This is the new passenger’s first day.  The “adventurous” hike starts with over 150 steps, so I decided to take the Zodiac tour instead. The weather is colder than last week.  Lots of interesting geology to see, but let’s start with the animals.

Blue-Footed Booby were feeding around our Zodiac.  I was never fast enough to catch them mid-dive, but the sound of them splashing was like someone throwing bowling balls into the water around us.  Our guide pointed out that as the Booby left the water and took flight again, they spread their tail feathers and shook them to remove the water.

Penguins were also swimming and feeding around us, but we saw one resting on the rocks.

We saw more Striated Heron along the coast, and found our first Great Blue Heron.

As always, Sea Lions were napping or jumping into and out of the water.

Now, geology.  The coastline still looks like something out a fantasy movie.  The lava flows go right into the ocean; there just has not been enough time for sand creation around much of this island.

The landscape is a mix of basalt and tuff.  Whereas basalt is cooled lava, tuff is compressed ash.  It looks like the piles of saw dust in a carpentry shop.  The erosion patterns are fascinating.  I’m definitely losing the details while compressing these pictures.

As we returned to the ship our guide pointed out several lava tubes.  The penguins in the Galapagos nest within them, altho we did not see any here.