Isabela (Spanish – Isla Isabela) is the biggest island in the Galapagos archipelago. There I headed for a one-day excursion from Santa Cruz Island (I've written about it before: https://steemit.com/travel/@karen13/galapagos-part-1). I had to go through 2 hours of hell to get to the island. The ocean between Santa Cruz and Isabela is rough, and a motorboat was going under full sail, jumping on waves like a frog. While the boat is up in the air, a person is tossed up; when the boat is falling down, a person is falling down too, hitting his ass, back and head. Everyone disembarked green from marine bumpiness and stress. We arrived in the town of Puerto Villamil, which met us with idyllic coastal landscapes.
I found very cute sea lions on Puerto Villamil’s beach. I decided to get acquainted with these sleepy beauties.
Two sweethearts were swimming by the shore.
After a while, I took the boat again and departed to Las Tintoreras islet. On the way there I came across blue-footed boobies. These are very rare birds with blue webbed feet. The English word booby means “stupid”, “dope”, “fool”. These birds got this insulting name because they look comic and clumsy on the land. The word “boobies” also means “tits” and that provokes a wide smile on faces of English-speaking men. This funny coincidence is played in souvenirs. Tourists can bring home not only cool t-shirts and bags with the inscription “I love boobies”, but also tell friends, who don’t know about these birds, that they have seen many boobies on vacation.
Going further. A brown pelican is sitting in solitude on lava stones.
The strongest reaction was provoked by Galapagos penguins. All the tourists started shooting pictures like crazy. One of the penguins swam close to the boat.
On this picture, blue-footed boobies get along with a Galapagos penguin.
This short marine trip ended with landing on Las Tintoreras islet.
The most numerous representatives of the islet’s fauna are marine iguanas and lava lizards.
There are white-tip reef sharks in this lagoon. This shark got its name for white spots on the tips of its flippers. Unlike most other sharks, tintoreras sleep during the day, lying on the ocean floor. They eat reef fish, which they detect using electromagnetic pulses.
In a while, our group was taken to a nearby islet for snorkeling. This islet was full of marine iguanas too. Some of them melted into the background like chameleons.
Marine iguanas are clumsy on the land, but in water they can compete with snakes in plasticity and fineness.
Red reef crabs inhabit the islet as well. They get bright coloring with age. Small crabs are grey and plain.
After snorkeling, we were taken for lunch to “digest” impressions of the first half of the day. After lunch, rested and full, we went to the lagoon with flamingos. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to go down to water, closer to these gracious pink birds.
The final part of the excursion was Giant Tortoise Breeding Center. I visited the similar center on Santa Cruz Island, and I liked the Isabela center much better.
This little tortoise was so tired that it fell down where it stood, and fell asleep with its head in mud.
Here you can see not only tortoises but embryos as well. It seems incredible that such gigantic tortoises are hatched from eggs, sized as chicken ones.
Our tour-guide announced the end of the excursion and reminded about the forthcoming motorboat ride. There was nothing to do about it. If you must, you must. 2 hours of hell and here we are on Santa Cruz Island.
