Chinese Hat and Rabida

The boat had travelled quite a distance during the night and we could clearly see the Island known as the Chinese Hat which was to be our first destination of the day. Each day we would have four different places to visit - usually two islands or places on an island and two different marine areas for us to snorkel.

We landed close to where the penguins were and we observed them quite closely for some time. They were not bothered by us at all.

This is the skeleton of a sea lion left close to the shore line.

 This is the Galapagos Hawk which was perched on a post. As we were watching him we noticed 3 other hawks in close proximity. The guide then pointed out the reason for their interest.

 Just to the left of the hawk a female  sea lion had just given birth and the hawks were waiting for her to move so they could eat the placenta. The hawks are scavengers rather than predators although they will kill and eat young marine iguanas.

This hawk had already flown down to the sea lion but had obviously been chased away. You can see the blood on its right claw. This was probably the most exciting wild life scene I had ever witnessed. We were so close to the hawk that all I needed was David Attenborough to give me a running commentary.

This lizard seemed to want to snuggle in with the two young sea lions having a snooze.

 This was Daniel, one of our three guides.

This was a Lava Heron enjoying a tasty meal of crab.

 After snorkelling we returned to the boat which sailed round to the Island of Rabida. The frigate birds often flew above the boat.

 This Island was quite different with its very red soil in stead of the black lava rock of the other islands.

Here are a couple of Galapagos doves and below a baby sea lion enjoying the added comfort of someone's bag as a pillow.

  One unusual tree here was this cactus with soft spikes which you could stroke.

 Back on board we finished off the day with some very funny, tuneless karaoke.