Galápagos Islands April 21- May 6 2016: Saturday, April 30

Santa Fe Island- we arrive at this is
And around 6:30 am and we have breakfast before an activity today. We got to sleep in. Out for a hike. It's only a 700 m loop but it is quite interesting. We see sea lions everywhere upon our landing. As we walk the trail the one plant major covering the area is the cactus. Where there are cacti there are land iguanas. They sit and wait for the leaves to fall off and then eat them, needles and all. There were mockingbird hanging around as well as they drink the water from the leaves. One was even sitting on top of an iguana. Just missed that picture.

Very large land iguanas here.

This one is lucky to have found a fallen leaf. See the Mockingbird waiting for a drink? He stay thirsty for now.

On the walk off the path and back on the beach a hawk land on a rock and a white-tipped shark swam very near the shore.

A hawk

Return to the boat and we have about 45-60 minutes to do whatever. I décide to go boarding. I see and follow three sea turtles. The water is so clear that I can easily see their markings, colour, and size. Too awkward to have a camera with me. I then go closer to shore and watch the sea lions.

By the time I return to the Samba everyone is getting ready to go snorkeling I quickly follow the others and get all geared up. We are in the pangas and heading towards the sea lions. We swim with them and of course with many species of fish. We see a sting ray and some of the others see a shark. I climb back on the panga only to jump back in 2 minutes later as someone spotted another ray and a turtle. I can't resist. We return to our boat to shower and prepare for lunch. During lunch we see spotted eagle rays. We see them quite frequently. They are so agile, flipping two, three, and even four times in mid air.

After lunch the adventure continues. A whale is nearby. The guide takes out his binoculars and

identifies it- it's a Blue whale. They don't see this specie very often. The guide is so pumped that he calls out to anyone who wants to try to go swimming with it. Only one guests is keen, Tom, the youngest member of our group. They head out in a panga. This whale is very unpredictable. It changes direction all the time but perseverance pays off and the two of them jump in three different times and on the final one come up very close. Tom took a video of this experience. We saw the video later in the evening. (I will get a copy of this) shortly after this event, the Rays are back and they are very energetic. They are flip-flopping in every direction we look. This is so cool to witness. We never tire of it. We sail for the next hour and a half in the direction of Plaza Island where we will go for a hike. We are a bit off schedule because of the whale searching but no one minds. We arrive around 3:30, but by this time it is so hot that only eight of us head out with Darwin. We saw lots of sea lions, sea birds, iguanas, and lava lizards. The coastal part of the trek offered some spectacular views where we saw 3 blue-footed boobies and other cliff birds.