Cruising the Mangrove Cove in Elizabeth Bay on Isabela Island – Galapagos Islands

This was the second part of our morning’s panga ride. 

Cloud Reflection

As we cruised up to the mangrove cove in our pangas, I noticed this great reflection of the clouds in the water.

Swimming Among the Mangroves

Once again, here are the ever so cool sea turtles, swimming along in the clear water!  What a life!

Sea Lion in a Tree

Here’s something you don’t see every day – a sea lion just camped out in the mangrove trees!

A Big Guy

This guy is one that Jeff captured with his camera, coasting along close to the bottom of the sea – it was fairly shallow at this point.

Close Reflection

I really liked this image of a leaf floating on the water with the mangrove leaves reflecting in the water around and below it.  Now, some of the leaves actually grew below the surface, so this is really kind of an optical illusion – is it a reflection or leaves growing below the surface?  I honestly don’t recall!

Golden Cowrays

Aren’t these just so cool?  I thought these were manta rays, but they are something called Golden Cowrays (I have no idea where the name came from!).  I thought they looked so cool just gliding along below the surface.  I lost count of how many of them there were!

Pelicans at Sea

I loved the image of these pelicans just sort of hanging out on the water a short distance from our panga.

Sea Lion Waving

And, finally, here’s a little sea lion waving goodbye to us!

Enjoy!

 

Last Big Outing – Elizabeth Bay – Isabela Island – Galapagos Islands

Altho we have a bit more to see, this was our last big outing – a panga ride in Elizabeth Bay.  Let’s get started….

Water Lines

Before we got on the panga, I enjoyed some wildlife along the Beagle, our boat.  This pelican just peacefully floated alongside us.  Not only did I like his reflection in the relatively calm waters, I love the look of the lines of the water – just flowing along.

Reflective Dancing

I call these birds Jesus Birds because they seem to walk on water – however, I’ve come to find out their formal name is Elliot’s Storm Petrol.  This is one of the clearest images I was lucky enough to take of this little guy – he’s balancing on one foot at this moment, and the reflection is lovely.

Leaving the Beagle

Here’s a view of our friends leaving the Beagle for our outing.  Love the look of the Beagle and the scenery!

Great Blue Heron

Here’s one of our last views of this wonderful bird as he’s sitting on the rocky shore enjoying the morning!

Blue-Footed Boobie

One of the animals I most looked forward to seeing was the blue-footed boobie – not quite sure why, but I sure am glad I got to see a number of these guys!

Pelican Point

I love this image of this pelican – it’s sort of a quiet, reflective image.

Drama at Sea

We had some drama on our last big outing, too.  I purposefully processed these in black & white as a sort of journalistic perspective.  We came across a frigatebird that apparently got too wet, and was waterlogged in the sea.  Another frigatebird hovered nearby, but I’m not certain it meant to help.

Floundering

Here’s another image of the frigatebird in trouble.  The wing of the other frigatebird is in the upper right corner of the image.

Rescue at Sea

Here’s the image of our guide, Fabrizio, rescuing the poor bird.  He used a towel to grab it, so he didn’t inadvertently injure it.  It was very, very scared.  He ended up placing it on the rocky shore just behind the panga.

Beagle

I really liked this image of a pelican and our boat.  I thought it looked especially reflective when I processed it in black & white.

Flying Away

I love this image of a pelican flying away from us.  The perfect position of his wings is just too cool.

Escaping the Surf

Here’s another cool pelican shot.  This guy was just sitting on the rocks, hanging out, when the surf started coming in.  Once it started rushing over the rock on which he was sitting, he decided it was time to go, and I was lucky enough to capture the moment he took wing!

More to come when we cruise thru the mangrove cove growing out of lava rocks in the water, but for now….

Enjoy!