There were lots of penguins in the bay.
Some seemed to be questioning whether the water was too cold for swimming.
It was very cold.
Even a penguin would have to be pretty hungry to fish in that water.
But some went swimming anyway.
Some were preening on the edge.
Some were preening in the water.
It is hard to get all of your feathers.
Especially the white belly.
Bellies are really difficult.
Sometimes they help each other out.
Some were just floating.
Some were rolling.
Some were swimming.
They are very tiny and cute.
With funny red and yellow eyes.
Some were fishing.
Some were couples in love.
In case you haven’t guessed, Kerri really liked the penguins.
There were also flightless cormorants.
They have useless little wings that don’t work for flying. Or even for hopping. They have to dry them out after swimming so they hold them out funny.
They don’t use them for swimming either, like the penguins do. They have to kick with their big webbed feet.
They also spend a lot of time preening and waterproofing.
Then they go fishing.
Eventually the guide pulled Kerri away from the penguins and to see the giant tortoises. The ones on Isabella are saddleback type, so their shell goes up in front to let them reach tall cacti.
They are not as cute as the penguins.
The males have big tails, which serve multiple purposes.
They make big paths through the forest.
And leave funny tracks in the sand.
Their footprints are as big as Kerri’s hand.
The old tortoise shells break into shards when they break apart.
This is a carpenter bee. They are very large and loud. They are found on the mainland too. Kerri does not like them.
All of these pits on the beach are sea turtle nests. In a few months there will be tons of itty bitty cute sea turtles on this beach. It’s probably good that that didn’t happen now, because there are already too many pictures of penguins in this post.
The boobies were fishing in the bay as we finished.
They circle around in big groups.
Then they take a deep breath,
Make themselves really streamlined,
And dive really fast into the water.
They shoot straight down and hopefully catch a fish.
Boobies float with their lungs full of air, so after a couple seconds they float back up to the surface and pop up out of the water.
Then they start all over again.
Here is a penguin saying goodbye.
