Our home in Galapagos these two weeks is the National Geographic Endeavour, seen here just after sunrise.
We've visited two of my favorite spots since my last post. Fernandina Island, the youngest island in the archipelago has many marine iguanas. You must watch where you step as you walk along the dark lava, as these creatures are everywhere and blend in well with the dark stone. These are the largest of the marine iguanas; it's wild to see them piled up on each other as they are here.
Of course there are sea lions here too. This one posed in front of the ship. The island of Isabela is in the background.
Later in the week, we saw several marine iguanas feeding underwater. It is a feat to find these guys when you're snorkeling and they often don't hang around when you swim up to them. Fortunately this one did...
The absolute highlight of the week happened Friday afternoon, on our last hike of the week. While on Santiago island, not long before dusk, someone in our group saw an octopus that had washed up onto the rocks with the waves. The octopus grabbed onto a nearby sally lightfoot crab and then began to pull it back to the water. It was amazing to watch. I have a sequence of the event and a naturalist here also caught it on video. You never know what you will witness here! I'll leave you with a photo of this and Thursday's sunset.
