Week Thirty-Six

02/07/07 to 08/07/07

Southern Ecuador and Across to the Galapagos

  • 02/07/07 - Ingapirca
  • 03/07/07 - Cuenca
  • 04/07/07 - Guayaquil
  • 05/07/07 - En Route & Santa Cruz
  • 06/07/07 - Genovesa
  • 07/07/07 - Various Islands
  • 08/07/07 - Santa Cruz
A Blue-footed Booby: our favourite


02/07/07 - Ingapirca
Ingapirca is probably the best Inca site outside Peru - but it's pretty average

03/07/07 - Cuenca
Cuenca's New Cathedral, which is a bit bricky but has some nice domes

04/07/07 - Guayaquil

05/07/07 - En Route & Santa Cruz
This guy was just hanging around the airport, outside baggage collection
Our first afternoon is spent looking at seabirds - a pelican hiding among a group of Boobies (seriously)
Here's another pelican, up a tree - which I didn't know they did but I suppose it makes sense
Just to give a sense of the occasion, we're in two dinghies puttering through the mangroves
That evening we relax aboard the boat

06/07/07 - Genovesa
The next morning - this is our double-bedded cabin, and the view through the front window
We start the day sailing past some rocks looking at fur seals
On land, Milla makes friends with a brown-phase Blue-Footed Booby ... they have blue feet
We've picked up some more Boobies on the sundeck
This is a Red-Footed Booby and chick
And this is our first Marine Iguana - it's not very photogenic, and it doesn't do a whole lot
In contrast, pelicans are proving good photo material

07/07/07 - Various Islands
We start early, to catch the penguins - disappointingly, there are hardly any and you have no chance of seeing them once they're in the water
The view across Bartoleme Island - it's all lava around here (ie. the whole archipelago)
On Santiago there are a bunch more marine iguanas ...
... and a lot more lava: we get to learn about different types. Super.

08/07/07 - Santa Cruz
We wake up in Puerta Ayora harbour, together with twenty or thirty other cruise boats.
Our first Giant Tortoise, in the highlands of Santa Cruz.
They prove just as photogenic as pelicans
These are apparently two males, our guide tells us ... which may explain why they're an endangered species
There's a breeding centre on the island - these are some of the newish crop
This is Milla with one of the older inhabitants
And me with a different one

Week Thirty-Seven