Bartolome and Santiago Islands
It has been so nice to come back to work and find the islands at their full splendor, just as I left them before the holidays! The amounts of experiences that we have gathered along this day are so many, that it is hard to remember them all at full detail. However, one of the most remarkable ones is related to the marine environment of the Galápagos.
Everyone that ventured to snorkel today had plenty of exiting moments to talk about, but for me, there is one particular highlight that stands out from the others. It was at the time when I was returning to the beach after at least half an hour of underwater filming. I came across with a white-tipped reef shark that was exploring the underwater ledges, as if choosing a possible “restaurant” for later dinner. I dove down with the camera to film it and a school of black-striped Salemas came into frame; to my surprise, a penguin began to chase the salemas and then a second one joined the party, just as I pointed my camera to capture the moment. The fascinating thing was that none of the above mentioned species care too much about my or anybody’s presence, and ignoring us completely to continue their business which was to get their meal of the day.
While we were looking at such spectacular display of synchronize swimming, a blue-footed booby dove right in front of us and headed strait to the school of salemas. It took me so much by surprise that I did not know what was happening up until I saw the booby surfacing in sort of slow motion type. Luckily, I held the camera steady enough to record the moment and share this unbelievable experience with everyone on board!As if this was not enough, only a few seconds later a Pacific green sea turtle came very close as if investigating what we were all looking at.
The variety of species that we were able to see this morning reveals the special ecosystem that we were exploring, and those images would for sure be on our minds for a long time.
For the afternoon we took a hike along the coastline of Santiago Island. We saw so many different species of animals that it was hard to pick our favorite one, but I would have to admit that because of the nice contrast with the black lava fields, the Sally Lightfoot crabs would have won the award for the “most photographed animals of the afternoon!”
It has been so nice to come back to work and find the islands at their full splendor, just as I left them before the holidays! The amounts of experiences that we have gathered along this day are so many, that it is hard to remember them all at full detail. However, one of the most remarkable ones is related to the marine environment of the Galápagos.
Everyone that ventured to snorkel today had plenty of exiting moments to talk about, but for me, there is one particular highlight that stands out from the others. It was at the time when I was returning to the beach after at least half an hour of underwater filming. I came across with a white-tipped reef shark that was exploring the underwater ledges, as if choosing a possible “restaurant” for later dinner. I dove down with the camera to film it and a school of black-striped Salemas came into frame; to my surprise, a penguin began to chase the salemas and then a second one joined the party, just as I pointed my camera to capture the moment. The fascinating thing was that none of the above mentioned species care too much about my or anybody’s presence, and ignoring us completely to continue their business which was to get their meal of the day.
While we were looking at such spectacular display of synchronize swimming, a blue-footed booby dove right in front of us and headed strait to the school of salemas. It took me so much by surprise that I did not know what was happening up until I saw the booby surfacing in sort of slow motion type. Luckily, I held the camera steady enough to record the moment and share this unbelievable experience with everyone on board!As if this was not enough, only a few seconds later a Pacific green sea turtle came very close as if investigating what we were all looking at.
The variety of species that we were able to see this morning reveals the special ecosystem that we were exploring, and those images would for sure be on our minds for a long time.
For the afternoon we took a hike along the coastline of Santiago Island. We saw so many different species of animals that it was hard to pick our favorite one, but I would have to admit that because of the nice contrast with the black lava fields, the Sally Lightfoot crabs would have won the award for the “most photographed animals of the afternoon!”
