Elizabeth Bay was full of wildlife. There is no landing place--we explored from the dingies. The red mangroves are a great refuge for a variety of animals.
We viewed eagle rays, golden rays, bluefooted boobies, sea turtles, sea lions, flightless cormorants...on the water we saw 16 penguins and flying fish! Golden rays (Staci Edwards)
This series of photos (more in the album) was some of my favorites...three of the iconic species of the Galapagos grouped together for amazing poses. Storm Petrels, named after Peter, who walked on water (Staci Edwards)
Storm petrels hover over the water, feeding on plankton. You could see them between swells and they always looked so delicate. Like the ocean could just swallow them up.
From the Guantanamera, we saw a whale! Whale! (Staci Edwards)
Urbina Bay showed us 14 wild land tortoises, one land iguana, hermit crabs...here we saw a skeleton of a land tortoise. Acrylics, colored pencil (Staci Edwards)
The Galapagos tortoise is the worlds largest, reaching 5 feet across and weighing up to 550 pounds. They are endemic to the islands. They can live a year without eating or drinking! They are long-living, over 100 years, but they nap 16 hours a day, so...I am sure that helps. Tortoises whose food sources are low to the ground have short necks and a low arch to the shell. If the food source is up high, the arch to the shell is much higher, and their necks are much longer! Acrylics, colored pencil (Staci Edwards)
The beach here was like pepper. White and black sand, really gritty. We encountered many types of beach in Galapagos...soft, pale white sand, completely red sand...black sand...More evidence to show how these different islands were formed. Peppery black and white sand of Urbina Bay, and a sea turtle egg (Staci Edwards)
The snorkeling was tough. The surf really threw us around.
But with big rewards...
At least 7 sea turtles fed on the rocks below us. This guy was pretty territorial. (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
5 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
6 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.