Well, I have to admit I never expected to be that fascinated by birds but in the Galapagos there just are a lot of really interesting, beautiful and also funny birds.

One of the most famous is the Blue-Footed Boobie!




They look really funny with their blue feet:








And even though they sometime look a little bit stupid...




...they definitely look like business when they go fishing!



Like fighter planes they attack small fish who swim a little bit too close to the surface:






This is Blue-footed Boobie with another bird who fishes in the same fashion - the Pelican:



Even though some of them try fishing the easier way at the fish market:



When in flight barely above the water surface they are really elegant:



Standing around, they are maybe not as elegant...



...and they don't like it when you make comments like these about them:




But then these Flamingos are definitely more elegant:






Another special bird of the Galapagos is the Fregate Bird - here in flight above the boat:



And here showing off his red pouch to attract a female:





And this is actually what they look like when they are really young:




This is the Galapagos Hawk:




And last but not least there are also little Penguins on some of the islands of the Galapagos:

There are of course all sorts of fish and other sea animals in the pacific ocean around the Galapagos Islands.

Here an overview:



So to see as many of these sea creatures as possible we also went diving... and we have seen one of the most amazing animals you can see under water: A Manta Ray!

We had already encountered the most amazing school of fish: hundreds of thousands small fish in one huge tower about 20m high and 5 to 8m in diameter! We dived underneath it and then right into it in the center: it was pitch black and considerably warmer in this huge swarm of fish!

And then, about 5 Min before the end of our dive (we were already at about 6m depth again) Barbara spotted this huge Manta Ray. And it just came closer and closer and passed by us in no more than 4m distance! Absolutely amazing, this animal was at least 3 to 4m wide and it moved in the most elegant way you can imagine. They almost fly through the water. It was definitely my greatest diving experience ever.

To give you an idea of this animal here some pictures. All these pictures are taken from websites since we did not have an underwater camera with us on the dives.

These animals also made the Galapagos Islands known world wide - Land Iguanas:








They actually eat Cactus!






And these here are Marin Iguanas (they eat algea and swim really well):








And these little things are called Lava Lizards:

Another animal that made the Galapagos Island world famous is the giant land turtle:



And these really big animals are quite agile and not as slow as you might think:



The long neck helps them to get to the leaves of bushes and small trees:



And this is how big they are (our guide in the background):



And this is me next to a saddleback turtle:



These guy can easily get 150 to 200 years old!





By the way, did that face remind you of somebody or something? Yes, it is true, the creatures of E.T. actually took this animal as an inspiration when the created their creature from somewhere in space.

Look again...




The spitting image of E.T., isn't it?



We have also seen sea turtles while snorkeling and diving but unfortunately I don't have any underwater pictures. But I was able to take this shot from the boat when one of the sea turtles surfaced quickly.

There are colourful crabs on all the islands of the Galapagos we visited. Not easy to photograph because they don't really like you to come to close. So you need a little bit of patience and luck to get good pictures of these beautiful things!






There are different types of course, that come in different colours:




Some of them are really hard to spot:




Some of them hide in holes as soon as you come closer:




And other again just use an old mussel as a house!



(and when they get bigger they just look for a bigger "house" and move!)

HELLO!


One animal that you can see all over the Galápagos Islands are sea lions.

Really cute animals who seem to enjoy every minute of the day, also doing nothing is very popular:






Or lying at the beach:








Or swimming is of course very popular. And whenever you are in the water, swimming, snorkeling or diving there are always a few sea lions who come right up to you to check you out.
They want to play with you and do all sorts of funny things around you. And they come really really close at times (unfortunately I don't have underwater pictures to put on this website):




This little guy was really courageous



Usually they don't come up to you all that close on land... but this one definitely took a liking to my shoes and feet!



And Barbara's water bottle seemed just as interesting:



When your boat is not moving at night they also like to use the back of the boat as a nice resting place:




One last thing, as nice and funny and cute as they might be, they also have one huge negative thing about them...

So on April 23 we flew from Quito (via Guayagil) to the Galápagos Island which lie roughly 1000 km off the coast of Ecuador, more or less right on the equator.


The Galápagos Islands are national park to make sure that this really unique place in the world is protected (entry fee is 100 USD)


And this is really how we were welcome before we boarded our boat:

Only a first impression of how many animals you can see here and how close you can get to them... truely unbelievable!

And this is the boat that will take us (a group of 14 tourists, 8 crew and 1 guide) from island to island in the next week:





Not too bad! We can definitely get used to that!

The biggest problem in the Galápagos is to limit the number of pictures you take every day... and I failed completely so there are a lot of pics form all different kinds of animals and of course also from the beautiful islands...

Lets start with some impressions of the islands:










The islands are actually volcanos which is really obvious in some places:




A "river" of black lava from the last eruption on this island about 100 years ago (other volcanos on the Galápagos have erupted in 2003 the last time):


The lava has formed really beautiful natural formations






Cactus that grow on these lava islands:




So the next entries will be with lots of animal pictures: sealions, iguanas, lizards, birds, turtles, and and and!

Yes, I have moved again. On April 19 I flew from Guatemala to Quito in Ecuador to meet with my friend Barbara from Switzerland because we have planned to visit the Galapagos Islands together!

But first we spend a few days in Quito. Well, it's another relatively big city in Latin America, not exceptionally pretty but with quite a nice old town center.

Here the view from one of the mountain ranges surrounding Quito which lies in a valley at 2800m!


Some impressions from the old town:






Traffic in Quito


Ecuador has given up it's own currency a few years ago and adopted the US Dollar as their national currency (to fight inflation). So everything is payed in USD, like this lunch at a small restaurant: rice, chicken, fries, soup, salad and a small Coke which costs USD 1.25 !!!

And it tasted really good as well!

While in Quito we also visited the Midad del Mundo, the middle of the world, the equator: