Oh my god, what a day we had. We purchased our tickets for Los Tuneles yesterday from Carlo at one of the many tour offices in town. He started with the standard $120 per person and quickly agreed to $95. We have heard from quite a few people that we have met while travelling that this tour is amazing. We are looking forward to it.
We are to be picked up at our hostal by 11:20, taken to the office for gear and then to the port to board the boat. We meet our Naturalist Guide David and 3 other people who will also be on the tour.
We have 3 stops on this tour. The first stop is quite a large bay formed by lava flows. David our guide heads out and finds things and shows them to us.
David is also taking GoPro video. I have grabbed some stills from his video. Here are some of what we saw in this first spot.
After this first stop we move to another spot. The water here is clearer and just a tad cooler. Definitely not cold. I didn’t get any additional shots here with my GoPro clone.
Our next stop was a walk on the lava. This area, like all of the Galapagos Islands was created by volcanic activity. The landscape that we are walking on is surreal. Such rough rock with archways and tunnels that are filled with water. So much life swimming all around and under us. Here our guide finds a pair of Blue Footed Boobies. These are mates. The male is on the right and the female on the left. There are slight differences in the birds. The eyes are a telltale sign of their sex. The females eyes are larger and darker, the male have a ligher coloured iris. The blue feet are due to their diet of sardines. The bluer the feet on the male, the more attractive a mate it is. This indicates that he is well fed and stronger. He will be a better provider for the chicks. These birds mate for 1 season. They separate after the chicks leave the nest, according to our guide David. There are 9 of us standing within 10 feet of this pair, they are not bothered at all by our presence.
The Captain manoeuvres his boat through these lava rocks with such skill. He backs the boat up to a number of penguins that are also just sitting on the rocks.
David has a special place that he would like to take our photos. It is an arch over the water.
As we are having photos done here it is like turtle rush hour happening in the water below. We lost count but I would estimate that about a dozen swam past us. Most veered to the right at the arch, but one veered left. The water to the left was an amazing clear spot. When I saw the turtle got that way I went to watch for it. It came by and I caught these photos with my cell phone while it was inside my plastic dry bag. Pretty amazing. 😉
It is time to leave this place but I don’t want to go. It is so amazing.
On our way back we make a photo stop at this incredible rock. I forget it’s name. It is the home to some Nazca Boobies. They are also called Masked Boobies. They are white with some black around their eyes. These birds are sitting on the top of this rock so they are more difficult to see. This rock had some serious wave action happening. Captain needed skill here too!!
What a FABULOUS DAY!!!