Galapagos Islands, Ecuador, Part 4: Post Office Bay, Blue-Footed Boobies, and THE LAST SUNSET

Fun fact, I think this is my only Part 4 I've ever written on the blog!  Actually, pretty sure I've never had a Part 3 either.


Cliffnotes of Day 6:

• We sailed away from Santa Cruz and spent the morning near Isla Floriana on the world's coldest snorkeling expedition ever, but got to swim with more sea lions!  They were everywhere. There were enough that you could have your own sea lion and swim around with him without anyone else interfering. I could start every morning off like this, seriously. 

And the sea lions followed us to our boat to say good-bye! DYING.

• In the afternoon, we sailed to Isla Floriana. The first inhabitant to the Galapagos was to Isla Floriana, and it was an Irish guy whose friends didn't like him - so they left him on this island, because it's the only one with fresh water. 

Our afternoon nature walk on Isla Floriana landed us on this beach. This is supposed to be a green sand beach. I don't see it.

Here is a juvenile flamingo, which you can tell because he's white. I've decided (real talk) that flamingoes are not my favorite animal, because they're kind of huge sissies. They get easily spooked and always try to run away even if you're 100 feet away, they're entirely too fragile (only 15-20% of babies survive), and they're not that interesting (besides being pink). Sorry, flamingoes.

Beach #4! Luci tried to go swimming here and William shouted at her not to, because the beach is a turtle nesting area and hungry sharks like to wait offshore to eat baby turtles

Next stop on Floriana: Post Office Bay, site of the first Galapagos post office! Started in 1793, this post office is famous because today, it still operates on the kindness of strangers. You can drop off postcards and rifle through the (hundreds) that are already inside - if you see one that you are willing to deliver to your respective country, you take it with you. The emphasis is that you have to personally deliver it. 

I didn't leave any postcards, but I took 3 of them with me to deliver.  Besides locale, I chose these because they were sweet - one was a mom writing to her daughter that if her daughter ever received the postcard, she would pay for her trip to go to the Galapagos. One sounded like it was written to an ex with a broken heart. And the third was a postcard someone sent themselves to remind them to enjoy life.  I have no idea when these people will actually get their postcards - but Austin, SF, and Napa, I'm coming for you with a hand-delivered postcard!

• Afternoon snorkel was off the coast of Floriana - the water was pretty silty so I gave up after a bit (turning into such a snorkeling snob, seriously) and spent time on the beach instead.

Beach #5, Floriana Island!

Luci and I loving Sunset, Night #6

This sunset changed every 5 minutes - so, so breathtaking

HEART EYED EMOJI 

Cliffnotes of Day 7:

• Sailed to San Cristobal Island, one of the most populated islands after Santa Cruz. We went to the main city of Puerto Baquerizo Moreno (these cities are all named after former presidents) and visited a museum that detailed the human history of the Galapagos. And then we all sat in a cafe; and WIFIIIIIIII.

Viewpoint over San Cristobal Island

Here is a statue of Charles Darwin that stands on the island. Except how gigantically huge are his hands compared to his head?!?!

We stopped by a sea lion beach (because there's no such thing as sea lion overload)

I seriously, seriously love sea lions so much

• In the afternoon, we sailed out to a point called La Lobería for our nature walk and snorkel.

These black birds are called frigate birds - the red thing in the middle is a male frigate trying to mate. They puff out their chests into these huge heart-shaped balloons to attract females (I'm swooning. Seriously.)  They can stay like this up to a month.  Also, these birds mate for life. They're sometimes called "pirate birds" because they like to steal prey from other birds - they'll bite other birds' tails in mid-air, which causes them to drop their prey so the frigate bird can swoop in and steal it. I seriously like everything about these birds.

It's blue-footed booby mating season! These are one of the really special birds in the Galapagos - and their feet really are very blue! Here is a female on her eggs. 

Here is an incredibly attractive blue-footed booby couple. Like.

They do this special little waddle dance to attract mates. Double like.

Here is another couple doing a mating dance together. 

During mating, the male blue-footed booby offers the female a stick during courtship. We literally watched a male booby chasing a female around with a stick in his mouth. Also, the males whistle and the females honk in response. Cutest. 

