South America 2019: August 2019

The adventure begins on the Galapagos Islands

Our boat Daphne awaits it's new passengers.

Frigate birds following our boat.

Tony and Dave snorkelling

Our fantastic chefs. Superb food

First days activities

Our fantastic guide Jack

Meal time again

Morning tea always awaits after an early morning walk

our cabin bunk

Our very tiny cabin ensuite

Our communal lounge area

Off snorkeling. Two snorkels a day and 2 good walks. Saw everything we expected to see.

Only 6 of us on board with a crew of 8 including the captain.
We saw so many beautiful fish while snorkeling to name a few.......surgeon fish, 5 species of parrot fish, mexican kingfish, barber fish, king angel fish, green sea urchins, chocolate chip starfish, mantra rays, heaps of turtles and fur seals that loved to show off under the water. Viewed plenty of minke whales and bottle nose dolphins from the boat as we were traveling.

Doves

Finch

Breakfast time

Day 2

Male Frigate in mid air with his neck blown up trying to impress a female.

Male Frigate

Baby Frigate birds nest in the salt bushes.

Blue Footed Boobies.
Amazing to watch diving for fish. From 20 metres in the air they spot their fish fold their wings back and hit the water at 80km an hour with their becks closed and catch the fish on their return to the surface. We watched all this while we were snorkeling.

Bartolome Island ............360 steps to the summit

Full of spatter cones and lava flow. Plenty of sights like this.

Summit. Great view of Pinnacle Rock protrudes out from the earth like a tooth

Our group and guide Jack on the right.

One of the crew arrives to take us back to our boat along with some visitors.

Day 3

Ghost crabs everywhere

Pelican with a fish halfway down it's throat.

Day 4

Fernandina Island. Volcanically active most westerly Island and has the highest concentration of Marine Iguanas

Tagus Cove

Early morning walk where we saw graffiti on the cliff walls the oldest goes back to 1836. This is where pirates and whalers collected tortoises for there travels.........used them for their fresh meat. Daphne boat anchored below.

We saw so many different birds. Darwin's finches, Galapagos mockingbirds, Galapagos flycatchers oystercatchers black neck stills and ducks, Galapagos hawk, swallow-tailed gull only nocturnal gull in the world and many more

The most northerly penguins in the world

Flightless Cormorants. Have become too heavy for their small wings.

Galapagos fur seal

Day 5

Early morning Panga (zodiac boat) ride along Elizabeth Bay on the west coast of Isabela and into the Mangrove forest. This side of the Isabela coast does not permit landings.

Eagle Rays in Mangroves

View of a sea turtle from the boat...... saw heaps while we were snorkeling

First sign of vegetation is the Candelabra cactus growing out of the volcanic rocks. Rock formations are called HaHa and Pahoehoe

Day 6

Boated ashore to Isabela Island then took a bus into the highlands and then a 45 minute hike to view the Sierra Negra Volcano crater. Largest in the world.

Finished the day with a visit to the Arnaldo Tupiza Giant Tortoise breeding centre on Isabela Island.

It must be 2 for 1 cocktail hour.

Beautiful sunsets most evenings.

Pink Flamingos enjoyed the brackish water lagoons

Day 7

Land Iguanas

Waiting for Daphne to fuel up. Time for us to move......we were in his territory.

Had our last snorkel of the trip today when we spotted Rays and white-tipped reef sharks.
Then a long rough boat ride back to Puerto Ayora where we anchored for the night.

Farewell complimentary cocktails with the crew on our last night

Day 8

A 5am start ready to depart the boat and say our farewells to the amazing crew.

We were driven through the Santa Cruz Highlands. Saw the agricultural region and in through the misty forests where you see the unique scalesia cloud forest.