Bottoms in Ecuador (Our FIRST visitors) - Galapagos: Days 1 and 2

After room assignments and some settling in, we headed out a short ways to Port Carrion for some snorkeling.  It was a great place to start the trip and test our equipment.  There was a shallow cove that allowed us to stand up in the water to make adjustments to our goggles and fins so we could figure out all of our new fancy digs.

are we doing this or what?

There were lots of brightly colored fish

it's hard to tell, but that one on the right was blue and orange = UVA fish

The highlight was the sharks!  We were able to see several of them resting on the bottom and swimming along the rocks at the coast.

After an hour or so we got back on board and headed to Puerto Ayora.  We had dinner on the boat and then decided to head into port and see what Galapagos nightlife was like.  We found a busy street with lots of outdoor seating and decided to grab some beers.  Beers (Pilseners of course) were delicious (as usual) but the people and lobster watching was well worth the trip in.

on the way into town we spotted our first sea lion and were very excited about it....little did we know...

lots of al fresco seating

Ecuador's finest brew

some helpful bathroom signs at our restaurant
(which also made me wonder...if I became a super hero do you think my natural abilities might lead me to be Restroom Woman?)

These lobsters were very much alive and being sold at just about every restaurant we saw.

We all thought we slept reasonably well on the boat and were excited to see the Charles Darwin Research Center in the morning.  We passed an active fish market on the way, full of pelicans and sea lions begging for scraps.  At the Center we saw cactus trees, iguanas, a museum and lots of turtles.  The museum talked about conservation and the effects that humans have had on the islands.  The center is also working to repopulate the land turtles and included three different species.

waiting patiently

up close and personal with this pelican

cactus trees

our first iguana!  (again...if only we knew!)

they keep track of the turtles with numbers written in different colors on their shells

We got to see where they kept Lonesome George (he was the oldest tortoise in the Galapagos, but died in 2012) and the two females that they tried (and failed) to have him reproduce with.  We also met Diego, who was brought from San Diego to help repopulate his species on the islands.  Where George seemed to fail, Diego triumphed with flying colors.  He was also happy to smile nicely for our photos.

getting the job done Diego

Diego...this is a bit embarrassing....but you have a bit of leaf on your nose...

Scottee and Diego

one of Diego's lady friends was going to town on some leaves

yellow iguanas at the center 

some large tortoises
including Popeye who had visible marks on his shell from when his previous owner used to shoot cans off his back...rough

In the afternoon we headed inland to Chato 2 Ranch to see land tortoises in the wild.  We were excited by the few we saw driving in, but were in awe by the end with all that we had seen.  Our favorite had to be Donatello (or so Andres called him) who took a speedy short cut through our group to a pond for some cooling off.  The ranch also had some volcanic caves that we were able to explore. At the end we had the opportunity to put on some tortoise shells to pretend we were land tortoises too.  It was something special.

at the mouth of the cave

volcanic caves

sir, I believe you have a little something on your chin

apparently the tortoises like cooling off in the water

here comes Donatello!  he thinks the water looks like a good idea

speeding past! (you can see Scottee's feet...we were so close!) 

here we are hanging with huge land tortoises

yep....me as a tortoise

Scottee in action

it's a really hard decision....who was the big winner here?  Javs?

or Kels? 

We ended the day with some mojitos before boarding the good ole King of the Sea for our next adventure!