Monday, November 30, 2009

Friday, November 27, 2009

Isla San Cristobal

Our favourite of the inhabited islands, San Cristobal seemed to be a much more mellow place to spend time. We ended up pushing back the date of our flight so that we could stay for a full week in an amazing apartment we found to rent.


We had the use of the entire second floor of this house!






The view from the balcony


The kitchen was equipped with all brand-new appliances, including an oven, which we took advantage of to make things like pizza and chocolate chip cookies.



Freshly made passionfruit juice


Each evening we would wander down to the shore to watch diving blue footed boobies and other sealife in the foreground of the setting sun.




Frigatebirds going crazy for fish scraps













Snorkeling at Las Tijeretas











We finally saw a sea turtle while snorkeling! (We had seen them before, but only from shore. They are much more impressive underwater.)













Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Day-trip to Seymour Norte

The only time male frigate birds puff up their chests is when they are mating and the only place frigate birds currently mate in the Galapagos is on Seymour Norte. Because we could not budget staying aboard our cruise for the full 8 days we missed this island but figured we could take a day trip which we were assured wouldn't be too much. However when we went to investigate tour prices they were in fact too much, so we made the decision that it would have to be something we would miss. On our stop-over to Santa Cruz after our visit to Isabela we were out buying groceries for dinner and decided to ask for prices one more time. It was right before closing time and the travel agency had a vessel with only 2 seats left onboard leaving the next morning. After a bit of negotiating the travel agent was able to lower the price enough for us to go for it. Hey, it would never be cheaper for us to get there.



Laura tries her best to hold back the excitement of seeing families of Frigate birds and Blue footed boobies.




























































We spent half the day at Seymour Norte, then the other half back at Bachas Beach on Santa Cruz.