Galapagos and Mangrove trees

The trek to the Galapagos took some time - early-morning wake up, fly to Baltra via an hour layover in Guayaquil, and then luckily only a five-minute ride to our ship, the Koln. Although it was a small ship, it had everything we needed, including an outstanding crew. I practiced my Spanish and Walter practiced his English whenever we interacted, and the crew was at our beck and call. After practicing our safety drill, we headed out in the zodiac boats to see what we could see.

In the Galapagos, three kinds of mangrove trees exist. I noticed that many of the trees had yellow leaves, and our guide, Alejandra, explained that the red mangrove always has yellow "sacrificial" leaves. The red mangrove is not perfectly adapted to salt water, so it has what the natives call sacrificial leaves, which collect the salt from the water so that the tree can survive. Below is a picture of one of the many pelicans we saw in a red mangrove tree.

We also were introduced to the white mangrove, which does not need the sacrificial leaves. We also saw a few turtles, a marine iguana, pelicans, and other birds . . . more about that later. It was a nice introduction to what we were going to see later.