As usual, it was difficult to leave the islands, after having connected to the land and the life there, and leaving new friends on the ship. Many of them will be there when I return in December but the landscape will be vastly different, since that will be during the rainy season.
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To start, here are some of the photos I tried to post last time that didn't go through from Isabela and Fernandina Isalnds.
Galapagos penguin on Isabela Island
Sally Lightfoot Crab on Fernandina Island
On our trip to Santa Cruz Island, our only full land day, we found several tortoises in the wild. I've been to this place three times before and have always seen one, two, or three, but on this day, the group was smaller than normal and we went further into the jungle and found around seven of them.
Wild Galapagos land tortoise
We had a sunrise outing on Thursday at Cerro Dragon (another part of Santa Cruz) and walked up on a beautiful setting. There's a lagoon just off the beach there where several marine iguanas where resting in the water. The naturalists were saying this was not a normal behavior but one to avoid the feral cats that patrol the area. We saw one cat (different ones) each week we were on that trail. It's an island that is inhabited by people so it's nearly, if not completely, impossible to gain control of the cats and dogs, although they have recently implemented programs to attempt to control the population. Anyway, several minutes after we walked up, the iguanas started moving. As you can see the water was very still and the reflections were beautiful.
Marine iguanas reflected in lagoon
On the move...Our last day included trips to Bartolome and Santiago Islands, followed by a deviation in our route back to Baltra where the airport is. As you may have heard, there was a volcanic eruption on Thursday on Fernandina. (See this article for more info: Galapagos eruption) Yep, we missed seeing it by only two days! Lindblad's other ship that travels the Galapagos was there though and got some great photos. We were over 100 miles away, but got as close as we could while not missing our plane the next day. We were able to see the red glow of the lava reflected on the clouds in the distance. It's not the dramatic photo, but the closest I've been to an eruption, so pretty cool nonetheless! 
Sunset on Santiago Island, near Sombrero Chino. The landscape here is dominated by the candelabra cactus.
My last evening in the Galapagos, with the eruption of Cerro Azul, on Isabela Island, in the background
