Galapagos Adventure: Day 1, Isabela and Fernandina Islands

Hello all! We returned from our trip to the Galapagos Islands last Saturday at 2:00 a.m. You can guess by the time that all didn't quite go according to plan. (United Airlines has had their last crack at me.) But we are nicely recovered now and anxious to look at our pictures so we can figure out exactly where we went.

It was a wonderful trip, a dream, a great adventure, all anyone could wish for! I'm offering this as a distraction from snow for a lot of people, so I shall try my best to be entertaining about it.

Quito - Quito looks like Mexico City except in the mountains. Had limited charm in my opinion. We went to the market and bought things with "Ecuador" on them. Ecuador, BTW, means equator. I admit I didn't know this -- but then again, I had not spent much time thinking about Ecuador. You can take a tour and go to a place that is directly on the equator where it reads latitude 0 degrees, 0', 0". I know this to be true as it says so on a hat Bob bought.

We "adventurers" met in the lobby of the Hilton at 4:30 in the morning, a fact not mentioned previous to the purchase of the trip. We arrived in Guayaquil 35 minutes after take-off and remained on the plane. Looking at Guayaquil from the air, I decided that was a good thing.

The flight to the islands took an hour and 40 minutes. The airport at Baltra is a nice modern structure which contains the basics and nothing more. There are lots of forms to complete and pass out. I am pretty sure every person living in the Galapagos gets a copy. Then we are bundled onto a bus. At this point, we are fully a group of children being chauffeured around with no responsibility for ourselves or anything else. I rather liked it.

Somehow I pictured getting on our ship via a nice pier or dock. And naturally I wore something cute in case there might be pictures. Surprise! We were delivered to a concrete area by the ocean with tall stacks of empty plastic crates. It started to rain. Our transport to the ship finally arrived -- a rubber raft thing called a zodiac in the US, but here known as a panga. We clambered in and were off to the boat. Our leader decided since it was raining, we had better go faster. Large quantities of sea water were now cascading over those in the front (me). Spirit was low.

But we arrived at our ship, the lovely Evolution, and it was indeed lovely. It was not the biggest or newest ship in the islands, but we all came under its spell and soon loved it. It was solid and comfortable and quickly became home. I had expected our room to be quite small, but it was in fact the size of a hotel room with a large dresser and closet, nice bathroom and two port holes.

Our voyage has begun!

That night we traveled to Punta Vincente Roca cliffs on Isabella Island.

We got into the pangas (this time appropriately attired).

Our two CEOs were with us -- that stands for Chief Experience Officer. Really. They were terrific though. They were both island born and had a deep love for this beautiful place and all its various creatures. Sam was a PhD biologist, a professor at the university and was qualified to answer any questions. Omar was our charismatic lead CEO and he was wonderful -- a strong leader with a great of humor and a spark of fun. We could not have been with better people!

Sam said he hoped we would see penguins at this place -- you can't just order up animals -- but he didn't need to worry. They were there, lots of them.

And our first teaser views of marine iguanas! So excited! (You know how I feel about lizards.)

And -- Oh My Gosh -- blue-footed boobies!

First sight of the sea lions we grew to love like favorite neighborhood dogs!

Time to bail out of the panga and test our snorkeling skills. It was cold and murky compared to Hawaii, but we soon saw why they took us here -- turtles! As big as coffee tables! And lots of them!
This big green turtle is feeding on algae.

Then back in the panga and the Evolution for lunch and to move the ship to Punta Espinoza on Fernandina Island.

In the panga again. We arrived at the island in a tangle of mangroves. And -- oh -- what is that smell? Has someone up-ended a couple of portalets here???? Two steps out of the panga and I see -- about 150 marine iguanas. Piles and piles of them everywhere!

And they don't care about you. Your foot can be nearly on them and they don't move. You have to be really careful not to step on them ... or in the iguana poo, which is also everywhere.

We see a Galapagos hawk!

Flying low over the island -- gull, you can't compete with this guy!

Lunchtime for him -- he has an iguana. Well, everything has to live ...

Rare lava cactus.

Galapagos mockingbird. We were told to keep our water bottles close. The land is so dry, the thirsty birds will try to get them away from you. Some of us found out that is true!