Having seen, and photographed, thousands of marine iguanas today was to be our day, hopefully, to view the more colourful land iguanas. As soon as we set foot on the rocks the wildlife was everywhere. First were the flamingos and very quickly afterwards we spotted our first land iguana...right beside the path. This is lucky as you are not allowed to stray off the path even if you see what would make a killer picture. We got some stunning shots.
Following some coastline kayaking we were back on board for a short navigation to Rabida Island. The first striking characteristic was the red beach. The second feature was the number of languishing sea lions strewn along its entire length. Claire had given out to me for touching the sea turtle, well, we had no sooner landed on Rabida when a sea lion made his way up to me and nudged me on the knee.....and she gave out to me for that too!!
The sea lions were the friendliest of all the creatures we encountered over our week. They are so playful and inquisitive. They seemed as interested to see us as we were to see them. We walked to one of the islands highest points where we had stunning 360 degree views. There was a Galapagos hawk sitting on a low branch of a tree. Everyone approached to within about 10 feet to take a photo. It soon became clear that he didn´t mind in the least and people were able to walk right up to him and take a close-up snap.
The behaviour of the motley crew of animals on the Galapagos goes against everything you have experienced elsewhere.
Land Iguana
Sea Lion takes a nap on the Red Sandy Beach
More Sea Lions....
Flowering Cacti plant on Rabida Island
Flamingos
Up close & personal!
Galapagos Hawk
No comments:
Post a Comment