Swimming with Rays and Sea Lions

From the Itinerary: Rabida / Santiago Island: Sullivan Bay

Today was probably the best day of the trip.

We woke up to see the red sands of Rabida Island

We started our walk on the red sand beach

There were several lava lizards around

and a rally big grasshopper

and a number of monarch butterfly caterpillers

and a galapagos mocking bird, its nest and a galapagos dove

We ended up on a hill with some beautiful views of the bay and the boat. We did a "dirty dancing" shot where Chris nominally lifted me up over his head:)

The snorkeling today was the best of the trip, we saw a lot of varied sea life and it was quite interactive.

Coming into the water in the morning there was a really curious parrot fish

We saw different types of starfish - a yellow type

and black ones - at times littering the sea floor.

We also swam over several sharks

The guide was able to find a rockfish

and several puffer fish

We saw several rays

and several coronet fish - last time I saw them was at Easter Island

I was able to just hang out and float over schools of feeding fish. It was very relaxing.

The highlight was a close up look at a mother/baby sea lion. I was just hanging out and they swam right in front of me and said hello

There was also another siting of the garden gnome from our first day - this time in a kayak

The Ecuadorian lunch was outside on the upper deck. I liked the popcorn and banana chips and the shrimp cerviche. The main course was pork - not my favorite and I gave it all to Chris.

and there were several birds (pelicans and frigate birds) around the boat hoping for handouts

I begged off the afternoon walk because it didn't sound like we would see anything new (crabs and marine iguanas and lots of lava). It was very hot and I wasn't tolerating the heat very well. I relaxed on the boat while Chris went. He said the only redeeming feature of the walk was there was a breeze - otherwise would have been awful. This is the volcano on the island.

We had another drink in the evening - daiquiri

We cruised over to Santa Cruz Island for tomorrow's activities

And saw the sunset