Shark!

Breakfast started the day in the way to which we have become accustomed no matter where we wake up on the Galapagos: scrambled eggs, fruit, and granola.

Today saw us feast our sights on a panoply of Galapagos wildlife. First up were flamingoes, unselfconsciously preening themselves in the nearby lake, in between ducking their long S-shaped necks underwater for a quick snack.

Pretty flamingo

Next was the tortoise breeding centre. Each island is home to one or more unique species of giant tortoise, having separately evolved in their own environment, but all of them come together on Isabela for the purpose of continuing the different variants. Sadly it was already too late for "Lonesome Gorge", who was the last of his kind and died without leaving an heir a few years ago.

Ancient faces

Our next stop took us to water. Around the port, iguanas and sea lions lurked, posed , and slumped.

I see you... give me a hug

Friends together

All tuckered out

On board the boat, we observed from above the so-called "shark alley" at islote de tintoreras. Many marine iguanas, piled higgledy-piggledy on top of one another for warmth, as well as crabs with intricate patterns on their red shells, were in evidence, but sadly no sharks.

Interesting camouflage

Keeping warm

The water in the narrow stream that cuts through the rugged black "aa" lava was apparently not sufficiently warm to draw the sharks in from the sea.

Walking the aa lava

The craggy landscape presented razor-sharp nodules ready to bite our sandal-shod feet. However, it proved no such problem to the native wildlife and blue-footed boobies, little penguins, and more populated the banks.

A trio of boobies

A booby in flight

Pingu and co.

Back on the boat, we were soon donning the snorkelling gear once again to take ourselves under the surface, where we communed with the graceful giant turtles, a huge stingray and, finally, discovered the hiding place of the white-tipped reef shark.

Serenity

Stingray,  stingray!

Hiding place

Shark surprise

After lunch of some rather unexciting fried rice, a group of us took ourselves surfing. Two Australian girls, one of whom was a surf instructor, declined to join us, having presumably rated the surf as unworthy of donning the "wettie". For the bunch of beginners the conditions were perfect and I especially was eager to get back on the board after my first forays in New Zealand. After a quick induction, our instructor took a few quick videos of our attempts before heading out to enjoy the bigger waves. Lazy this may have been, but I enjoyed being back on the salty roller coaster and managed a few decent rides.

How it should be done

Pizza (again) tasted excellent after exertions even if it is not the most inspired cuisine that the islands can offer.