In order to enjoy South Plaza island the fullest, you need to arrive before the tourists arrive. That means early in the morning greeted by the sea lion colony on the coast and with a lovely sunrise.

The night however from Genovesa Island Galapagos to South Plaza in our little Galapagos cruise was tough: we needed to take 2 and a half tablet of Primatour in order not to get too seasick. But all that was well worth the early arrival: a beautiful sunrise, sea lions, land iguanas and even another blue footed booby.

South Plaza island is famous for it’s typical vegetation: pear cactus trees make the "opuntia cactus forests" and "sesuvium" grows at ground level. It’s red from  June till January and green during the rainy season. Sesuvium is the main nourishment for the large colony of "grazing" land iguanas on South Plaza Island.

A little bit of snorkeling with the awesome sea lions and off we went towards close by Isla Santa Cruz.

Technorati Tags: Galapagos, Galapagos Cruise, galapagos islands, land iguanas, plaza sur, sea lion, sea lion colony, south plaza, south plaza island, sunrise, tourists

Above one of the many penguins of Galapagos islands we saw on our Galapagos cruise. This particular penguin was standing tall at Elizabeth Bay and can be enjoyed without having to embark on a cold Antarctica Cruise.

It’s estimated that there are about 4000 penguins on the islands of Fernandina and Isabela Islands and these Galapagos Penguins are the only penguins that can be found above the Equator.

But the Galapagos Penguin is not the only penguin that lives far away from the south pole ice: I saw blue-eyed and yellow-eyed penguins on my journey to the South Island of New Zealand (in the little town of Oamaru to be exact).

History of the penguins of the Galapagos islands

Galapagos Penguin most likely are descendants of the Humboldt Penguins.

Humboldt Penguins live in colonies along the western coast of South America, and most likely some of these penguins followed the cold waters of the Humboldt Current and reached the Galapagos Islands.

The Galapagos Penguins look quite similar to the Humboldt Penguins, just that they have fewer white feathers and are generally smaller.

Most likely they evolved smaller due to a limited food (fish) supply in the Cromwell current surrounding the Galapagos Islands.

And because it’s warmer on Galapagos than on Antarctica, less feathers are needed to insulated their bodies against freezing weather conditions. On the other hand, Galapagos Penguins don’t molt once but twice, most likely to replace their features damaged by the hot sun.

Again due to the limited food supply on Galapagos, these penguins hatch their two eggs between 2 to 4 days apart by laying and incubating their eggs at different times.

Due to the tropical heat, Galapagos penguins hunt during the day to keep cool in the water. They are also the only penguins that pant.

Although they haven’t much natural predators, due to the limited and unpredictable food supply the penguins of Galapagos islands are on the list of endangered species.

Technorati Tags: antarctica, elizabeth bay, Galapagos Cruise, galapagos islands, galapagos penguins, penguin, penguins, penguins of galapagos islands

So after quite a long flight and a good night rest, we were ready to board our real Galapagos cruise adventure. But travel problems weren’t over yet.

The next hurdle to take was trying not to get seasick. A daunting task when you see people next to you suddenly vomiting…

Also our cabine was for 2 people: 1 bed above the other, and I advice you to take the lowest bed if you have a sensitive stomach.

Having said all this: you need to know that you will be on the sea when you travel to Galapagos, so it’s advice-able to take seasick pills with you, or to get some experience traveling on the sea before you embark on a long and costly cruise around Galapagos.

On the other hand: we already could admire a blue heron when embarking our "cruise ship" (it’s a great word for a "luxury boat" named "The Darwin Explorer")…

Technorati Tags: blue heron, cabine, cruise adventure, daunting task, Galapagos Cruise, heron, hurdle, night rest, seasick pills, sensitive stomach, travel problems