more Santa Cruz; the cruise

In Santa Cruz there are 2 places where you can see the famous Galapagos giant turtles. one is the Darwin research station, and the other place, which I liked better, is a farm in the mountains (there are 2) where they live and you can see them in their natural habitat. Here is one of them.

You can slip into a turtle shell and see what it feels like to be a turtle. These animals must really be very strong, I was not able to lift that shell. Now here a real one. They don't like you coming too close from the front, it is easier to approach them from the back.

they are really very impressive animals.

The vegetation there is also beautiful. incredible for an island that has no water!!! But it rains a lot in the mountainous region. At least in the rainy season.

Have I already shown you this picture of this very relaxed marine iguana?

In the Darwin center they have a few land iguanas, also very beautiful animals.

Unfortunately it is difficult to see them in the wild. We met one during a walk when I was on the cruise and our guide, Carlos, said he hadn't seen one for 3 years!

On march 24 I went on the boat San Jse and started the wonderful cruise through some of the islands, several of them where you cannot go alone.

ographing and running after the animals to take their pictures so they 

It was a pretty and very comfortable boat for 16 pasengers. I shared the canin with Nicole, a nice woman from Canada, about my age. There were people from Canada, USA, India, Spain, Colombia, UK and one nice German student. They were all real nice, except for the Spanish guy, who was always coming in my way when I was photographing and chasing the animals to take their pictures with no respect for them, so they just ran or swam away.
on the first afternoon we visited a beautiful beach where we were told we would walk 1,5 hours to see flamingoes in a lagoon. The walk took about 15 minutes. only there was not a single flamingo there. Then we had 1,5 hours time to swim and snorkel. I snorkeled for about an hour and saw 3 little fish. But the places where we are going next should be better to snorkel. We saw marine iguanas, they are real cute. And sea lions and crabs and several kinds of birds. The ship always stayed somewhere in the sea and we went by little boats, so called pangas, ashore. 

on the shore, a sea lion resting in the shallow water

and here a young Sally lightfoot crab. When they are younger they have these white spots and also a darker color.

and a little bird, I forgot to ask him his name, looking out for fish.

and a pelican on the rocks, probably doing the same. 

There are so many beautiful birds here, giving the fishes a hard time.

and here a marine iguana posing for a picture:

and a look at the beautiful beach

In the evening we could watch a beautiful sunset from our boat. 

Nicole told me about another trip she had made where she confounded the safe deposit box with the microwave, put her chinese food inside to warm it, tipped in a few seconds and could not open the "microwave" afterwards. She had to call someone from the hotel to open it and he did not believe her that she had put her food inside to warm it untill he opened it. I loved that story.