Galapagos Trip 2023 -- The Last Post

Well, it has been over two months since we returned from our epic trip to Galapagos on the yacht La Pinta.  It really was epic in so many ways.

To go to the beginning of the Galapagos blog posts (which also includes a directory of links to all of the 17 subsequent Galapagos posts) go here:  Galapagos Trip 2023--Overview

Map of La Pinta's "Western Galapagos" Cruise (courtesy of Metropolitan Touring)

I have spread out  my experience of the trip as long as I can by working on geocache posts, iNaturalist posts, this blog, and more recently a photo slideshow (see the end of this blog post).  But sadly, and I do truly mean sadly, all good things must come to an end.  This is the last "Galapagos Trip 2023" blog post.

Before I leave the Galapagos trip for good, here is a summary of a few items.

Geocaches.  We found and logged four geocaches, all in Galapagos.  These were our first geocaches outside the U.S.  We don't do geocaching much at all anymore, but they do often lead us to discover interesting things when traveling to new places.   That was certainly the case here.

• GCCF97      Rabida Mickey Mouse
  
• GC88ZDF   It could be a "Very Bad Day"
• GC3ND9R   Galápagos Post Office Barrel
• GC521N2     Green Sand Beach Earthcache 

iNaturalist.  I tried to post all animals/birds/fish/insects/etc that we got clear pictures of on iNaturalist.  The AI identifier and the real people responses really helped us identify all of the various critters, most of which were new to us.  I also posted a few plants, but those were less useful, largely because I did not take the detailed pictures of leaves and stems often necessary for unambiguous id.  Whatever I posted, I tried to post only one species for location, although I posted both male and female or adult and juvenile if they were visually different.

The statistics as of today are  146 observations of 70 different species. 

 

 

The 146 observations posted to iNaturalist broke down as follows:

68 birds, 46.58%

19 reptiles, 13.01%

9 mammals, 6.16%

8 ray-finned fishes, 5.48%

3 insects, 2.05%

2 fungi, 1.37%

1 mollusk, 0.68%

1 arachnid, 0.68%

15 other animals, 10.27%

20 plants, 13.7%

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are links to our actual iNaturalist posts:

• All 140 iNaturalist observations in chronological order.  The pictures shown on the grid are our pictures.  Using the links at the top, you can view the data in different forms.  Click on each picture to go to the actual post.  https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?d1=2023-05-10&d2=2023-05-19&order=asc&order_by=observed_on&place_id=any&user_id=alchemist2000&verifiable=any

• All 70 observed species in descending order of our number of observations.  The pictures in this grid are standard iNaturalist pics, not ours.  HOWEVER, if you click on the word "observations" at the bottom of each picture, it will show our observations for that species.  https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?d1=2023-05-10&d2=2023-05-19&order=asc&order_by=observed_on&place_id=any&user_id=alchemist2000&verifiable=any&view=species  

• Finally, to see our iNaturalist observations by date:
• May11,  Guayaquil
  
• May 12,  North Seymour Island
  
• May 13,  Punta Vincente Roca, Punta Espinoza
  
• May 14 ,  Urbina Bay, Tagus Cove
  
• May 15 ,  Rabida Island
  
• May 16 ,  Santa Cruz Island
  
• May 17 ,  Onslow Islet, Post Office Bay, Champion Islet
  

 

Galapagos Big 15:  Altogether we saw 11 of the "Galapagos Big 15":  flightless cormorants, Galapagos hawk, blue footed booby, land iguana, marine iguana, Galapagos penguin, Galapagos sea lion, Galapagos fur seal, American flamingo, frigate birds, and Galapagos giant tortoises.  

 

Of the Galapagos 15, we did NOT see Galapagos albatross, Nazca booby, Red-footed booby, or Santa Fe land iguana.   These are seen on islands that we did not visit.

 

We also saw many other birds including at least three species of Darwin finches, at least two and possibly three types of sharks, a manta ray, sea turtles, multiple lava lizards, many fish, multiple types of starfish, crabs, and multiple interesting plants.

 

Underwater Adventures.  For multiple health and personal reasons we did not go snorkeling.  However, the underwater world is a major part of Galapagos.  We got a glimpse of that on the glass-bottom boat.  

 

Fortunately we also got a glimpse of that world via video.   Dai Mar Tamarack was the UnCruise Guest Expedition Guide onboard our cruise.  

 

Dai Mar Tamarack and friend

 

We felt so fortunate to meet Dai Mar.  His enthusiasm was infectious and his presence on the cruise was a huge plus.  He has graciously given me permission to include his video montage here.  The video is just over 2.5 minutes. It does have sound.

 

 

 

I can't thank Gwen, Paul, and James enough for somehow finding time in their very busy schedules to take this trip with us.  Somehow none of us thought to get a group shot of all of us together.  Duh!  Here they are.

Thanks to the Frog for taking me on this trip despite his dislike of bouncing around on ships.  He, by the way, gets credit for essentially all of the great critter shots.  I filled in with people or context shots and any pictures that required more reach.  Thanks to the naturalist guides for several of the shots, especially those with both of us in the picture.

Photo Slideshow.  Finally, I put together a photo slideshow of our trip.  This was a totally new endeavor for me.  I muddled along by trial and error.  As it turned out, I did not allow enough time for each shot so you may have to pause the show if you want to see something in more detail   At least this way it is still shorter than Oppenheimer.  

 

As it stands, the slideshow is almost 5 minutes long.  It does have sound, although it sounds terrible on an iPhone.  You can hardly see the pictures on a small screen anyway.  Best results are full screen on a computer.   If the button below does not work, use this link:   https://clipchamp.com/watch/sbQIYgkRl8K 

 

 

UPDATE -- UPDATE -- UPDATE    January 12, 2024

I used Microsoft ClipChamp to create the video which appeared in the original post, but Microsoft has announced they are discontinuing saving of the files.  That means the original embedded video and the url will soon no longer work.  I have created the video as a YouTube video (see below) and hopefully it will work. The new url on YouTube is https://youtu.be/wBpdUIao8ZQ   As before, it is best at full screen on a computer.