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I knew we would see many bird species on a trip to Galapagos but I must admit that I didn't expect to see penguins!  These little fellows were the fastest swimmers of any creatures that we saw on the trip, zipping back and forth more quickly than dolphins or sea lions.  Tt was difficult to get a photo of them while they were swimming but I did manage to get this one.

These shots are from a large pond a short hike from Bachas Beach in the Island of Santa Cruz in the Galapagos.  It is home to many beautiful flamingos.  This was a nice stop on the way to see the nesting grounds of the green sea turtles.  

While visiting Galapagos, we saw a large number of (large) sea lions.  Many were lazing on the beach, but we also swam in the ocean with them.  Here are a couple of beach beauties.

Along the shores of Santa Cruz Island in the Galapagos are black volcanic rock and the darkness of the rock really shows the beautiful red colour of the multitude of red crabs.  Younger crabs, more vulnerable to predators, do not have the red colouring so that they can be more discreet.  But larger crabs, like this fellow, spend their days moving along the rocky shoreline.

One of the first things we did when we arrived at Galapagos was to visit the El Chato Ranch on Santa Cruz Island.  This place is a natural reserve with many enormous land tortoises in their natural habitat. These giants can weigh between 250 and 300 kg and they can live up to 200 years. 

How beautiful is this guy?  (Well, maybe his mother thinks so.) This is a marine iguana who seems to think that he is in charge of the beach at Santa Cruz Island in the Galapagos.   He is perched up at eye level on a lava outcrop and he is eyeing everyone who passes by.  I love the texture of the skin and the spikes on his head.  Thankfully all of our papers were in order and he allowed us to pass!

It's been a while since I have made a blog entry, in part, because I have been travelling for the past few weeks in South America.  With visits to the Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu in Peru and also the Galapagos, I have taken about 1,000 photos.  Most were on my iPhone 14 Pro Max and I used an Olympus TG-6 for underwater shots.  I will post photos from the trip in this blog and will also upload photos to my photo gallery at www.fourlens.ca.  To get the ball rolling, here is the wonderful expression on this Blue-footed Booby.  We saw many of these birds (and many other bird species while at Galapagos) but this is one of my favourite shots.  This was taken near Floreana Island.

I haven't been blogging in a while, busy with post Christmas and New Year plans.  Here is a lovely Midjourney-generated image of three lions.  It reminds me of my trip many years ago to five game parks in Kenya and Tanzania.