Galapagos Islands... the cruise!

Just to give you a little information on the cruise itself, this itinerary was a little different than most other cruise itineraries… we made two stops almost every day.  On shore, we had excursions led by the Naturalist Guides, they were great, very informative.

Each night before dinner the Cruise Director would give a talk about the stops the following day.  After the talk we would sign up for our excursions… usually called “Long Walk” or “Short Walk”.  I signed up for all the long walks, except for one.  I wanted to try out one short walk, since I was there for work and should be experiencing everything.

The long walks were generally three hours in length and were on varied terrain… sand, gravel, rocks, boulders, stairs. 

I saw people of all ages and physical ability on the long walks.  The ship provided walking sticks which I found helpful at a couple of the stops.  The short walks were about two hours long, were usually done on flat, even terrain or were zodiac rides around the island looking for animals from the water. 

All excursions are included in the cruise.
As I mentioned in my previous post, we took a zodiac from the ship to the island each day.
Sometimes they were dry landings where we could step right onto a pier:

And sometimes there were water landings, where we jumped off the zodiac into the shallow water:

 Both were manageable and the guides were always there to help.

Snorkeling was also available at some of the islands.  The ship provided all the gear and they would let us know when to bring it ashore for snorkeling from the beach after the walks. 

Since the ship only holds 94 passengers, I wasn’t sure if I would be bored on a small ship.  I was not bored for a minute, it was really fun to experience small ship cruising.  It was very casual, so no formal nights or anything like that, which I loved.

my stateroom was small, but I had plenty of room

With only 94 guests the ship did not have what I call the “Ding” machine when you exit/enter the ship.  Accounting for guests before sailing was done manually…. We would need to check off our name on the list the Cruise Director provided at the entrance to the ship.

Definitely a laid back atmosphere.

A few of the islands in Galapagos are inhabited, so there are shops, restaurants, schools, etc.  Totally normal.  On the last day of the cruise we were in Puerto Ayora all day and a co-worker from the Quito flew out there to show me two of the social responsibility projects our company has set up there.  When getting a contract to sail in the Galapagos, it is expected the company also do something to help out the community as well.  We have set up a greenhouse and partnered with the American Red Cross to set up a hospital, both located in Puerto Ayora.  

It was really interesting to be able to visit both of these places.

Well I guess that about sums up my trip.  It really was a once in a lifetime experience and would encourage anyone to visit this amazing islands!

Galapagos Islands... the animals!

So where were we?   Oh yes, we had just landed in Baltra.

The flight from Quito was a quick two hours.

After going through customs we were met at the airport by the Cruise Director and a couple of the onboard Naturalist Guides who accompanied us to the ship.

We took a bus to the pier, where we boarded the zodiacs to take us to the ship.

Riding on the zodiacs was really fun and was how we got to each island.  No docking at a pier for the ships sailing the Galapagos.

Our home for the week

Once everyone was aboard we set sail around 1pm for our first island, North Seymour.

Let me just say that the animal sightings were plentiful in the islands, it was great!  Since I had worked in Alaska before I knew the chances of seeing animals there were slim… not the case in the Galapagos.  They were everywhere.  They also could have cared less about all the humans.

Since the Galapagos are protected land, these animals have never been hunted so they have no fear of humans.  They never flinched when we walked by.  It was incredible.

I know people are most interested in pictures of the animals, so here you go…

Male Frigate bird

Male Frigate bird trying to impress the female with his red pouch

Baby Blue Footed Boobie trying to fly

Sea Lion... isn't she beautiful?!

We were so close to her!

Some other Sea Lions along the beach...

the male was trying to hit on the female and she was not having it :)

Blue Footed Boobie - love those blue feet!

Pelican

Crab

Sea Lions

Marine Iguanas

Marine Iguanas

Nazca Boobies

Baby Albatross

Hawk

Galapagos Friends :)

Sea Turtle

Hawk

Marine Iguana

Penquins!

So cute!!

Land Iguana

Also so cute!!

2 iguanas fighting

we were very close to the fight

one ended up bleeding!

Sweet baby Sea Lion

Lonesome George, the last of his kind

Scientists try to mate him, but he is not interested.

Giant Tortoise

The second morning, we did a sail around Kicker Rocker.  It was beautiful!  Kicker Rock is a large rock formation off the coast of San Cristobal island, the size alone was impressive.

Each evening as we returned from our excursion, there was a snack table/bar set up on the back deck where we could grab a drink, sit outside, watch the sunset and talk about everything we saw that day.   

Everyone really came to enjoy that relaxing part of the day!

Next up, a little more information about the cruise itself.