In the morning, we visited a site called Tintorera, an uninhabited islet with mangrove forests and a great lava landscape.
On the way there, we spotted this blue-footed booby sitting on a rock next to four penguins. What a nice start to the day! :-)
A little bit later, I learned more about mangroves. Mangroves are interesting trees, growing on the shore with their feet planted firmly in salt water. How do they cope with all the salt they ingest with the water? Apparently, what they do is concentrate excess salt in a single leaf per branch. Over time, this leaf turns yellow and dies off. So mangroves essentially sacrifice a few leaves to ensure survival of the tree, and that's also why you always see yellow leaves on mangroves.
Next to the mangroves, the islet had a stunning lava surface. The white things on the rocks are lichen who manage to survive there on the humidity in the air that southerly winds blow against the rocks.
A little further, a few sea lions were relaxing on a sandy area, most of them completely unfazed by the fact that almost twenty people were passing within three meters of them, excitedly snapping picture after picture.
The biggest attraction on the islet, however, were marine iguanas. There were hundreds, if not thousands, of them sunbathing on the hot lava rocks. This is a baby iguana, curiously looking out at a bunch of giants hiding behind camera lenses.
This was one of the biggest iguanas we saw, easily 70 cm long. None of the iguanas seemed to have any fear whatsoever of humans.
Here's another baby iguana, hugging the rock he's sitting on:
Later we went snorkeling - the first time I could really use my waterproof camera underwater! It's not all that easy to take good pictures underwater: the fish move quite fast, the display is hardly visible, and then the currents move the person holding the camera, too. Anyway, here's what I could manage. First, I saw this cute spotted fish - a Galapagos four-eye Blenny - he's well camouflaged in the middle of the picture :-)
And then a sea lion decided to come play with us! For a couple of minutes he, being a superior swimmer, danced in circles around us. So amazing!
After lunch, we visited Isabela island, and the Darwin breeding center located there. Apparently, imported species are a big threat for animals endemic to the Galapagos, especially for giant tortoises. So big a threat, actually, that baby tortoises born in the wild have almost no chance of survival. To ensure survival of their races, they are bred at Darwin centers and raised in captivity for the first five to seven years. On Isabela alone, there are at least five species of giant tortoise, and they are different from those on the other islands. That's why there are Darwin breeding centers on other islands too, each breeding their island's tortoises. The guide told us that it costs about one thousands US dollars per year to raise a single tortoise!
These are two of the older tortoises in the Darwin center:
We also walked past a few lagoons with pink flamingoes. Unfortunately, they were too far away for my camera to capture decent pictures. Our guide told us that the locals used to hunt pink flamingoes for food and feathers. The feathers are said to bring luck to tuna fishers when they are wrapped around the hook. The numbers of flamingoes decreased so much that the government took action and passed new laws. Now, foreigners who kill an animal on the Galapagos go to prison for a week and have to pay a hefty fine; locals go to prison for as much as two years and lose the right to live on the Galapagos. Drastic measures for sure, but sadly it seems they are necessary to protect the unique wildlife on the islands.
We ended our day with a bit of free time on this beautiful beach right next to Puerto Villamil, the main settlement on Isabela:
On the way there, we spotted this blue-footed booby sitting on a rock next to four penguins. What a nice start to the day! :-)
A little bit later, I learned more about mangroves. Mangroves are interesting trees, growing on the shore with their feet planted firmly in salt water. How do they cope with all the salt they ingest with the water? Apparently, what they do is concentrate excess salt in a single leaf per branch. Over time, this leaf turns yellow and dies off. So mangroves essentially sacrifice a few leaves to ensure survival of the tree, and that's also why you always see yellow leaves on mangroves.
Next to the mangroves, the islet had a stunning lava surface. The white things on the rocks are lichen who manage to survive there on the humidity in the air that southerly winds blow against the rocks.
A little further, a few sea lions were relaxing on a sandy area, most of them completely unfazed by the fact that almost twenty people were passing within three meters of them, excitedly snapping picture after picture.
The biggest attraction on the islet, however, were marine iguanas. There were hundreds, if not thousands, of them sunbathing on the hot lava rocks. This is a baby iguana, curiously looking out at a bunch of giants hiding behind camera lenses.
This was one of the biggest iguanas we saw, easily 70 cm long. None of the iguanas seemed to have any fear whatsoever of humans.
Here's another baby iguana, hugging the rock he's sitting on:
Later we went snorkeling - the first time I could really use my waterproof camera underwater! It's not all that easy to take good pictures underwater: the fish move quite fast, the display is hardly visible, and then the currents move the person holding the camera, too. Anyway, here's what I could manage. First, I saw this cute spotted fish - a Galapagos four-eye Blenny - he's well camouflaged in the middle of the picture :-)
And then a sea lion decided to come play with us! For a couple of minutes he, being a superior swimmer, danced in circles around us. So amazing!
After lunch, we visited Isabela island, and the Darwin breeding center located there. Apparently, imported species are a big threat for animals endemic to the Galapagos, especially for giant tortoises. So big a threat, actually, that baby tortoises born in the wild have almost no chance of survival. To ensure survival of their races, they are bred at Darwin centers and raised in captivity for the first five to seven years. On Isabela alone, there are at least five species of giant tortoise, and they are different from those on the other islands. That's why there are Darwin breeding centers on other islands too, each breeding their island's tortoises. The guide told us that it costs about one thousands US dollars per year to raise a single tortoise!
These are two of the older tortoises in the Darwin center:
We also walked past a few lagoons with pink flamingoes. Unfortunately, they were too far away for my camera to capture decent pictures. Our guide told us that the locals used to hunt pink flamingoes for food and feathers. The feathers are said to bring luck to tuna fishers when they are wrapped around the hook. The numbers of flamingoes decreased so much that the government took action and passed new laws. Now, foreigners who kill an animal on the Galapagos go to prison for a week and have to pay a hefty fine; locals go to prison for as much as two years and lose the right to live on the Galapagos. Drastic measures for sure, but sadly it seems they are necessary to protect the unique wildlife on the islands.
We ended our day with a bit of free time on this beautiful beach right next to Puerto Villamil, the main settlement on Isabela:
