ONLY IN THE GALÁPAGOS
Learn about species found nowhere else on Earth from Tauck’s naturalist guides. Undisturbed by human visitors, and unfazed, many of these locals are friendly and endlessly inquisitive.
Sally Lightfoot crabs are energetic, entertaining and everywhere on the islands’ volcanic coasts. They live in the rocks just above the seaspray, feeding on algae, or sampling plant matter. Quick moving and agile, they are hard to catch but are easily photographed!
Their brilliant blue feet are give-aways as you look for the boobies you may have read about. But you’re not the only ones blue-footed boobies attract; the males put on an ostentatious courtship show with their feet in hopes of attracting a lady friend and incubating their eggs together.
Hunted almost to extinction during the 18th and 19th centuries, the iconic Giant Galápagos Tortoise is one of the most ancient of reptiles and among the rarest today. Left unharmed, they can live for more than a century as they plod along slowly munching cacti, grasses, leaves, lichens, and berries.
Forget those tacky lawn signs that were popular back in the 1970s; the pink flamingos you will find in the Galápagos reside in the salt-water lagoons hidden in the lava fields behind the coast of the islands. Gregarious and social, they can only eat with their head upside down, rest standing on one leg, have good hearing but little or no sense of smell, and can live 50 years.
Irresistibly cute, curious and unflappable, Galápagos fur seal pups are a huge draw in the world’s only islands where they reside, and fortunately have no constant predators. Protected from poachers by law since 1959, they spend most of the day on the rocky shores, sunning and “smiling” for visitors.
76
Get close to the friendly residents of the islands
4. BIRDS & LAVA ON SANTIAGO ISLAND By panga, you’ll explore Buccaneer Cove, once a hiding place for pirate booty, tucked in the waters of Santiago (James) Island. The natural treasures you’ll find here include marine birds, fur seals and intertidal life, like anemones, barnacles, sea urchins and sea stars. On the western coast, lava pools and caves line the blackened beaches of Puerto Egas and provide the perfect habitat for marine iguanas, Sally Lightfoot crabs and herons. Meals BLD
5. ISLAS FERNANDINA & ISABELA Explore Fernandina today where a walk from Punta Espinoza leads you through exotic lava flows. Look for blue-footed boobies, flightless cormorants, penguins and more and go snorkeling for a chance to see underwater life. On the nearby island of seahorse-shaped Isabela, the largest of the Galápagos Islands, hike from secluded Tagus Cove to view Darwin Lake and the lava fields – and set sail past the island’s volcanic cliffs by panga, one of the best places to see colonies of penguins and the unique flightless cormorant. Meals BLD
6. ISABELA’S URBINA BAY & COASTLINE Explore Urbina Bay today, where part of the ocean floor was upended after an earthquake in 1954, on a guided hike with our onboard naturalist; wildlife you may see on this island include land iguanas, Galápagos penguins, blue-footed boobies, Nazca boobies, Noddy Terns, and, in season, green sea turtles. This afternoon, head to Punta Vicente Roca, at the “mouth” of Isabela’s west facing seahorse shape. Here geological
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92
