The Mikels' Chronicals: Boobies Galore Duece and some Sea Lions

Monday morning excursion involved a 7:00 Zodiac (they are the boats which transport us to land for our tours as the cruise ship can not get close enough to land to dock) ride to view Kicker Rock. Kicker Rock is a limestone rock formation which juts straight out of the ocean. The only life on the rocks are that of blue footed boobies, frigate birds, nazca boobies, and sea lions. The excursion was timed with the sunrise, so we were able to get some great pictures of the rock formation.

Back in time for breakfast and then we were off to another excursion on San Cristobol. This was a fitness walk which allowed us to see butterflies, lots of zigzag spiders, yellow wobbler, Darwin finches, and lava lizards. During the ride over to San Cristobal, Ted noticed he had somehow acquired a spot on some of his photos. Likely due to switching lenses while at Kicker Rock. So he spent much of his time on the walk trying to get rid of the spec on his lens. I for the other hand was enjoying the walk by pointing out the numerous birds and lizards. I spotted the first sea turtle of the trip while up at a lookout point on the trail. At the conclusion of the hike, we went back to San Cristobal for about 15 minutes of shopping. We’ve become pretty disappointed so far with shopping as we typically do on our trips. As usual, the majority of the shops sell cheap China made souvenirs. We really hope we will be able to find shops with original Ecuadorian made items. If not, sorry family. You will have to live with our pictures and videos.

After walking around the shops, we went back to the pier to hop on our Zodiac back to the ship. While at the pier, there were around twenty sea lions lying around basking in the sun and playing in the water. The sea lions remind us a lot of our dog maverick. They are very playful and try to get the attention of each other, while others just lay on the rocks, steps, benches, sidewalks, boats, pretty much anywhere they like. One seal lion was playing with a large stick and tossing it around in the water. We wish Maverick could entertain himself like that. We are really excited to get an opportunity to get in the water with the sea lions and have some fun of our own with them.

Back on the ship, we were treated to a grill with hamburgers and grilled shrimp. The shrimp were huge and very delicious. While eating lunch, we were graced with the presence of a group of dolphins. It looked like the group was chasing after fish, since they were making great leaps out of the water and high into the air. It was awesome to see wild dolphins rather than the typical trained dolphins we have seen in the past. It was even better that they put on a show for us.

The afternoon excursion was a tour of Espanola Island. There were two options this afternoon a short and long walk. Of course, we chose the long walk to get more time on the island. Right off the bat, we were met with a colony of sea lions and many marine iguanas. The marine iguanas on this island are much more colorful than the iguanas we saw yesterday due to a mineral that is present around the island. Also on this island, we saw many Nazca (masked) boobies and their baby chicks. We are beginning to learn that we do not need to worry about missing photo opportunities on our hikes because there will many additional opportunities as you progress on the hike and on future excursions.

Well, we are now back on the ship and it looks like we have written way too much for people to read, so we will end for now and upload some pictures for everyone to enjoy. We should be able to update every day from now on out, since we now have internet access. We hope everyone is well and enjoys the photos. Hasta la vista!

We will post pictures later.