Galapagos in March

It always amazes me how different things can be here in the Galapagos. We travel the same trails on the same islands, often viewing the same individual animals when I visit here, and yet there is always something new, something unique to experience. Of course animal behavior is a large part of the variable. This time, the recent heavy rains have brought forth a vibrant palette of green on each island. I’ve seen the vegetation with leaves before but nothing like this…even the cacti are in bloom. It hasn’t rained (yet) this week, so I am hoping that the plants hold on through next week!

Land iguanas were plentiful on North Seymour Island. Their yellow coloring really stands out against the green landscape. During previous visits, they were actually hard to find, if you can believe that.


A baby Nazca booby exhibiting playful behavior with its mother on Española Island.


Snorkeling is always one of my favorite things to do on these trips. The water is much warmer this time of year (mid-80’s) which is nice for us, but the sea lions are less active in the warmer waters. We were still able to play with a few this morning in the waters around Champion Islet.



An American oystercatcher running on a beach on Floreana Island.


The flamingos were out in force in the lagoon on Floreana Island today. I have not seen so many there in my ~10 visits there. We were also fortunate to see five flamingos in flight. They circled the lagoon four times before landing and were kind enough to do so in the beautiful end-of-the-day light.