Uncategorized – Page 75 – The Adventures of Kerri & Matt

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Punta Espinosa

Posted on February 4, 2015 6:13 pm by Kerri 2 Comments

This is the only visitors site on Fernandina Island, the youngest and most active volcano in the Galapagos. Eruptions take place every few years.

Some of the lava cactuses had holes where the rice rats had eaten them. They are nocturnal and apparently very cute, for a rat.

The lava lizards here are coloured differently to blend in with the fresh lava.

There were so many marine iguanas.

It was hard to avoid stepping on them.

This little island is actually white ash. Those are all iguanas.

Each big group has a dominant male in charge.

They dig holes on the beach to lay their eggs in.

The eggs hatch into little itty babies, which are really cute.

The grown ups have big claws on their front feet

And their back feet

For clinging to the rocks while they feed.

They bask in the sun to warm up after swimming.

Always facing toward the sun.

The light coloured divot on the top of his head is a parietal eye, used just for sensing light.

They climb on top of each other to warm their bellies.

There were also tons of crabs.

As we walked around we came across a number of skeletons. There was a whale with a dolphin head.

And a mummified marine iguana. He was cool because you could see the little forked teeth they use to scrape algae off of the rocks.

The beach was littered with the little pencil spines of the sea urchins.

There was also a chiton shell.

We also saw a number of sea lions.

They were very cute.

There were lots of flightless cormorants preening themselves on shore.

They are really funny looking birds.

And look even funnier walking around.

They have very pretty blue eyes.

And big powerful swimming feet.

Which even they seem to find surprising.

On the way back we saw a Galapagos hawk hanging out on a piece of driftwood.

A sea lion was very curious about it.

Back on the boat as we sailed we spotted a whale. It was likely a wright whale as it had a small dorsal fin. It was too fast to get a picture.

Uncategorized 📎and tagged fernandina
Tagus Cove Boat Ride

Posted on February 4, 2015 10:30 am by Kerri Comment

After the hike we took the boat around the coastline.

This is another many armed sea star. He is just above the water because it is low tide.

Love was definitely in the air this morning.

These sea turtles are mating.

The male gives the female a big hug and hangs on for 5 to 6 hours.

The female sometimes has trouble breathing, especially since stacks of males can form. Our guide has seen up to five males hugging one female.

The flightless cormorant courtship dance is much more exciting.

They swim together in the water.

And then take turns jumping and twirling.

Uncategorized 📎and tagged isabela
Tagus Cove

Posted on February 4, 2015 10:00 am by Kerri 1 Comment

We started the day with another hike on Isabella.

We had anchored in a protected cove that was used by pirates over 300 years ago because the island is tall enough to hide sails from almost all directions. There was graffiti all around us, some dating back to 1836.

The walls are made up of thin layers of volcanic ash.

Noddy terns were nesting under the overhangs.

Along the way there were these hard balls of ash, that Matt insists are called “”not the pumice stones those other things”. They form kind of like hail, high in the atmosphere, but from volcanic ash.

It is also a hangout place for bachelor sea lions.

We came across Darwin Lake, a hypersaline lake that Darwin found during the Voyage of the Beagle.

The water flows up from the ocean due to salt concentration, but can’t go back. It evaporates in the lake, further concentrating the lake.

There was a medium ground finch.

He had funny tail feathers.

We walked up to one of the volcano peaks that was formed by sputtering lava and lava bombs.

It was pretty barren desert, but it is supposed to green up after they have had some rain.

The cactus waved goodbye!

Uncategorized 📎and tagged isabela
Snorkelling in Isabella

Posted on February 3, 2015 9:47 pm by Kerri Comment

The water was very cold here (18C) and a 3 mm wetsuit was still not enough to keep warm. The current that brought the penguins up from Antarctica brings the cold water with it. Although with the cold water you see different species than in the warmer water of the east.

Again there were large schools of fish. There were a few bright blue starfish as well but it was rather cold to dive down to them.

As you’ve seen before there were flightless comerants hunting for fish. Here we actually saw one under the water. It moved so quick we only got a couple pictures as it passed right by us.

You can see its large legs are what is propelling it through the water.

There were a number of sea cucumbers, these happen to be the easiest to spot with their bright coloured spots.

These urchins looked really neat as you looked close they had bright blues and greens close to the bodies.

A sea turtle came in for a visit.

Not sure what lives in this hole but I wasn’t about to go poking about.

This is actually a sea star, but instead of 5 legs it has more than 30.

Matt’s second highlight of snorkelling that day was finding a seahorse. It was hiding amongst the sea grasses and was spotted as the currents rocked everything back and forth.

We also saw a few green urchins, although this one seemed to be missing a few spines.

In addition to all the previous visitors we had a sea lion join us in the cold water.

It never did grab a fish, just chased the school around a bit.

There are several different colours of starfish and here you can see the main ones that we saw the most of.

Another seahorse holding on against the current. Maybe I just got lucky but no one else in the group found one.

Very briefly one penguin came down for a swim but was just passing by. They too move quite quick, although with their wings not their feet.

This turtle seemed to be the most popular one around as it was being followed by so many fish cleaning its shell off.

These two were left alone and could much on all the sea grass they wanted.

Occasionally I would dive down to check out under the rocks and one time this little sting ray was hanging out. Our next snorkelling adventures were thankfully in warmer water as 18-22C is quite chilly.

Uncategorized 📎and tagged Isabella
Urbina Bay

Posted on February 3, 2015 7:32 pm by Kerri Comment

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.

Uncategorized 📎and tagged isabela