Isabella Island - marine iguanas & penguins

Finally, with the swimming meets over, our focus turned to the fantastic animals of the Galapagos. For many of us, this was the main reason for this trip. Meeting other swimmers, competing, eating & drinking & dancing w/people from our host country was not why many of us came to Ecuador (although that was fun too). The real reason was to see what Darwin saw, to see living examples of evolution in action! And it was worth the wait.

On a day-long trip by boat to Isabella Island we saw was many of the animals that make the Galapagos so interesting.

Once we landed on Isabella (2 1/2 hour boat ride) we walked (bus didn't show up!) into town and were taken to an open-air restaurant for breakfast.  This was apparently included in the tour.  The restaurant was clearly trying to please our american taste buds but it wasn't quite on the mark.  Very good food, but not exactly typical fare for Californians.  Good, though.  

We saw marine iguanas - black ocean-going creatures that look very like minature dinasauers. Looking very fierce, they are actually not very aggressive towards or bothered by humans, typical of many of the animals on the Galapagos. The marine iguanas were easy to see as well, being cold-blooded they spent much of their time warming up on black rocks before diving back into the cool ocean to find food.

The penguins which winter in the Galapagos had arrived in time for our visit (they knew we were coming!). They are the northern-most penguins in the world, swimming up from anarctica every winter (which starts in June in the Southern Hemisphere). Our boat didn't get up close to the penguins so the photo of them was taken at some distance. But still, it was nice to see them!

A baby sea lion was very curious about us too. Of course, we have sea lions in California but it was fun to watch it play for our attention!