Lounging on Isabella

We pretty much lazed around on Isabella for 3 days, walking along the sand roads to the town square, or all of  about 50ft to the beach out front.

It was Bode that insisted we hit our favorite spot every day. He loved it because he could run ahead and belly up to the bar to order a soda before we even got there.  The beach and a bunch of tide pools were just in front, so it was pretty much a day’s entertainment right there.

The day after a rain, we got a new batch of creatures in the pools. We were also told an interesting Spanish word for jellyfish – agua malo (literally, bad water.)

There were a few lagoons close to our hotel and they had flamingos. It was good to be able to see them a little closer up, although frankly I’ve seen them even closer at the Oakland zoo. There is something about them being in nature though.

There is a hike near town that leads you through a maze of lagoons and to another Darwin Research Station. Turtle eggs don’t do well on the bumpy boat rides, so they set up another station here to raise the turtles found on this island. It’s fun to see the babies,  but even more impressive to see the big guys.

As we walked around, we had an eye-opening experience–it was mating season. Clumsy little buggers, the male tortoises, didn’t seem to realize that you needed to mount your love from a particular direction. Perhaps that is another reason they are endangered.

Luckily, Bode didn’t happen to notice what was going on so no explanation was necessary.

Another day, Dina and I decided to hire a boat and go find some penguins. I was the only one in our group who hadn’t seen them, and that was pretty much the only animal on the ‘Galapagos Animal Checklist’.  We saw them, and then snorkeled around for an hour seeing lots of sea turtles and fish. Plus, I got to scare the pants of Dina by showing her an unexpectedly close eel. Nothing funnier than someone trying to swim backwards.

2 thoughts on “Lounging on Isabella

  • February 8, 2011 at 6:00 AM
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    cool drive

  • February 8, 2011 at 8:22 AM
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    thanks for the sticker! it’s already on the bike.
    does Bode know just how lucky he is to have such cool parents?
    Have fun

    From Gar, Nia and Muttley (The Orange Elephant)

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