One thing that I noticed today is that everything seems to be prefixed with "Galapagos" here - Galapagos penguins, Galapagos sea lions, Galapagos this, Galapagos that. It's as if a simple name wouldn't suffice, everything needs the extra emphasis that it's unique to the Galapagos.
In the morning, we visited another islet, Rabida. This islet has a wonderful red sand beach that is populated by scores of small animals: marine iguanas, lava lizards, ghost crabs and - when the tide is right - beautiful red sea stars and otherworldly sea urchins:
The resident birds don't say no to such delicious treats, of course, so the beach is swarming with Galapagos mockingbirds and Yellow Warblers:
A little further inland is a small lagoon where we found some pink flamingoes - this time close enough for pictures:
Since the rocky shore at one end of the beach provides an excellent habitat for fish, we took the opportunity to do some more snorkeling. There were sea lions playing with us again, and I managed to snap a few other pictures, too. This, for example, is a giant hawkfish (there's a book for identifying fish onboard, otherwise I wouldn't have known) - isn't his patterning just marvelous?
And this is a king angelfish:
Finally, in this picture there are three fish, from front to back: an old blue-chin parrotfish, a razor surgeonfish, and a young blue-chin parrotfish.
Aren't these colors just amazing? At least as amazing as their imaginative names ;-)
Back from snorkeling, one of the sea lions followed us on to the beach to take a rest in the shade - maybe he was tired from all the playing?
After lunch, our boat took us to another island again. On this cruise, I finally discovered the easiest and best remedy against seasickness. It's neither pills nor acupressure wristbands - it's as simple as closing the eyes or, even better, lying down and going to sleep. It makes sense: since seasickness is caused by conflicting signals delivered by two of the body's sensors (vision and in-ear balance), the most effective cure is not to treat the symptoms, but to take one of the conflicting sensors out of the equation.
Back on the north shore of Santa Cruz, we climbed the dragon hill. The hill is named for its population of land iguanas who, particularly from a distance, look remarkably like dragons.
We also got to know two species of Galapagos flora. The incense tree, or palo santo, looks like it's dead, but is in fact only sleeping until the next rainy season. Its branches have a lemony sweet smell, and the oil produced from them has apparently been used as the base for a perfume called American Love.
Galapagos cotton is another Galapagos-only species. According to our guide, it doesn't produce enough cotton to be explored commercially, but it was blooming beautifully nevertheless :-)
In the morning, we visited another islet, Rabida. This islet has a wonderful red sand beach that is populated by scores of small animals: marine iguanas, lava lizards, ghost crabs and - when the tide is right - beautiful red sea stars and otherworldly sea urchins:
The resident birds don't say no to such delicious treats, of course, so the beach is swarming with Galapagos mockingbirds and Yellow Warblers:
A little further inland is a small lagoon where we found some pink flamingoes - this time close enough for pictures:
Since the rocky shore at one end of the beach provides an excellent habitat for fish, we took the opportunity to do some more snorkeling. There were sea lions playing with us again, and I managed to snap a few other pictures, too. This, for example, is a giant hawkfish (there's a book for identifying fish onboard, otherwise I wouldn't have known) - isn't his patterning just marvelous?
And this is a king angelfish:
Finally, in this picture there are three fish, from front to back: an old blue-chin parrotfish, a razor surgeonfish, and a young blue-chin parrotfish.
Aren't these colors just amazing? At least as amazing as their imaginative names ;-)
Back from snorkeling, one of the sea lions followed us on to the beach to take a rest in the shade - maybe he was tired from all the playing?
After lunch, our boat took us to another island again. On this cruise, I finally discovered the easiest and best remedy against seasickness. It's neither pills nor acupressure wristbands - it's as simple as closing the eyes or, even better, lying down and going to sleep. It makes sense: since seasickness is caused by conflicting signals delivered by two of the body's sensors (vision and in-ear balance), the most effective cure is not to treat the symptoms, but to take one of the conflicting sensors out of the equation.
Back on the north shore of Santa Cruz, we climbed the dragon hill. The hill is named for its population of land iguanas who, particularly from a distance, look remarkably like dragons.
We also got to know two species of Galapagos flora. The incense tree, or palo santo, looks like it's dead, but is in fact only sleeping until the next rainy season. Its branches have a lemony sweet smell, and the oil produced from them has apparently been used as the base for a perfume called American Love.
Galapagos cotton is another Galapagos-only species. According to our guide, it doesn't produce enough cotton to be explored commercially, but it was blooming beautifully nevertheless :-)
