Two Galapagos Penguins and Mountains of Marine Iguana

I'll admit, I didn't get too excited about the Zodiac rides on the itinerary. I prefer to have 2 feet planted on land, and I definitely looked forward to our daily hikes much more so than a short boat ride. That being said, we were not about to miss out on any activities so of course we joined the Zodiac ride to Punta Vincente Roca. We elected to go on the 2nd shift of boats (because we like to sleep in), and I'm so glad we did! The morning was extremely foggy, but it cleared up by the time we headed out onto the water.



Isabela Island is shaped like a seahorse, and Punta Vincente Roca is located right on the tip of the seahorse's mouth. I wasn't expecting to see much, so I was surprised and ecstatic when we saw not one, but two, of the elusive Galapagos penguins! I'm pretty sure many of the photos below were from Vince's camera... he has a knack for photographing cute animals!






When we looked more closely, we saw lots of animals hanging out in the rocky outcropping.





We went into the mouth of a cavern... not much inside, but it was exciting. :)




I think the flightless cormorant was one of my favourite birds... besides the Galapagos penguin, the waved albatross, and the blue footed booby. Who would have thought I would have taken a liking to so many birds?!



We did get to hike later that day, and it was a study of marine iguana on Espinosa Point. We even saw a couple of large male marine iguana come to blows!








How many marine iguana do you see in the below photos?





These cacti are so oddly shaped, yet I couldn't seem to look away!




This island had some of the cutest sea lions of our entire trip. This little guy would "walk" a few steps and then flop over in exhaustion.




Sea lions seem to sleep a lot...







Sigh, this is the life!