Galapagos - Adventures of an English “Marine Aquarist”!

RichtheReefer21

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Sorry but I'm incredibly jealous and having a vicarious moment with ur dream trip...

Have u seen a sloth yet? The males swim between the islands to find mates... so friggen cool that ur doing this. Congratulations man, seriously.
 
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SPR1968

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Sorry but I'm incredibly jealous and having a vicarious moment with ur dream trip...

Have u seen a sloth yet? The males swim between the islands to find mates... so friggen cool that ur doing this. Congratulations man, seriously.
No sloths, sharks yes, puffer fish loads, infact there was a shoal of about 50 around the boat at one point.

Enjoy the vicarious ride, it was beautiful! Lol

More pictures to follow
 

RichtheReefer21

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Shaun,
Are there turtles that dive off the edge to eat seaweed?

Those are special marine iguanas I believe that do that. Only place in the world they dive I believe...
 
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SPR1968

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Yes it’s the Marine Iguanas that dive for the sea weed and their only found in the Galapagos

They evolved and adapted over time to eat the only source of food available, seaweed/algae which they can get from rocks, but also need to dive down.

During El Niño the marine iguanas can suffer very badly due to a die off of the algae they eat and the population can be significantly reduced as they die do to lack of food, or a change to brown algae which they can’t digest.

I have lots of pictures of the sweet little marine iguanas so patience! Lol
 

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RichtheReefer21

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Ooops... ;Eggonface

Your right... :)
Sorry to intrude. Hehe. I'm in love with all things natural. I'll bite my tongue on that one :D

See what I did there? ;)
 
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So, we’re still on the first day having just arrived in Galapagos and are heading to the Charles Darwin Research Centre which is located on Santa Cruz Island. It’s also the home of the Galapagos National Park Service and has a large tortoise breeding centre.

Santa Cruz is located a fraction south (a 5 minute boat trip) from Baltra which is were the main airport is and is the most populated (humans) of the Galapagos Islands.

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Walking through the first entrance we come across a beach apple tree or manchineel tree or ‘tree to give you a very bad day if you eat it or get dripped on’. Don’t get making your apple pies with this baby! It’s highly poisonous just in case your wondering!

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And then we’re up to the main entrance

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And then the inhabitants....

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Hello little lady, what might your little name be

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And in the context of pure research into tortoise behaviour (censors!)

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Mmm seems to have a little spring in his step now...

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And finally a little lizard who was watching the whole event...

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I hope these pictures keep coming.
It seems as if I was there with you.
There are plenty more Jan, we haven’t finished the first day yet, I bet your exhausted, I was! Lol
 
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As we reach the end of the first day in Santa Cruz , we had to wait an hour or so in the harbour for the boat to be ready. We had been up from around 3am to catch the flight and were absolutely exhausted

The harbour is below, not very exciting but lots of boats. I’ll post some pictures of the boat later.

IMG_0511.jpg

And then we boarded and enjoyed the beautiful view, another sunset in Galapagos......

-3970021180360620565_IMG_4626.jpg -4343493173767229727_IMG_4628.jpg -5181279660449772488_IMG_4629.jpg 6474557711912736712_IMG_4630.jpg 7183498924435510853_IMG_4632.jpg 8584975311859875025_IMG_4633.jpg
 

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As we reach the end of the first day in Santa Cruz , we had to wait an hour or so in the harbour for the boat to be ready. We had been up from around 3am to catch the flight and were absolutely exhausted

The harbour is below, not very exciting but lots of boats. I’ll post some pictures of the boat later.

IMG_0511.jpg

And then we boarded and enjoyed the beautiful view, another sunset in Galapagos......

-3970021180360620565_IMG_4626.jpg -4343493173767229727_IMG_4628.jpg -5181279660449772488_IMG_4629.jpg 6474557711912736712_IMG_4630.jpg 7183498924435510853_IMG_4632.jpg 8584975311859875025_IMG_4633.jpg

Oh my. Wonderous!

My mind is racing at the possibilities you may encounter! Suck the marrow out of this trip!

P.s. every time I see a tortoise on display its jumping another one I swear. Ha
 
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Oh my. Wonderous!

My mind is racing at the possibilities you may encounter! Suck the marrow out of this trip!

P.s. every time I see a tortoise on display its jumping another one I swear. Ha

LOL!

Amazing and certainly on my bucket list!!! I would love to dive in the Galagos. I hear the sea life down there is stupendous and teaming with large creatures.
Enjoy man!

If you get chance, just go. The marine life is simply amazing under water (so I’m told as I stayed on the rescue boat! Lol)

Some of the pictures I’ll show you of playful sea lions, penguins, it’s simply wonderful and that’s why I can’t really tell anyone what the highlights were, there were just to many.

And I sit here at home in my chair and think, wow, did I really do that......
 
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So at the start of our second day (in Galapagos) we cruised over night for a few hours and arrived at our next destination, the Islands of Chinese Hat & Isla Rabida

This was our first departure from the boat in the rubber speedboats we used to land were ever we were in Galapagos. To start it was an effort to get in them whilst wobbling around trying not to fall into the water but we soon got the hang of it (well after 7 days with no ‘incidents’! Lol)

-4146116654472277965_IMG_4641.jpg

We then started the first part of our day were we saw penguins

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And then headed towards our first landing spot of the trip for a wet landing (feet wet). And you can clearly see why it’s called Chinese Hat.

-5795256731970150819_IMG_4659.jpg

And then we went exploring...

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And the crew waited for us just off shore

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And next we encountered one of the ‘sweetest’ sights............
 

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So at the start of our second day (in Galapagos) we cruised over night for a few hours and arrived at our next destination, the Islands of Chinese Hat & Isla Rabida

This was our first departure from the boat in the rubber speedboats we used to land were ever we were in Galapagos. To start it was an effort to get in them whilst wobbling around trying not to fall into the water but we soon got the hang of it (well after 7 days with no ‘incidents’! Lol)

-4146116654472277965_IMG_4641.jpg

We then started the first part of our day were we saw penguins

2377479097335227007_IMG_4644.jpg -654782360537641068_IMG_4650.jpg

And then headed towards our first landing spot of the trip for a wet landing (feet wet). And you can clearly see why it’s called Chinese Hat.

-5795256731970150819_IMG_4659.jpg

And then we went exploring...

-5322361004343925017_IMG_4670.jpg -3756373754769002900_IMG_4677.jpg -7278966370804930301_IMG_4682.jpg 8379386511613240922_IMG_4684.jpg

And the crew waited for us just off shore

3136945444171633403_IMG_4666.jpg

And next we encountered one of the ‘sweetest’ sights............
Keep it coming! Thanks again for sharing this with us! #r2rforlife #r2r4life

Those penguins u saw are the only warm water penguins in the world. Truely unique and 1 of a kind exposure your are getting to what evolution and the perfect archipellagos can achieve...

Where are the dive pics?!?! Haha. I'm getting vicarious envy demanding!
 
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Keep it coming! Thanks again for sharing this with us! #r2rforlife #r2r4life

Those penguins u saw are the only warm water penguins in the world. Truely unique and 1 of a kind exposure your are getting to what evolution and the perfect archipellagos can achieve...

Where are the dive pics?!?! Haha. I'm getting vicarious envy demanding!
Lol!

More to come including playful penguins and yes you are correct they are the only warm water ones in the world

Maybe one got lost millions of years ago on its way to the North Pole!!
 

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