Our last day and a half in The Galapagos was mostly just more of the same. Some kind of one hour nature walk followed by the opportunity to snorkel followed by a meal followed by…

The one exception to this was the one “attempt” I made to snorkel – well, not really snorkel. It isn’t a lot of fun to put a mask on, take a deep breath, submerge one’s self, look at as many fish as possible and then resurface and start the process all over again. This is particularly frustrating when one can’t even stand because of the rocky bottom. The others did tell me all about the wonderful things they saw which really helped.

Some of the sights:

The same sunrise on two cameras:

Frigates – they are amazing birds. They have a 7 1/2 foot wing span and can soar at incredible heights for weeks at a time. They watch for other birds to catch fish then catch the smaller bird and shake it until it drops the fish and then they swoop down to catch the catch. It was great watching them glide it

Basking sea lions

Two kinds of birds

More marine iguanas and red crabs

Tortoise bones

A super high tide, caused by the nearness of Venus the night before, which prevented the scheduled nature excursion “A walk on the beach”.

Our final morning was a scheduled panga, or dinghy, ride. This was by far the best excursion.

After another spectacular sunrise,

We went into Black Turtle Cove

where we saw:

Tiger Rays,

Lots of White Tipped Sharks,

Giant Tortoises

Pelicans by the dozens

and, of course, the famous Blue Footed Booby.

After the morning’s excitement – you join 12 people trying to get pictures, moving from side to side on a panga, in shark infested water and tell me that’s not excitement, it was back to the ship to say farewell to our new good friends Carol and Mike,

and the flight out to start on the last leg of this incredible adventure.

Next time – Hola Mexico City.