Galapagos 2017 | SALLEY MAVOR

As promised, here are a selection of my husband Rob Goldsborough’s beautiful photographs from our recent trip to the Galapagos Islands. The one above of a Galapagos finch is one of my favorites. These finches played an important role in the development of Darwin’s theory of natural selection.

We went on daily excursions in inflated pangas from our mother ship.

Sea lions were a common sight…

as were Blue-footed Boobies – the bluer their feet, the healthier they are.

This young sea lion was almost oblivious to my presence.

We saw many giant tortoises lumbering along. The islands were named after the Spanish word for tortoise, “galapago”.

This iguana species is the only extant (or still existing) marine lizard on Earth.

We saw one flamingo in a shallow pond.

Magnificent frigate-birds dominated the sky..

and showed off their red throat pouches on land.

Sally Lightfoot crabs danced over the rocks at the sea shore.

This Black-legged Stilt waded, while an iguana crawled ashore.

I hope that you’ve enjoyed the tour. Polly went along, too and you can see her travel log here. The trip was a truly remarkable experience!

Polly just returned from a fascinating trip to the Galapagos Islands, off the coast of Ecuador. She dressed in an outfit suitable for a Charles Darwin expedition in the 1830’s. The excessive heat and humidity were a challenge in her long skirt, but at least she didn’t have to put sun screen on her wooden face. In this photo, you can barely make out the piles of sun bathing sea iguanas on the black volcanic rocks. A brown baby sea lion nestled in the rocks and slept through the photo session, while another looked on from the water’s edge.

Having nothing to fear, the animals were oblivious to humans. We were told that they don’t sleep close together because of affection, but to keep themselves warm. Polly took along a collection bag and straw hat for protection from the equatorial sun.

This is as close as she got to some land iguanas.

She hiked up to a high lookout on one of the islands…

and climbed cactus plants.

The giant tortoises were impressively old and slow.

While the Sally Lightfoot crabs were gaudy and fast.

This young sea lion slumbered on a bench. Polly resisted the temptation to tickle its whiskers.

Polly got a kick out of posing in front a photo collage of Charles Darwin, who was in his 20’s when he visited the Galapagos Islands in 1831. His theory of evolution, The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, based mainly on his observations there was published in 1859. More photos of the trip, with closeups of the animals go here.

To keep up with new posts, please subscribe to this blog (top right column on the home page). Your contact info will not be sold or shared. If you’d like to see more frequent photos tracking the projects in my studio, please follow me on Facebook and/or Instagram