The Galapagos Islands, Ecuador

I can’t believe I haven’t finished posting about The Galapagos Islands! That trip was back in June, it feels like forever ago. But since then I’ve been in so many different places. I haven’t had time to sleep, let alone sit down and write a well thought out blog post!

I wish I was more of a birdist or whatever weird people who like bird watching are called The Galapagos have so many different species of birds flying around the islands and someone more into nature than I am could’ve appreciated it more!

Our guide, Christian, was awesome about explaining the lives of these animals and making his stories interesting, even for a non-outdoorsy girl like me. He’s an Ecuadorian who grew up on the island. He said he spent his whole life learning about the plants and animal species there and even got a degree in something related from the local university. From the way he talked about it, he said the locals know that they have to protect all the different wildlife, not just for tourism but for the environment in general — that they really understand the importance of preserving the diversity in the Galapagos.

Is that dying baby seal not the saddest thing you’ve ever seen?! It’s all malnourished and wrinkled up Looking at the picture makes me feel like crying!

Seriously, everywhere was like a sea lion zoo exhibit all the time. SO COOL.

Our boat is the one out there to the right. I took this photo as we were leaving this particular island. One thing I really liked was that they staggered the boats coming and going so that you were never on an island with another group of tourists. I thought they did that for the tourists so that we have some peace and calm and too many people don’t scare away the animals, but that’s not it…they do it in order to not have a hundred people trampling up the landscape and ruining it. Of course.

The bugs were oversized. Everything was oversized!

See the little baby snake? I almost stepped on him crossing the path!

My favorite thing, of everything we saw, aside from the blue-footed boobies, of course, were the iguanas. I loved them. They look at you so suspiciously as you take their picture.

Christian said that the iguanas are all descended from one iguana species but as they were transferred from one island to another they’d adapt according to the vegetation on their new home and their skin would change colors so they’d be able to blend in more easily. The island that had lots of black rocks had lots of black iguanas, for instance.

This iguana is eating his lunch!

These trees were something straight out of a Doctor Seuss book! I loved them!

Here’s something you don’t see every day — two hawks eating BABY SEA LION PLACENTA. Oh yes. That happened and I witnessed it. Mother Nature is so disgusting.

Our group was an almost all-female crew. There was a German lady, a Polish lady, two Swiss girls and then one couple, an American girl and her British fiance. I think he felt a little outnumbered!

I took all these photos with my 50mm lens, which means…I was super close up to them, it’s not a zoom! So crazy to be looking this bird in the eye and she sits on her nest and guards her eggs. I hope we didn’t stress her out too much.

These birds were INSANE. As part of their mating ritual they blow up this huge red neck balloon thingy that they have! It’s one of the most bizarre things I’ve ever seen in my life. I felt like I had just turned on my TV to a National Geographic program and walked straight into a show.

A bird flying with it’s neck balloon out and you can see a whole bunch of other ones sitting in the trees below it.

Even if I’m not that into weird animals, it was still such a cool feeling to be able to see all these rare species. I kept thinking of my dad because he really loves nature and appreciates it so much more than I do. But I didn’t take a moment for granted, I was happy I was there and so grateful to be having this crazy experience.