We have had multiple National Geographic moments in the Galapagos.  I feel like Jaques Costeau and Marlin Perkins all rolled into one documentary. I will recount the most amazing — starting with the Sea Turtle encounter.

This was on a panga ride around an island shoreline where we could see Blue Footed Boobies and some other bird …  anyway, we were accosted by two sea turtles, a male and a female who swam in circles around our panga and underneath it … you can imagine the activity on the boat as we all scrambled to get photos — it is kind of difficult to predict when the turtles will surface … and I was coaxing the male over and slowly he came swimming towards me and he’s closer and closer to the surface — his head pops up to check me out and the only shot I get is his head starting to go back under… drat.  Second amazing moment – the Blue Footed Boobie mating dance — you’ve not lived until you’ve seen this crazy ritual in action … it is something else.

The males very serenely lift one webbed blue foot very slowly and put it down and then they do the other … and so on as they walk towards the female or kind of in a circle … they make a strange whistle sound and go into a wild pose, that involves their heads going straight into the air, wings out akimbo, and they are kind of doing a back bend …  Sometimes this pose is effected when male and female are beak to beak and each one does the pose – looking like mirror images.

The dance does not end with that though — the male and female will build a ‘special house’ that involves the male picking up a rock or stick in his beak and handing to the female who places it in a circle ….  and then they do some pooping to further mark the circle (or as our guide said ‘excrement, stick, excrement stone, excrement, excrement, excrement’ …).

Our group literally sat down on the rocks and watched this display for quite some time — wow.  We saw a Red Footed Boobie – which is extremely rare – our guides were thrilled to pieces …   So, the Manta Ray is probably the third — and this guy I only saw from a panga as we were headed out to snorkel — but he was bigger than our panga – and gliding through the waves – fairly close to the surface — we followed him for a little while — wow.

Dad actually saw one while we were snorkeling – it went right under him — he claims to have a picture (we purchased some disposable underwater cameras …) he also claims that it was as big as a B-1 bomber.  This story gets taller every day.  I’m sure it will morph into one helluva underwater saga by the time we get back.

I saw many brightly colored fish including a shark which encouraged me to tuck in my flipper feet and mouth towards the shark ‘I’m not a seal’ he did not seem too interested in me.  I am still bummed that I did not snorkel with sea lions or penguins — we kind of saw one penguin that jetted by so fast you thought it might be a flying duck …

I have managed to fry the living hell out of a fair percentage of my skin — mostly my hands, arms and the backs of my calves.  These people are not kidding when they say the sun is 30% stronger down here … lesson learned – SPF 30 is a crock – probably need at least SPF 50.  Granted trying to reapply suntan lotion when the sweat is dripping off of you really does not work.

The last trip we took was to see the giant tortoises — fascinating creatures – we saw them in the wild – where it was so mucky they had us change into rubber boots – I loved these guys – they are huge – kind of like small ski moguls … and like cows they are really good at mowing down the flora and fauna – we sat and watched one guy ripping up the greens and chomping them down …    This has been quite the experience – our expedition leader kept us busy — we did not have any free time — went from one island trip to the next — and braved some major ocean swells.  One of our landings (supposedly a dry one) had waves crashing against our panga and we had a hard time getting people in and out safely —

[much later]

Oops — I really love these spanish keyboards — this one got away from me.  Anyway – I’d better crash – we fly to Manta tomorrow — last leg of the journey.  So much more to tell – and I promise to demonstrate the blue footed boobie dance when I get back …. :0