A stroll through the highlands

Today is a land excursion to the highlands.  Our guide is Patti Stuki who has been a guide here for 24 years.  She is a wealth of knowledge about the birds, plants and animals.  The first stop is a series of collapsed lava tubes.  I am only estimating the size but they are 100 feet deep and 200 feet by 300 feet wide.   We walked around the edges of the two large holes.  We saw other folks along the way as the trail got more and more overgrown.  We kept seeing birds and bees and Parti knew each song and each animal.  Eventually the trail was so overgrown that he decided to call it a day at this site.

looking out over the collapsed lava tube

Tall long and wide!

Ground Finches

The wet season has only reached half of this hill

100 foot drop into the hole

A beautiful wooden sign illustrating the holes

The wet season has arrived here

It looks looks karst geography from limestone instead of the lava that it actually is

Another fine sign

A native orchid, not in bloom.

This finch had a bug

Yummy, full belly

The second hole

Giant tree fern

Old mans beard hanging off of this tree

Patti following the "trail"

a wide range of vegitation

Tree fern central

Finch or mocking bird

Can you find Patti?  

Taller trees

Another finch another meal

  So long to this trail!

Owl visits again

While we were eating our dinner we saw the owl, and land on his usual spot. Then we saw another one fly up towards the pool within Fly Away. We're not sure then if it's a mated pair or if it's a territorial thing but it's very interesting to watch and speculate. This is a short post because it was a long day!

Luis and Leslie

Everybody but me!

The whole gang is back at the lodge

Octopus Carpaccio

Steak is Yummy

Grouper on a bed of asparagus

A very artsy picture

The owl is standing on a globe of light which has another globe behind it.

Snorkeling with the penguins

We then traveled over to the island called China man's hat. It looks more like a UFO then a classic conical Chinese hat but that is the actual name. It was a long shot whether we would see any Penguins on her snorkel but we certainly did and it was a great treat!  1 three different penguins were swimming around us. They were so fast it was hard to even get a picture of one of them. I would point the camera and shoot and hope for the best.  I was able to get a video of the Penguins. I had the camera extended on my selfie stick and the Penguin came closer to the camera. Then another penguin came over towards it and they interacted a little. Then the Original Penguin shut off at such a high rate of speed that all the air in his feathers came out as a trail if bubbles.

See the video here

Penguin Video

Shorter Penguin Video

Snorkel along Chinaman's Hat

In a trip of superlatives this snorkel is a 10 out of 10.  First lets list what we collectively saw.  Penguins, Sharks, Rays, Sea Lions, Snake Eel, Spiny Lobster, Starfish, Schools of small striped fish, schools of small orange fish, and schools of large blue fish.  I took more videos than I did stills, so the links to those videos can be found at the end of this post.  Most at 10 to 15 seconds long.  Se did a drift dive again and let the current take us along the shore line.  There were pockets of cool water and warm water so it was easy to either cool down or heat up depending on your needs.  We were in the water 45 minutes and it was great.  Visibility was never a problem. 

Luis needs no flippers

Parrot fish with their iridescent colors

5 food diameter sting ray

big beautiful Angel Fish

and his friends

Little Orange Guys

cool green spotted perhaps a sea trout

The schools of fish stretched out into the distance

The orange fish liked the shelter of the rocks

Down in the sea caves a couple of 5 footer sharks were resting

Fishy Fish Video Links Below

Video 9

Video 8

Video 7

Video 6

Video 5

 Video 4

Video 3

Video 2

Video 1

Sea Lion

Penguins Again

Galapagos penguins

 The Galapagos penguin is the second or third smallest of the Penguins species. It has the lowest feather density of all the Penguins to allow it to handle the heat. It is the only penguin found along the equator. Now is not the best season for seeing penguins in the Galapagos and most of them are found in the Island's further to the West. However we got very lucky and a recent up welling of cold water has brought more fish for them to eat. As we rounded behind Pinnacle Rock we saw three Penguins! I tried to take his many pictures as I could but the Seas were fairly rough and got lucky with a few pictures. We rounded the island and saw two more Penguins to make it a total of 5. And there was actually a marine iguana in between the two penguins!

Our tender driver is quite visible 

Bombs away

Very photogenic for a rock 

Sea Lions on a sweet spot

Contoured spot for a sea lion

So many looks for pinnacle rock

Our first view of penguins

They appear to be looking up, maybe it's just a stretch 

Or maybe they are trying to warm up

This lava tube is still filled 

I finally got all three in the picture

Time for close up shots

Penguins to the left, penguins to the right

Look up, look down!

The only other picture with all three 

Two penguins two crabs 

Getting everything in order 

Time to preen

Looking out to the sea

Full belly and nap time 

Watch your step

We barely saw this marine iguana 

Both penguins and the marine iguana in front of the right one