24 June 2012

Day 4, Galapagos

We took a 5-minute taxi to a bigger boat that we took to the Island of Isabela. This is the largest of all the islands, but only has a permanent population of about 2500 people. The boat ride was very bumpy and about half our group puked continuously.

After our arrival we settled into the International Oceanographic Institute (IOI) and had an orientation. IOI was founded by a University of Miami grad. Yesterday the group had a great bike ride up to the Wall of Tears. Livya and I hiked most of the way with our own personal guide. He showed us how to track tortoises--see the footprints, find the scat, watch for the various tracking keys. It was all very cool. We finally found one near the end of our trip up--it was a smallish tortoise about the size of our kitchen sink and was about 6 years old. Along the way we saw yellow warblers, mockingbirds, and a lot of other birds and small lizards. We recorded all the sounds we could capture before heading back.

Liam joined us on the trip back and nearly took a dive into the ocean when he tripped on a  rock. All is well and we ended the day with a flock of flamingos flying overhead.

More later today, if we have internet!  :)

Spreading our wings with the flamingos in Galapagos!



black sea urchin nestled in the rocks

group of sea lions laying on the dock in the morning

the boat taxi, before everyone puked!

marine iguanas hanging out at the beach

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