find a mate. I wish dating men in SF was this easy.



All throughout the island, the birds dominate the scene with their flight and sounds. The most dangerous of the birds are the mocking birds who are known to prey on unattended eggs.

After visiting Darwin Bay and Prince Phillips' Steps on the island, we went snorkeling near the cliffs. However, the visibility was very poor and the idea that Hammerhead sharks might be lurking below me as I snorkeled freaked me out. So, I didn't stay in the water for too long.

After a day and sky filled with birds, the birds did not attack me and I even grew a fond appreciation of them.

The Galapagos-San Cristobal and Santa Fe Islands

On day 4, we stopped off on San Cristobal Island to drop off passengers and pick up new ones who were only doing the other 4 days of the cruise. San Cristobal is one of the 4 inhabited islands and I wasn't really impressed with it. We did drop by Isla Lobos where many sea lions congregate and I spent much of my time watching 2 frisky young male sea lions play. We then snorkeled near the island and encountered a large male sea lion who tried to protect his territory by swimming up to our faces while barring all his teeth. It worked for me, and I screamed quite loudly and swam away. I tried to kick away whenever he swam near me and after awhile, I just wanted to get out of the water. I never knew when he might show up and I felt like I was just waiting to get bitten by him. He instilled a new fear of sea lions I now have.


The next day, we sailed to Santa Fe Island, the only island to find the endemic Santa Fe Iguanas. The iguanas are yellow in color and are oddly attracted to yellow things. If I wore all yellow, they would approach me expecting me to be some sort of food source since they eat anything yellow. Maybe that's how they get their color.


Hawks are the king predator and they prey on other birds' eggs. They try to distract the birds until the birds give up and fly away and then the hawks swoop down and take the eggs.

In the photo below, the sea gulls are desperately trying to protect their eggs as one of the hawks tries to scare off the mother holding fort.

Santa Fe is also known for their abundant presence of Opuntia cactus. The cactus are only prickly at the top so tree lovers alike can hug these trees without worry.

The Galapagos-Espanola Island

Espanola island is considered by many the most beautiful island because of the diversity of wildlife, the striking landscape, and stunning beaches. We parked our boat first at Gardner Bay and panga boated inland towards the brown spotted beach. The brown lumps scattered all over the beach turned out to be sleeping sea lions dozing off in the morning sun. We tried not to disturb their sleep and I wandered about mimicking their poses trying to be just like a sea lion. We were the only tourists on the white coral sandy beach and the sea lions didn't seem to mind our presence. I couldn't believe how close I could get to them and they would just look at me funny as though I was just another “thing” blocking their light. After an hour and a half of watching sea pups suckle their mothers, the bulls fight off their territory and the majority just lounging around, we went snorkeling.



Under water, I watched a white tip shark cuddle with her babies under a rock and colorful fish swim by looking for food. I noticed that sharks swim with their hips in a very pronounced swaddle back and forth. I wasn't worried about being near them since they are vegetarians. Eventually, I made my way back to shore to lounge some more with the sea lions. We then headed back to our parked boat for some first class refreshments and lunch and motored onto another part of the island.

At Punta Suarez, we hiked around passing marine iguanas recharging in the sunlight. The marine iguanas eat algae off of rocks under water and then lay around gaining their energy from the sun. They snort out the salt through their noses which is why their faces are often white. This motion resembles stories of fire dragons and they kind of look like miniature versions of them. I tried unsuccessfully to mimic a marine iguana, but my hands are not pointing in the right direction.


We continued past blue footed boobies. Their feet really are blue although the females have a slightly lighter blue feet. The blue footed boobies are famous for their unique mating ritual that I actually witnessed. They pick up one foot at a time in a dance and then bow with wings spread apart. The female repeats the same ritual. They are so cute to watch!



During March to January, the Wave Albatross nest on Espanola island and also conduct mating dances. I felt very lucky to witness their mating ritual as well. They bow to each other and then sword fight with their beaks. I watched as one male sword fought with two different females probably debating which of the two is the better sword fighter and therefore better mate. They mate for life and so they need to be sure that they are picking a good one.



At a scenic spot, I just balanced off the cliffs, chilled and watched the birds overhead fly above me while the waves crashed against the rocks.