We got up very early to take a 6:00 am panga ride in Elizabeth Bay to explore the shallows and mangroves to look for sea turtles, penguins and birds. It was heaven! It wasn't hot yet and we saw many sea turtles, rays, and fish in the water as well as pelicans, flightless cormorants, blue-footed boobies and even an elusive Galápagos hawk. Derces was our driver/ guide as Alberto was in the other panga. To be honest, it was nice not having detailed, long-winde...

We woke up for a morning visit to Punta Espinoza on Fernandina, the youngest of the Galápagos Islands. Im happy to say that Vic made it through the night without rolling out of bed or puking anymore and woke up feeling good. Fernandina has the largest colony of marine iguanas in the archipelago, in addition to having a big sea lion colony, lots of sea turtles, and flightless cormorants. It’s also the most volcanically active island. marine iguanas and spe...

After a great nights sleep, we got up to see the towering cliffs of Buccaneer Cove on Santa Cruz island. We went for a panga ride to look for birds nesting on the edge. We saw 2 sea turtles mating, a fur seal, pelicans and the famed blue-footed boobie (a bird that dives for fish) and a sea turtle track and nest where she laid her eggs. While we waited for the panga to pick us up I had a refreshing swim - I was already soaking wet from the heat and humidity. Then...

Overnight we cruised to a small island called Chinese Hat. I was up fairly early and came to the sun deck and enjoyed a coffee and chat with Matthias (hunky and very nice Swiss guy). We got to see a couple of frigate birds perched on the sonar masts. Then, another bird comes and starts feeding the 2 birds perched. Obviously mama was looking after her kids. We spent some time watching this and enjoying the scenery and taking pictures and all of a sudden we see a...

Yay - today is the first real day of the Galápagos tour. It looks like it's going to be sunny in Quito today. We took an early flight to the Galápagos Islands with a stopover in Guayaquil (pronounced Whyakeel) the second largest city in Ecuador. The flight was 35 minutes. We had a bit of a rocky start. For some reason, only the Brits were able to have their boarding passes printed so there was a bit of waiting around. We did finally get our boarding passe...