In July we traveled to one of the world’s most famous destinations – the Galapagos Islands.  Since the Field Guides tour began in Quito, we arrived a day early to return to some favorite spots in the Andes.

Birding in the Andes above Quito.

It’s always fun to visit Guango Lodge, on the road to Papallacta Pass.  Here are a few of our favorite hummingbirds that live up there (at about 11,000 feet):

After the day trip, we joined a group led by Willy Perez.  We’d heard about Willy but had never traveled with him before.  And we knew only one of the other participants.  But we all quickly became great friends and it turned out to be among the most enjoyable groups ever.

A lengthy delay in the Guayaquil Airport helped the group bonding process.

The Galapagos are just as amazing as you would think!  We stayed on the Nemo III, a small catamaran.  Our group of 13 participants, one guide and crew took up all the space.  The Ecuadorean government does an excellent job of managing tourism to limit the number of boats and visitors to each of the islands.

The catamaran and our cabin.

We visited 9 islands.  Evolution is clearly visible in the bird species across islands.  And since there were no mammalian predators until introduced by humans, the birds (and reptiles) do not move away when you approach.  They just sit there!  As a result, our photos and videos captured much closer views than you’d expect for wildlife in most parts of the world.  One of the favorites was the Waved Albatross.  These birds have 8-feet wingspans and beautiful ivory colored feathers with golden highlights on the foreheads. They mate for life, and we were able to see the elaborate courtship dance done by the pairs.

Waved Albatross — on the wing, parents with a chick, and solo.

The shipboard experience was really great, even though it wasn’t all that warm.  Here are a few examples of daily life there.

A whiteboard has the details of each day’s activities.

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Every night, local guide Peter would brief us about where we were heading next.

Most meals, the cooks got creative with the table decorations.

Another amazing experience was seeing the 500-pound Galapagos tortoise.  The species that had evolved on several islands are now extinct, and there are major efforts to reintroduce the remaining species back to islands after they have been cleared of invasive introduced species like rats and goats.  These guys are enormous!

A tortoise egg and baby (at a sanctuary), chowing down, and with guides Willy and Peter.

Here are some of the other cool critters on these islands:

Lava lizards spend a lot of time sleeping with their buddies.

One other unusual experience is that we happened to be there during the eruption of Volcan Sierra Negra on Isabela Island.  Seeing that eruption at night, with the lava shooting in the air running in streams down to the ocean, was also quite impressive.  Rare too, as we discovered when all the crew members were so excited to see it that they were taking selfies of themselves with the volcano in the background.

Here we are on land and on the ship, with traveling companions Amanda, Ollie, Maggie and Joe.

Some island scenery …

Disembarking from the ship to the panga, and returning late in the afternoon.

They use the same names for lava as in Hawaii so this is pahoehoe.

Several boobies — red-footed, blue-footed and Nazca.

The Sally Lightfoot crab is always fun to see.

The birds on the Galapagos were a key part of Darwin’s research leading to the theory of evolution.  These are just a few of the 21 endemic finches that live only on these islands.  Look at the beaks to see how they evolved to eat different foods.

This is the tour group with one LARGE addition.  It was a great time with new friends!