Santa Cruz Island – Bachas Beach

For our Wednesday morning excursion, we visited Bachas Beach on Santa Cruz Island. The main attraction at this location was the possibility of seeing Flamingos. Along the walk to the Flamingo site, we saw many Sally Light Foot Crabs and Marine Iguanas. The wildlife on this walk was less than in past excursions, so there weren’t many photo opportunities. Once we reached the Flamingo site, we were greeted by two beautiful flamingos. Of course everyone clamored to get the best photo spot, since this was everyones first opportunity to see flamingos on this trip. These flamingos were much more pink than the ones we have seen in the past back home.

At the completion of the walking portion of the excursion, we got another chance to snorkel. Britt was able to get going quite a bit faster this time as she was a little more comfortable in the water. The snorkeling at this site was not as good as our previous excursions. None the less, we saw many colorful tropical fish and several of Britt’s favorite fish, a teal parrotfish. While swimming, the surf began to get a little rough, so we headed back in.

Back on the ship, I received news that my photo from the day before was chosen as photo of the day. I somehow got lucky during one of my pictures and had the rapid shot turned on. I took an awesome photo of a sally light foot crab just as the waves were rushing in. It is an awesome shot. We have taken some great photographs on this trip and look forward to showing everyone when we get back.


Afternoon Excursion – Bartolome Point on San Salvador Island.

Our afternoon excursion took us to Bartolome Point on San Salvador Island. Bartolome point is a high lookout point on the island. There are 380 steps to the top of the point. San Salvador island is one of the youngest islands in the Galapagos group; only 150,000 years old. The island is very barren as the island is not old enough for plant life to take hold. Due to this, wildlife is also scarce on this island. But of course scarce in the Galapagos does not mean there is not much to be seen. There are many Marine iguanas swimming and basking in the sun. There were many lava lizards laying on rocks and doing push ups to display their strength and scare off other lizards and predators. The highlight of the walk was the Galapagos hawk. We saw several hawks during this walk. The Galapagos hawk is top dog on the islands; having no other predators to challenge it. We found it amazing that the hawk, which is similar in size to the hawks back in Iowa, is capable of killing adult iguanas and carrying them back to their nest. The strength in their wings is amazing. I was able to get some great shots of several hawks flying through the air and perched on rocks.

After the walking excursions, we headed down to the beach for some more snorkeling. Britt gave it a good go, but the water was too rough for her, so I went alone. The amount of fish on this snorkel was amazing. There were many large schools of fish to swim through. Around a large point, I was greeted by three Galapagos penguins and several sea lions. Unfortunately, I was not able to get them to join me in the water, but I was able to get very close to them. On the way back to the beach, a large spotted ray swam by. Unfortunately, I had to get back to the ship and was not able to glide along with him, but what a great way to end a great day.