The Galapagos -- Part 1 -- September 29 - October 8, 2018

The clouds from the plane on the way to our first stop, Miami, were wonderful! I felt, as I often do on an airplane, a sense of escape. The additional 2+ hour wait in Miami while a tire was changed on our plane--we were allowed to get off--was made enjoyable by the company of a couple from Maine who were also headed to the Galapagos Islands. They were taking the big ship tour--100 passengers--and we wouldn't likely see them as on many of the spots we visited they would constitute the entire number of visitors for that area at one time or on one day.

We arrived at the Quito, Ecuador airport about 1 am. I met my roommate who'd arrived not long before and we were met by two women from the tour company, Peregrine. I booked through Intrepid but Peregrine, a sister company, runs the Galapagos tours. My new roommate and I were too tired to converse on the 45-minute drive so I knew what she looked like, that she was Australian and that was about it. She invited me to join her with the guide she had engaged to tour Quito at 9 am the next morning, but I didn't want to head out that early. Since our hotel rooms for that night were extra, we'd reserved singly. The next day she paid for one more night alone and the hotel let me have my room without extra cost for that night. I hoped that didn't mean that she hadn't felt good about rooming with me, but would learn that she had some of the same concerns I had about rooming with a stranger. She was a pleasant and easy roommate.

My Quito photographs for that extra day are on my phone so I'll do a short blog on Quito later. It is an interesting large city, and I learned as I took taxis around town that very, very few people speak English. Ecuador uses the dollar for currency and that, and that it is the usual departure point for the Galapagos Islands let me think more service people would speak English. I wish I had known!

I all but missed the tour group meeting, but that's a story for the Quito blog. There were fourteen of us for the first part of our tour. Some would leave mid-week and others would join us. The couples ranged from 30s honeymooners from Ireland to an early-mid sixties couple from Australia. There were two fifty something couples from New Zealand,  a mother and daughter from Australia (the mother was 70), and my roommate and me. Two sixty-something women from Australia were already on the boat. Yes, as I had been told was likely, I was the only American. Both Intrepid and Peregrine are Australian companies.

Our ship, the Grand Queen Beatriz, was new this season. Below is the lounge and reading area where our guide's nightly talks were held and where we were welcomed aboard, introduced to our crew and given frothy drinks. We did this to say goodbye to those who departed mid-week and to welcome the newcomers. We lost six--the women who were already aboard, the mother-daughter duo and one of the New Zealand couples. We gained another mother-daughter duo (younger) and two Australian couples plus a delightful married couple (women) from Britain. I understood them without such hard listening although by the time they came aboard I was able to hear the others without as much effort. I'd also given up paying serious attention when the Australians and New Zealanders talked about politics and places in their countries, often two or three talking at once.

Below you can see that the food bar where breakfast and lunch choices were arrayed sets between the two tables, each seating eight people. With a group that small, it was important for all to get along. For the most part, that happened. Dinner was served to us at our tables. For whatever reason, gluten free was an impossible concept so I ate many serving of beautifully arrayed fruit for dessert! Finally I asked that they keep those fruit plates, serve me whatever the others were eating and let me decide what to eat. For instance, I could eat the fillings of pie. The food was excellent with many healthy fruit and veggie choices. I don't recall a mediocre dinner.

I love being outside as the boat sped to our first destination, one of snorkeling from the boat. Those who were planning to snorkel, I didn't then, loaded into a panga boat pictured below. We used two of these boats for all shore landings, some wet where we waded a few steps to shore and some to a dock where we made shore in a dry landing. We knew in advance which type landing we would have. Sometimes I went barefoot on the sand and others I wore old Teva sandals and changed to hiking shoes if necessary.

The panga driver who became my buddy took me along the shore and pointed out my first critters while the others snorkeled.

With all back on the boat we motored to our next destination. I went up on the top deck and took photos of the frigate birds that followed us. They will show up in another blog post but these were my first.

I spent time reading and relaxing between shore tours under the shade on these comfortable benches. Opposite them are lounge chairs in which to sun, but as you can see from the photo below, our first days didn't have much sun.







The next day we began our usual schedule: 7 am breakfast and ready for the first tour at 8. Our first day's morning tour was on Isla Isabela, the largest of the Galapagos Islands. The area where we docked for a dry landing was flat and the trails easy to walk. We were greeted by a sea lion on our path. We were not to walk toward the animals but could stand still and let them walk toward us--to a point. No touching!

The iguanas on this island are marine iguanas, the only ocean-swimming lizards. The iguanas were of different varieties on other islands, some others also swimming.

This spot on Isabela wasn't beautiful but we were so excited to see the wildlife that we weren't bothered much by all the rocks.

The iguanas hung on the sides of the rocks by the water peering over as if to say "take my picture."
The ghost crabs beckoned to me with their orange-red color. After walking and listening to our guide for a couple of hours, we headed back to the ship for lunch and a rest before our afternoon excursion.








That afternoon we went to the tortoises sanctuary and saw them in all sizes. We arrived at feeding time and watched the caretakers toss elephant ears into the pens of various sized tortoises. Our guide said that by 2020, all will be turned loose to live in the wild since the species is able to reproduce and survive in their natural setting. Here are a few photos of tortoise feeding. We'll see more older ones in the wild later.

I was going to add a large tortoise as they were at this sanctuary too, but my uploading has stopped working. I'll close for now as we go back to the ship, rest, annoy the bartender for drinks, listen to our guide tell us what we'll see tomorrow and answer questions and enjoy a lovely dinner and conversation.

More in a couple of days.