Galapagos...8th Feb

...8th Feb-up at 6am brilliant sunrise-good breakfast and we are near JAMES BAY ISLANDS-4th largest-once a hide-out for real PIRATES-there is even graffiti left in the caves by pirates 200 years ago...

...wet landing at PUERTA EGAS at 7.30am-terrain of rough lava fields...

...2km difficult trail-there are hundreds if not thousands of MARINE IGUANAS-huge colonies just basking in the early morning sun -sureal scene all around you...
...black flat lava shoreline where eroded shapes form lava pools,caves and inlets and contains great variety of wildlife-basking MARINE IGUANAS,SEA LIONS,CRABS ,HERONS,LAVA LIZARDS,FINCHES etc.etc-this the most pre-historic looking place we have seen in Gal -IGUANAS jumping and swimming in the ocean-going to feed in the ocean-real magic-it´s the kind of scene you see on Discovery channel...
...you can get real up close face to face with this THINGS and they behave as though you are not there-they just ignore you and splurt out salt from their nostrils now and then...we were really in awe of this place...
...all warming up in the early morning sun before diving in to the ocean to feed on plants and algae-there were thousands...

...hello Mr Ugly...
...Jorge had all the knowledge possible about Gal and he was always so keen to share that with the group...Heron had crabs for breakfast...the terrain was very unusual here ...
...Patel family looking as colourful as the local wildlife...
...here we saw a BLACK TIP SHARK-5 footer- resting then swimming back in to the ocean-also saw GALAPAGOS FUR SEALS-they are not friendly like Sea Lions...
...9.30am we went snokerling for an hour off the JAMES BAY beach-saw thousands of fish-swimming with Sea Lions too...early lunch at 12pm then EDEN left for BARTOLOME ISLAND-3 hour sailing and on the way we ran in to a friendly pod of 30 odd BOTTLENOSE DOLPHINS...
...DOLPHINS were in playing mood-they did few acrobatic flips for us and many were riding-surfing-the bow waves just in front of EDEN and it was amazing to see this...they even had 2 tiny babies with them-Captain Washingon took an executive decision not allowing us to swim with the DOLPHINS as they were swimming too fast looking for food-we all felt that was fair enough-but then it was once a lifetime chance to swim with this majestic creatures...
...4pm-arrived BARTOLOME-we were off in two dingy´s looking for GALAPAGOS PENGUINS-and we found some 10 of them in all-they are very rare and in are danger of being extinct-very friendly and later we will swim with them...we also saw here huge MANTA RAY some 5 meters wingspan-amazing sight...
...while cruising GALAPAGOS ISLANDS you see many marine creatures jumping out of waters to avoid predators and seeing SEA TURTLES and SEA LIONS is very common but one amazing sight is MANAT RAY -some 6meters wingspan-doing spectacular leaps out of water and this is quite common sight too-Jorge didn´t know the answer to this...

4.30pm -wet landing on BARTOLOME at SULLIVAN BAY for swimming and snorkeling with PENGUINS-this pix showing P and V relaxing after swimming with PENGUINS and many fish and marine turtles too...
...6pm-we climb BARTOLOME summit-dry landing- for stupendous views -amazing lava formations-lava tubes-awesome lava landscapes-descend as sunsets over BARTOLOME and back in the safety of EDEN for few well earned cold ones...

...EDEN departs for GENOVESA ISLAND at 10pm-six hour ride and we will cross EQUATOR from SOUTHERN to NORTHERN HEMISPHERE at 2am at SEA-1st time we have ever crossed EQUATOR in our lives at sea and following night at 10pm we cross EQUATOR again but this time from NOTHERN to SOUTHERN HEMESPHER-again it´s a first and most likely we will never cross EQUATOR again ever at SEA in our lives...

...THESE two EQUATOR crossings were UNIQUE EVENTS as they come...