Sea Lions, Turtles and Boobies, oh my!

We spent the first half day of our Galapagos cruise on Santa Cruz Island visiting the giant tortoises and going for a hike in a lava tube.

The porteri species of galapagos tortoise lives on Santa Cruz island

Hein photographing the giant tortoises as they eat

That evening after supper we motored over to Genovesa Island. The trip there took most of the night and the sea was qite rough, causing Kathy to be sea sick. Fortunately the sea was calm the next day. We hiked on the trail at Darwin Bay on Genovesa Island and saw many of the birds of the Galapagos, and also some of the sea lions.

Evanna with sea lion on Genovesa

Red Footed Booby

Us and a nesting Nazca Booby

Nazca Booby and a chick

We were astonished at the size of the Nazca Booby's chicks. They seemed so large to still have down rather than feathers. And what a mouth to have to feed!

Swallow-tailed Gulls

After lunch we did another hike on a different part of Genovesa Island and saw more boobies and some Great Frigate Birds. We also saw a short eared owl but were not able to get a clear photo of it.

Male Great Frigate Bird in breeding plumage

A family of Nazca boobies