Galapagos Islands

I returned this afternoon from my eight day cruise in the Galapagos islands. It was amazing, one of the most special and magical places I have ever been. The animals were fascinating, the landscape interesting, and the people in my group were a lot of fun and a good mixture of nationalities. Our ship was very comfortable as well, we even had hot showers! I had the opportunity to snorkel with sea turtles, penguins, sting rays, sharks, all sorts of fish, and of course the sea lions, who incidentally like to play in the water by swimming all around you. And on dry land we saw just about every animal you can see in the Galapagos...boobie birds of all sorts, finches, iguanas (marine and land), waved albatross, frigates, pelicans, and giant land tortoises. It was really an unforgettable experience. I will write more in my blog upon my return to Atlanta in a few days. For now, here are a couple of pictures...

Ok, this machine is taking entirely too long to load the pictures, so I will have to put more on when I return to Atlanta. Incidentally, I did run into two minor issues in the Galapagos, 1. my Texas Longhorn hat was stolen at the airport in Baltra and 2. A black spot appeared at the upper left of my pictures, so I adjusted as best I could. I did not want to mess with the lens too much (as it is a loaner camera). So I would like to thank Todd in advance for his assisting me in the coming weeks at editing my pictures.

To all those who emailed me the past week...I expect to return emails tomorrow, right now I am going for some dinner.