Our short last day in the Galapagos began with an early morning peaceful zodiac ride to explore Lobos Island off the coast of San Cristobal Island. We spent our final hour on the water joined by young sea lions playfully circling and jumping around the zodiacs. On the island we saw a variety of frigate birds. Male frigate birds have a brilliant red sack under their chin that inflates when they are trying to attract a mate and we saw one such male attempting to do so during our visit. We said final goodbyes to our amazing crew (Hasta Luego!) before we were dropped off in the town of Puerto Baquerizo Moreno which we explored for a couple hours until we headed to the airport. The town embraced the local animals and we saw multiple sea lions and iguanas dotting the sidewalks (note the left-hand side of the street picture below).

The Galapagos is a true gem – it is a window in time to what true ecosystems look like when left to nature. The animals are incredible – they are so unique, colorful, and innocent. They do not fear humans, they simply treat us as any other animal. As a result, they allow us to get so close to them, often voluntarily coming right up to us out of curiosity or wanting to play. We loved seeing how happy they were – thriving in paradise. We feel so lucky to have had the opportunity to experience it. Fun fact about Galapagos: it is low in biodiversity (you can physically count the number of species present) but high in endemism (species that are found no where else on earth) and the sheer number of animals is incredible.

Tomorrow we take an early flight farther inland to the last adventure of our trip – a few days in the Ecuadorian Amazon! Ecuador is known as the Country of Four Worlds: the Andes highlands, the coast, the Galapagos, and the Amazon. Thus far we have explored two (Quito is in the Andes highlands) and our next adventure will allow us to explore a third.