Galapagos Islands Intimate Voyage Aboard the Evolution

Mass Audubon naturalist, tour leader and Director of the Ipswich Sanctuary, Carol Decker, led a group of Mass Audubon traveler to the Galapagos Islands early April.  The group had a great time aboard the ship Evolution enjoying daily excursions onto the Islands of this unique archipelago. Galapagos is justifiably popular for the great variety of habitats, bird, and animal species with delightfully up-close interactions.

Download the complete species checklist.

Some of their favorite memories include:

1. Snorkeling in the break of a wave back and forth with a green sea turtle.
2. Walking amid sea lions on the white sandy beach of Gardner’s Bay.
3. Watching a Waved Albatross sail past the cliff on Espanola Island.
4. Observing the three Galapagos Red-tailed Hawks disseminate a “naturally selected” Lava Gull.
5. Snorkeling with seemingly infinite schools of electrically colored fishes, hammerhead sharks, white-tipped sharks, along with sea lions and fast flying Galapagos penguins.
6. Seeing the ghostly appearance of swallow-tailed gulls fly out of the darkness close to the boat in the evenings, searching for squid in the boat spray.
7. Observing the dance of the blue-footed booby on North Seymour Island
8. The soaring male frigate birds with their  inflated red pouches
9. Walking on the pahoehoe lava on Spinosa Point and coming upon heaps of marine iguanas ready to head back to the sea;
10. Having close up views of the school of Golden Cownose Rays as they glided through the mangrove waters of Black Turtle Cove.

Mass Audubon will return to the Galapagos in April 2012.  Download the itinerary and details. Don’t miss it!