Galapagos Flora 1

February 18, 2026

Hello from onboard the Celebrity Flora! We figured if we travel all the way to Galapagos we should explore above the water as well as beneath it.

We boarded on Sunday and have enjoyed several excursions already. We started with a Hike followed by snorkeling Monday morning and then a kayaking excursion in the afternoon.

Galapagos Mockingbird

The rocky shoreline, lava rock.

These crab are black when born, at that point they have many predators. As they mature they change color because of their diet. Obviously losing their camouflage would seem to be an issue - happily their shell gets so hard the birds don't find them worth the effort.

Marine Iguana. These are cold-blooded reptiles who rely on the environment to regulate their body temperature. They are vegetarians and eat algae off the rocks in the ocean. They can stay down in the water 35-40 minutes. They slow their heartbeat down and have a way of storing oxygen in their muscles. Once they are done eating they find a nice hot lava rock (the rocks really hold the heat) and get their body warmed back up. Their body temperature can fluctuate between 59°-99° F. That's like menopause! LOL

Sea Lion chillin'

Land Iguana posing!

Galapagos Hawk - top of the food chain!

This flamboyance of flamingo 🦩 remind me of my small gang! (Shout out to Kathy, Linda and Joni)

A baby flamingo. He is about 3 months old and has not eaten enough to turn pink yet. I never knew how much diet could affect coloring! By this logic I'm lucky I'm not red, white and green from pico de gallo!

The cactus provide water year round to the local animals.

The snorkeling was fun - there were many fish to chase around.

These sea urchin look like cigarette butts!

Two baby sharks hiding in a rock.

The tenders are specifically designed for exploring the Galapagos islands. They have stairs and a drop-down ramp for dry or wet boarding. Here our guide stands up front to spot wildlife.

Tuesday morning started with a tender wildlife ride. No landing, just a chance to see some wildlife in and around the water.

This is a Galapagos cormorant, they are the only cormorant that cannot fly. They managed to get to Galapagos, found everything they needed and stopped flying around.

Pelican nest

Galapagos penguin

While snorkeling we saw this penguin swim by - they are super fast in the water!

Frigate bird. These guys are the pirates of birds. They can't dive in the water because their wings are too large and not adapted to shed the water. So, they swoop down and steal fish from the mouths of other harder working birds.

Yay! Sea Lion

White mangrove. The mangrove trees create a rich, protective environment for fish, sharks, etc for breeding and early life.

Red mangrove

On Tuesday we had another snorkeling opportunity - we will do snorkeling every time! It is hot so ... Better to be wet!

Best snorkeling ever! Carsten chased a cormorant under water, too bad I cannot add a short video.

We saw so many turtles it was nuts - I bet there were 10+ all around us! I was so excited when I saw the first one, wanting to be sure everyone saw him - by the end I was just swimming by.

Marine iguana munching on algae. He surfaced right next to me, I was quick to get out of his way! Yikes!

Today (Wednesday) we started with a short walk on a lava field. This is Pahoehoe Lava (this is Hawaiian for "ropey"). I'm glad the Hawaiians named it because it could have ended up with a stupid name like "twizzlers".

Pahoehoe lava

I need to do a better job of watching my step!

Lava Cactus. Grows directly in the lava, no soil. Over 100s of years the field will eventually be covered with this and other vegetation.

Um Leaning Tower of ????

Once done with the little hike we boarded a tender to go watch pelicans divebomb fish. We also saw a couple of happy turtles (i.e., mating) but they got shy and dove down before I could get some turtle porn! LOL