After our nature walk on the most romantic island ever (seriously, bird couples were everywhere - it was like being a fifth wheel), we went snorkeling right off the island shore.

• There were sea lions everywhere along the shoreline of the island, but none of them wanted to come in and swim with us. They just all stared at us. Even when we made sea lion roaring noises.  But snorkeling was still pretty cool; we still saw a turtle, a stingray, and an iguana swimming underwater.

WHY DON'T YOU WANNA PLAY WITH US

Love this water color

• We sailed back to Puerto Baquerizo Moreno off San Cristobal for dinner and the very last sunset of the trip.

This sea lion jumped into one of our small emergency rafts. 

Appropriately, our last sunset was one of the most stunning sunsets of the entire trip

This looks like one of those photo inserts they put in photo frames that says F*R*I*E*N*D*S

Sighhhhhhhhhhh

• The very last night, we stayed up late (this means like, 10pm vs. 8:30pm) and watched all the stars - the sky was so clear that you could see the entire Milky Way. Such an amazing, amazing trip and an amazing, amazing ending. It's like that song from the Lizzie McGuire movie;  "This is What Dreams Are Made Of." *mic drop*

Meal of the Day:
One small detail I missed out on when mentioning our boat - the food was delicious and amaaaazing. Every meal had like 6 courses, filled with fresh veggies and fruits. There was always snack time and tea time.  AND DINNER ALWAYS CAME WITH A DESSERT.  Some of my most highly anticipated moments were waiting to see what the dessert would be after dinner.

Hello, fresh buffet of food

I realize this looks totally unappetizing, but our evening meals were always followed with a dessert. And this was the best of all - banana cake with chocolate sauce. WE DIED. And then one guy hopefully asked for more, and THERE WAS MORE and we each got an additional slice of cake. We were beyond ecstatic - seriously, you would have thought we won the lottery or something with the reaction that resulted from the second slice of cake.

Fun Facts of the Day:

• There are two other types of boobies besides the blue-footed one. There's also a red-footed booby and a Nazca booby, though they are not considered endemic. 
• The female blue-footed boobies are larger than the males, because they have to incubate the eggs and shade them. Boobies typically lay three eggs but unless there is a lot of food available, they only feed the first one. 
• Charles Darwin visited four of the islands (including Floriana) in 1835.
• Back then, a lot of the islands were only used as penal colonies - but eventually failed because of the lack of fresh water.

Galapagos Islands, Ecuador, Part 3: Lava, Dolphin Diving, Sea Lion Snorkeling

So I know I'm 3 months late, but Charlie Puth seriously sings like an angel. I may have had "One Call Away" on repeat for days. Moving on.

And so continues the third installment of my Galapagos Islands adventures!  I thought this would be the last one, but alas, I started writing it and it is already so, so, so long - so I'm going to have to do a PART IV. GASP.  I can't help that the Galapagos are so happening!!!  Anyhow, enjoy.


Cliffnotes of Day 4:

• Sailed to the Eastern shore of Isla Santiago to an area called Pinnacle Rock, where we took our nature walk on some baller lava fields.  The lava formations were from a volcanic eruption over 115 years ago (where the lava reached temp of over 1,700 degrees Celsius!)

How crazy-looking are these lava fields!

These formations are called rope formations, because the lava twisted and cooled into rope-like strands. Also, new shoes.

This is Filip looking into a formation called an oven - where pressure built up over time and lava exploded out in tiny mini-volcanoes

Sitting in a giant lava crack

Lava fields group shot, check.

Just call me the crab whisperer

• After our lava walk, we super-snorkeled (a term our guide uses for when we snorkel directly from the boat; vs. going from the beach) around the edges of the lava fields.  Of note: the cutest, happiest sea lion swimming with us in the water, AND WE SAW A PENGUIN. He kind of poked his head up and then zipped by quickly, so only some of us saw him, but it was adorable.  There were also some sharks, which are still cool but we've honestly seen so many of them by now. AND MY FAVE PART: four of us happened upon a giant sea turtle. It was perfect because there was no one else around, and he was super chill and was swimming in the coolest, most laid-back way - he didn't even care that we were there. In fact, he swam with the four of us all the way back to the boat, which took about 15 minutes. It felt like we were four turtles, just casually swimming together. I know that sounds weird. But it was pure, pure magic. 

