Up early for more adventures! Sample daily itinerary (Staci Edwards) Bartolome island is an interesting place. The rocks are fantastic--there are amazing lava formations everywhere. And, on the way in....we saw a Galapagos penguin!!! That was an artist's inspiration, for sure! Acrylics, penguin (Staci Edwards) Galapagos penguin (Staci Edwards) Long ago, a group of penguins followed the cold Humboldt current up from Antarctica and settled here. They are the most northerly penguin in the world, and the only species to live in the tropics. acrylics, penguin, detail (Staci Edwards) We also encountered Blue footed Boobies on the cliffs. I won a beer because I knew that Booby means "bobo", which is Spanish for clown, stupid, or fool. (Because of their silly dance and how they wouldn't run away from the pirates.) Another reason to paint! acrylic painting, Blue Footed booby (Staci Edwards) The blue color comes from the fresh fish they eat--so color indicates health. Females can tell if their suitors are good hunters for their young. It changes quickly--even 48 hours of a restricted diet and the color fades. Scientists studied couples and dulled their feet with makeup...and the females produced smaller eggs with less yolk. They concluded the females didn't want to invest in a male that wouldn't provide.
Blue footed booby facts (Staci Edwards) Other cool Blue Footed Booby facts: Their skulls have 'air bags', to protect their brain when they dive into the water at 60 mph. They can dive into water as shallow as 2 feet! They have this really cool mating dance...apparently the higher they lift their feet, the more attractive they are. After the dance, he offers her a pebble by putting it on her foot. If she doesn't like it, she kicks it off and he offers her another one. Their nostrils are permanently closed, and they eat most of their fish underwater. The males have larger tails and are smaller, so they can hunt shallow or deep. They feed the young early on. The female is larger and can carry more food, so she hunts for the chicks when they are bigger. Average life span is 17 years.
We leapt off the dingy and navigated past a sleeping sea lion, and the group behind us encountered him awake. The barren landscape has its own unique beauty.
You can definately see the volcano's work. (Staci Edwards) You can see a caldera just under the surface. We walk up a wooden staircase and take in the sights. Our group, hard at work. We saw a Galapagos hawk here! Galapagos hawk (Staci Edwards) Santiago Island, Sullivan Bay was a strange landscape as well. It felt very un-earthly. The rust color you see is actually the 'print' left by a tree as the lava enveloped it. The rust color is the 'print' a tree left behind when the lava came through! (Staci Edwards) Today's snorkeling highlights: I saw a penguin underwater but it zipped by so fast I couldn't get a photo! White-tip reef shark (Staci Edwards) Underwater Lava Tube (Staci Edwards) For more highlights of today, see the album! Today I started a list of fish we are seeing, using a species book on the boat. I kept adding to it until the trip was over. snorkeling siting list (Staci Edwards)
Excellent travel advice and service
This is my second experience working with Adventure Life. I’m sold. Jess Heuermann is an experienced traveler and provides a lot of useful information when planning a trip. These are the questions I like to ask at the outset - What’s it like to go here, there, what would you suggest, what do people report, can we add any additional side trips? Jess took the time to answer my questions and seek additional information to share with me. Petchie Colina is outstanding in helping with travel logistics and final preparations. Adventure Life has excellent guides and offers private guides and small group adventures. We enjoyed the opportunity to talk with the guides and drivers to learn more about their countries, cultures and histories. A highlight was having the guides pick local restaurants where we could share meals together. Highly recommend.
Claire Cordon
4 days ago
Our six-day tour in Iceland went smoothly with one exception. We had asked for two rooms each night. Somehow we were booked with one room with three beds. It could not be fixed at the first hotel in Reykjavik because the hotel was fully booked. Once informed of the problem, however, Adventure Life rebooked for two rooms for the remainder of the trip. As an 85-year-old traveler, I appreciated that one could participate at different physical levels at many of the stops. Iceland is a great place to visit but on the expensive side.
Mary Warren
5 days ago
Jess was very easy going and answered all our questions. It’s not easy dealing with 6 people at once but she did an outstanding job!
Diane Foster
1 week ago
Kassandra and the Adventure Life team have been incredible! Kassandra was very knowledgeable and attentive to our asks while making sure we kept within our budget. This was our first experience with a travel agent and we were blown away by the booking/initial exploration service. We will use Adventure Life again.