The Galápagos Islands are among the finest destinations on earth for wildlife. We have just started to explore this magnificent group of islands. It is a mixture of feeling and thoughts about being in a place where humans and sea lions and sea birds can share the land without being a threat for each other!
In the morning we started exploring a tiny island called Bartolomé, and in the early hours before breakfast we started to climb the slopes of this magnificent volcanic landscape. Here you can see different features of lava and volcanic ash as well as the process of colonization carried out by hardy organisms such as lava lizards and small plants that tolerate the prolonged droughts typical to the region.
Our outings also included exploration of the Galápagos marine reserve. This reserve is considered to be among the five largest in the world. Therefore it is important for science and tourism. You enter the clear waters and you are part of different world, surrounded by myriad fish of different sizes and colors. Today we were very lucky because it was not just fish that we saw; we had close encounters with sea lions, penguins, white-tipped reef sharks, stingrays and at least one sea turtle!
Late in the afternoon before sunset we disembarked to visit Rábida Island. We landed on the beach and we visited a colony of sea lions resting on the most unusual sand. It is red! We indeed had a great time visiting these two islands.
