Some more Galapagos pictures

I love the Galapagos! It was hard to leave at the end of our eight-day cruise among the islands. Here’s another handful of photos from the trip.

The marine iguana is a ubiquitous feature of the islands. They can be seen nearly anywhere on the coast, where their dark scales mingle with the black, broken lava of which the islands are composed. This individual is unperturbed by the magnificent shadow of the leather hat I bought the week before in the Andean village of Cotacachi.

The marine iguanas often pile upon each other like this, presumably to pool body heat after a swim in the cool Pacific Ocean. Because of this tendency, I quickly came to regard them as rather adorable.

We were very lucky to encounter several Galapagos penguins, especially since these birds tend to concentrate themselves on the western islands of Ferdinand and Isabella, and our cruise did not include them. I took this shot from the catamaran that bore us to Isla Bartolome; later, while snorkeling in the same area, that very same penguin dove into the water right in front of me. I don’t think I can explain why, but it was one of the most moving experiences of the trip to watch that bird caper in the water, with none of the comic awkwardness of its movements on land.

That’s all for now!

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Tags: galapagos islands, galapagos penguin, marine iguana, photography, photos, travel