Christmas on Galapagos

posts getting fewer and further between, and thats, well, thats the way it goes

 Galapagos for Christmas, evolution more than Christ, and it was a very fine change.
Galapagos is magic, and until just after Christmas we saw fewer people (they arrived after in tons) but lots of sea lions, tortoises, sea iguanas, and birds in all shapes and forms. Magic.

We had decided for an Island tour, not planned by tour agency, but just two different hotels on two different islands, and then taking day tours as we felt like, biking, hiking, and boating. Next time we will do a boat tour and see if we missed anything, but dont think that could be the case really, we saw lots, on the beach, in the water and up in the highlands and on one volcano. Perfect weather too, but sea temp a little lower than hoped for, however, anything under 28c is cold to me, but wet suits work wonders.

All these pictures from Santa Cruz Island.
We spend the first 3 days there. Its the Island with most people and tourist as well. All cruise ships come to port.

And then we took the 600HP speed boat to Isabela. About 2 hours in a 14 passenger boat in rough seas, a few very sick people, but really a great trip over the waves.

it is paradise, can't eat the fruit from the trees

less likely to pad one of these on the head

 

swimming with these guys, they were huge, was fantastic

He looked as lonesome as lonesome George

sea lions all over the place

very fast swimmer, thank Darwin we never encountered one in the water

A 8 km hike up to the worlds second largest volcano crater

last eruption in 2005, did not explode so all lava still in the 12 by 10 km crater

Last day we again spend in Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz, before the taxi, ferry, bus, plane, taxi  6 hour trip from this paradise in the mountains to the other on the sea.

look closely and see every boat has a sea lion dosing

Beautilful streets of Puerto Ayora