We were divided into 7 groups with 10-15 people in each one. For each excursion we had a different guide. The guides would call out our group names. And Yes, the groups were named after popular Galapagos wildlife. I wanted our group to be the "Boobies" but no such luck. We were named the "FRIGATES" which are birds. Other groups were the BOOBIES, CORMORANTS & DOLPHINS. I'll get to the frigates in the last entry. We dreaded this mornings excursion because we had to ascend more than 400 stairs! But my dread soon turned to happiness when I saw we had MAURICIO (sp.?) as our guide. He was a bit of eye candy, well for the females anyways. lol  Let's just say Bernie called him her "buttercream boy".  We got our life jackets on & they taught us the correct way to grab our guides getting into the dinghy boats. This was a "dry" landing. I like the dry ones best. The boat took us to the BARTOLOME ISLAND that had volcanic formations and is dormant. Thank goodness for that!  We stopped often so we wouldn't wear out before the "step experience" We saw a lava lizard on the way. It's hard to describe the landscape so I'll just post pictures.  Mauricio stopped a few times to explain many areas since we had to hike about 3 miles before the steps! I'm just obsessed over these steps! One stop was to show us some of the "LAVA CACTI" and then a LAVA HERON. Another stop was to show us different lava formations which the area was very dry with mixtures of brown and grey colors and had a few crater areas. Mauricio gave me a big rock to hold and it was actually light and then we passed it around.

We then got to the steps and one lady barely made it to the top. I finally did but had to stop at every 50 steps or so. I am proud to say I was next to last (in our group) to reach the 114 meters high peak.  Mauricio said, "you made it" & I was rather embarrassed & said "yea". It was worth it though. The view was spectacular! We got our pictures taken in front of it & we had to hold on to our hats because it was really windy. The ship's photographer, Klause took group photos here also. The scenery was different on each side; to the left was PINNACLE ROCK, in front was the blue water of the ocean, to the right was the volcanic area and behind us was the steps. I had no problem going down and was right behind our guide going back to the dinghy boat. On the last walkway, Bernie's hat blew off her head. We were laughing as she chased it "off course" & teasing her that "she was going to upset the environment"! She did get it.

From here we saw a couple Galapagos Penguins and we were taken for a WET landing to a RED SAND BEACH. I had never seen sand quite this color. It was pretty and most of the people went swimming but Bernie, Brenda & myself decided to just spread our towels on the sand and lay down. The only wildlife we saw in this area was a couple birds and a Lava Lizard near us. I attempted to get pictures & then I got the bright idea to take pictures of my footprints in the "red" sand. We were here about 90 minutes then back to our ship for lunch.

We had Roberto as our guide for the afternoon excursion to the 4th largest island, JAMES (SANTIAGO) ISLAND. Our WET landing dropped us off on the south side of JAMES BAY. There used to be an old SALT MINE near here at PUERTO EGAS. British Buccaneers came here during the 1600's. Now there are SEA LIONS, BROWN PELICANS and a SEA LION NURSERY. The beach here consisted of BLACK SAND that was also interesting to look at. We were given about an hour as we again spread out our blankets and took in the sights of the many sea lions including 2 males fighting, which I took a little video of. Bernie found a sick sea lion lying in a sheltered area & took a picture of it. I decided not to go over but yet I watched as a HAWK ate the remains of a dead sea lion.

When our time was up, ROBERTO called for the FRIGATES which was us and we hiked a trail that took us along the coast. We took the inner part first & he showed us the different types of vegetation and cactus. We also saw a TURTLE swimming in a Tide pool. We found ouselves walking on huge flat black rocks and then I looked down and I almost stepped on a MARINE IGUANA! They were all arond us and I really had to watch my step. They aren't the prettiest things but they stood still most of the time and didn't seem affected by humans. Also along the coast were the ORANGE COLORED SALLY LIGHTFOOT CRABS. I thought they were kind of pretty little creatures. We also saw the bone remains of an iguana that were a yellow color. There were different colored rocks and shells and I like to always bring some back from every trip I take, but they told us not to because it can "upset the environment", so I didn't. Back on the ship, we had our briefing by FABIAN, who did all of them, during cocktail hour. 

Guess what happened to be on the dinner menu? OCTOPUS and being the adventurous eater that I am decided to try it. "Very chewy" was the only way I could describe it. It seemed to take forever until I could swallow it.  I probably would eat it again though.

This was probably the highlight of the whole Galapagos island trip for me.  Our guide Ruben wisely elected that as soon as we touched down in James Bay we head out snorkelling. The reason for the wisdom is that as we came to the end of our snorkelling time a cruise ship with about 100 people began to disembark to snorkel the same area, I suspect that might scare some of the wildlife off so suddenly I was even more content with our smaller 16 person boat.

Now back to the snorkelling, did I mention it was absolutely incredible!  The first highlight has to be the sea turtles, these guys just cruise through the water without a care in the world.  You can see why they are portrayed the way they are in Finding Nemo :) It's quite easy, and a bit mesmerising, to glide along next to them as they plod along.  Then of course a couple of sea-lions show up so I'm faced with age-old dilemma of 'do you follow the turtle or the sea-lions'. You know how it is ;)  I think you get the idea though, lots of colourful fish, a sting ray or two, watching a turle feed on the moss off the rocks, more sea-lions.  Just mind-blowingly good really :))

As the mass of cruise ship passengers started roll in, in scenes reminiscent of the start of Saving Private Ryan, we hiked away from that side of the island to go searching for marine iguanas.  Sure enough after not too long we just found piles of them sunning themselves on the rocks.  They also have this quirk where as they process the water they've taken in the previous swim, they sneeze it out, all over the other marine iguanas.  So there is just a pile of very still iguanas, sneezing all over each other!  Crabs get in to the mix too, crawling on the marine iguanas to feed on their shedding skin.  The iguanas don't care though, I don't think they care about much!