dp - new adventures: Tortoises &Puerto Chino Beach

Beach Day :)

so, there was actually a little blue sky this morning. i woke up before 7am; and was the only one up for 1.5 hrs. i put the dishes away, did some laundry, and organized my bag for our day trip. we were hoping to get a taxi to take us on the Land Tour to the Volcano, Tortoises Breeding Center, and Puerto Chino Beach. this group had not done that Tour yet. ....and i was happy to get another visit with the Tortoises and go back to that beautiful beach again.

we passed these Wind Turbines on the way ... 60% of the power on San Cristobal is provided by these .... that's impressive!

so it sprinkled on the way to the Volcano; but our driver said it would be clear up there and good viewing. ...and he was right. it wasn't sunny, but it was clear ...

this is the view of the NorthEastern shoreline ....

and we could actually see the entire crater lake this time ....

then we headed for the Tortoise Breeding Center again ... sprinkling all the way there.

the Tortoises never disappoint ... E.T. really had to be designed after these guys !

i love their eyes ...

and it's weird how they position their legs, it doesn't look comfortable at all ....

the back side ...

this guy was eating this just like an ear of corn ... i'll get a video on You Tube ...

finally a photo, or two of the endemic Mockingbird !!!!

then ... finally, we headed for the beach :)

we asked our driver to return to pick us up in 3 hrs .... no way .... he didn't want to wait that long. i suggested that he return to town (like the last time i was here) and then return for us ... he asked me if i noticed how bad the roads were. ...oops .... he was really a nice guy and spoke very good English,... the only taxi driver that did. but, he would agree to give us our 3 hrs for another $15 ... there were 8 of us, and it was worth every bit of the extra $2ea for the beach time ... provided it didn't rain :)

it still wasn't a perfect beach day ... but it didn't rain, there was some sun, and the beach was just as beautiful as the first time ...

although i didn't hang around long enough to enjoy it. i got right in the water.
and immediately spotted this BullsEye Puffer Fish in the shallows, ... i followed him in and out of visibility because of all the sand swirling around .... i finally got a bit of a photo of him ...

there were big waves and the surge was strong again .... it was not my best day of picture-taking ... i saw a lot, but it was difficult to get any photos, that aren't blurry, or poor visibility ...

there were a few turtles, which were the easiest to photograph because of their size ... but not near the numbers i saw last time ...

i saw a LOT of these large Blue Chin ParrotFish ...

and these beautiful blue green ParrotFish were even larger than the Orange-striped ones .... i can't seem to get a positive identification on them ... but i think they may be the same kind, only older or younger, or males or females .... either way ... they were really pretty ...wish i had a better photo to show you ...