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I can't resist one more Galapagos post. During our eight days touring the islands from a small yacht, the entirety of which now seems like a hallucination, I clicked off about 1,000 photos. Probably more. What to do with the over exposure?
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Blue footed booby preening. It's "booby" singular, "boobies" plural, I recently learned.
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Blue footed booby fishing
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I know. It's a photographer's sickness —shutter-click syndrome. I have a severe case. Despite knowing better, we must record beauty, odd stuff, moments of truth, or whatever is in camera range that grabs us.
It doesn't take much.
During the Galapagos trip, I hurt my camera-holding arm when opening a heavy cabin door on the yacht. A blast of wind caught the door and yanked it and my arm back, resulting in a tear/injury that persists. The door was not hurt.
But the photography had to go on. I adapted by snugging my arm to my chest and moving the camera or iPhone, robot-like, with my upper body.
You do what you gotta do to produce an excessive number of images, which you must later organize and edit, deleting at least half. Someone else may enjoy a fraction of what remains. Hope you do.
Note: Underwater shots (3) were taken by a young Swiss photographer who, unlike me, is a skilled snorkeler. He dives rather just swimming and swooning on the surface like I do. Maybe in my next life I'll learn to scuba dive.
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| The Devil's Crown formation, once a volcano, is now a sunken crater teeming with sea life, including a couple of warring sea lions who tumbled off an outcropping into the water close to where PK was snorkeling. PK gained a few more gray hairs. Despite its ominous appearance on a blustery day, the "crown" provided the best day of snorkeling for the week. |
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The grey tones of a cloudy day at Devil's Crown didn't diminish the brilliance of what we saw below. Here a pin cushion starfish.
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The chocolate chip lemon cookie starfish? Nope, just the chocolate chip star.
Not the scientific name. |
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| Pacific green sea turtles were all over the place, and while snorkeling, they were sometimes above, below and beside us, all at the same time. |
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| I love Palo Verde trees. They look dead but in December were forming buds. They are a major incense source. Sweet on the eyes and the nose. |
A few more images......
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A land iguana with a jaded eye. They don't seem to enjoy life as much as the marine iguanas. There's a lot to be said for the mood-boosting effects of waterfront property.
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| So many rays! |
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| Somehow I never tired of the iguanas. This one looks like a tough old man. |
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| Sunbathing teenagers. Maybe the most endearing thing about iguanas is that they're unabashed sun worshippers. And they smile. |
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| The sea lions aren't far behind, if at all, in sun adoration. Also, smiling. |
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| A fierce-looking whimbrel. |
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| Galapagos penguins. |
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The Galapagos penguin is endemic to the Galápagos Islands.
It is the only penguin to live on the equator in a tropical environment.
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| Sea lion enjoying the best of both worlds. |
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Not all the fun was on or near water. We did a lot of hiking over lava flows and
formations. This is the Sierra Vulcan Negra, the largest crater on the islands. |
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| One of numerous craters we saw as the boat traveled. |
Evidence of a recent lava flow.
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| PK and me after a hike to check out Sierra Negra's huge crater on Isabella Island, the largest of the Galapagos group, both island and crater. |
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| A sweet little Galapagos Islands map. |
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| Sweet little mama and baby moment. |
Earlier posts about Ecuador travels 2016
Wild in the Amazon - photos and some amateur anthropology