This is what a Galapagos penguin looks like.
But when they're zipping by you in the water, they just look like a flash of black.

• In the afternoon, five of us chose to go diving, while the others chilled on the boat and a couple others snorkeled.  Ayelen, Andrés, Josh, Luci and I organized for a dive master to come to our boat and take us diving at a spot called North Seymour Island. 
• First side note, I don't know why scuba certification is for life, because I seriously forget every single thing I've ever learned after about a month. Doesn't matter how many times I've been, if it's been over a month, I might as well not be certified. I'm pretty sure everyone on the boat was eyeing each other warily as I tried to twist my octopus (the thing with all the air tubes and cords) onto my air tank the completely wrong direction. Oh, would have just led to a tiny consequence of not having air underwater, you know.
• Second side note, our poor dive master was trying to give us a safety briefing before our dive - when nearby, we saw DOLPHINS leaping out of the water. It was so exciting that Luci and I inadvertently let out a scream every time another one jumped. We'd calm down, the dive master would continue his safety talk, and then another dolphin would leap through the air in the distance, and we'd accidentally scream again. I was literally dizzy with excitement - it was seriously, seriously majestic. Also, I can't repeat a single thing the dive master said re:safety.

I'm sure you needed this visual

• Onto the actual diving itself, our first dive was meh. But the SECOND DIVE - it was amazing - we saw so many moray eels poking out of caves, HUGE eagle rays swimming by, the largest stingray I've ever seen in my life (like the size of a triple XXXL pizza), and gorgeous neon fish. There was even a moment where I was happily swimming along, and a shark comes darting out of a cave, right in front of me, chasing a fish. Amazing. Nature is amazing.

Sunset, Night 4. 

So many ridiculous colors

Cliffnotes of Day 5:

• Sailed back to Santa Cruz to Puerto Ayora, the main city where Nadine and I had started our Galapagos journey.  Our morning adventure consisted of driving out to visit giant tortoises in the wild!

Ah, Puerto Ayora

Arriving in Puerto Ayora - sea lions on the dock!

And here is a giant tortoise! These can grow to be over 500lbs with meter-long shells. This one is taking a mud bath, which they often do to get rid of mites, since they can't exactly scratch themselves.

William, our guide, posed this photo

This turtle had a shell with scalloped edges. #fancy

Josh and I are wearing actual giant tortoise shells #turtlesinahalfshell

Nadine and I got matching Galapagos turtle bracelets. My wrist is clearly just a weensy bit more cluttered.

• In the afternoon, we sailed out to another island called Isla Santa Cruz for our afternoon snorkel.  I can't figure out more adjectives to use than magical, amazing, majestic, life-changing, incredible, etc. - so I'm going to apply them all to this snorkel. WE SNORKELED WITH SEA LIONS. And not just snorkeled and looked at them - sea lions are incredibly playful, especially juvenile ones, so they interact with you and want to play with you. They twirl and dive and barrel roll towards you and swim circles around you. You could have easily reached out and given one a hug (which coincidentally, may or may not be my ultimate sea lion dream). It was seriously one of the best things ever, in the history of the entire world.

In the afternoon, after magic sea lion snorkeling, we went to another part of Santa Cruz for our evening nature walk. There were sea lions all over the beach we landed on!

Does this baby sea lion look or not look exactly like a panda?

Sea lion mom and pup

A fat baby sea lion with multiple rolls #favorite

I got too close to this baby sea lion and he freaked out, so I freaked out, and this is both of us running away from each other

Continuing on our nature walk: this land iguana is native to Santa Cruz - they are so lazy they literally wait under cactus trees and wait for the fruit to fall so they can eat it.

The land iguana and the sea lion are basically in the same pose

A magical dusky sunset (SUNSET #5) on Santa Cruz

Ending the day with a sea lion selfie

Ok for serious this time, the last and final (and best) installment of the Galapagos comes tomorrow!