Giant tortises and shark action

After an exciting night watching sharks attack flying fish off the back of the boat (check the video below), we began Friday with a bus ride to the mountains of San Cristobal island, and finished the day checking out some more blue footed boobies and frigate birds on the tiny island of Lobos, and in between was a snorkel with some huge sea turtles. Not to be confused with the giant tortoises of the island which were found at a reserve high in the San Cristobal mountains. This is a seperate sub-species to the tortoises we saw on Isabel Island. They are running a breeding program, but it takes 7 years for the tortoises to be released and another 18 years before they breed, so it's a long term project.

The snorkel was pretty good, and it was our first opportunity to swim with the marine iguanas. They looked pretty different as their tails were more fin like then the land based iguanas. The number of small bait fish was amazing along with some gigantic Parrotfish, huge schools of yellowtail surgeon fish and King Angelfish. If only I had an underwater camera. (But thanks again to Angel for his pics) The day finished with a farewell from the crew to the rest of the passengers who are leaving the ship. (We are staying on for a few more days to explore the islands south of here!)