The Galápagos Islands are a chain of 53 islands and are part of the country of Ecuador, in South America. The Galápagos lie about 600 miles off of the Ecuadorian coast.

There are thirteen major islands and a handful of smaller islands that make up the Galápagos archipelago. Repeated volcanic eruptions helped to form the rugged mountain landscape of the Galápagos Islands. On our amazing adventure tour, we only covered 3 of them over 5 days on the live aboard. What an amazing time it was! 

 

Our pre-trip started in Quito, Ecuador via Delta to ATL to Quito. It was smooth and easy. While in Quito ( which is over 10k ft high) for two nights, we explored the old city and organized day trips to the Equator, a coffee plantation, a hummingbird aviary, and waterfalls. All I highly recommend. 

We left our Quito hotel early morning to get on a flight to San Cristolbol to meet our Guide and boat for the week. We were excited to get back to sea level and move into our boat cabin where the Galapagos adventure began. 

The yacht named Seaman had 14 passengers and 9 crew members which included cooks, the captain, a bartender, 2 inflatable tender captains, and our assigned mandatory Tour Guide. We lucked out and scored an awesome crew and well educated guide named Marco who is 5th generation Ecuadorian. There are 5500 Galapagos guides that work directly for the government. This is a coveted job. Our guide spent 6 months in a university with 125 others, but only 2 were selected to fill open positions. These jobs only open when there is death or unique circumstances. He was tops in his class. 

 

We arrived on San Cristobol Island by air and the boat took us to Espanola and Foreana islands over the 5 days. We departed from Santa Cruz Island. 

 

Each day was well orchestrated with fixed schedules for the days events. Apparently, each island visit requires a reservation time slot. This limits each interaction with the local critters to small groups so as not to interfere with the habitats. On some hikes, shoes were not allowed. It allowed us to get up close and personal with the unique species. 

 

Each encounter was timed to maximize our ability to see so many amazing and unique wildlife. We hike up to see the Blue-footed boobie birds and witnessed a mating dance.  Fun fact: the darker the blue feet are, the more healthy the diet is. Therefore, the more interested the female will be when choosing a mate. Some of the red-footed boobies had  blue beaks. 

 

We swam with playful sea lions that were curious puppies. They seem to smile each pass and seem to say “ watch me do this!”. 

 

We snorkeled with large turtles and a local shark at one afternoon stop. I drifted away from the group and learned a shark was watching me a little curiously. I went back to join the group. 

 

On another day, we hiked for a couple hours to a beach where large turtles came in at night to lay eggs. I had seen these tracks before along the coast of sarasota, but never like this. These tracks were 6+ ft wide! Each path led to a large mound, and then a return set of tracks. On the way back to the boat, there was a large flock of pink flamingos feeding in a pond. Great day! 

 

When our guide gets overly excited, it’s usually that we got to close to a critter, but one day this was something different. After another shore excursion to see the marine iguanas, we hopped back in the inflatables, which was our transportation, to return to the mother ship. As we left shore and entered the bay, hundreds of dolphins came up the the boat and gave us a show that lasted 45 minutes. They rolled, jumped, twirled, flopped, and flung the little ones. 

 

Our guide decided to create a snorkeling event with dolphins for those “game”. We motored back to the Seaman, while it was cruising, jumped onboard and sped 5 minutes ahead of the dolphins. Then 8 of us jumped in the calm waters with snorkel gear and waited for them to catch up. AND they did.. they cruised around us, under us, and kept going. 10 minutes of immersion in the wild was amazing. My guide and both had cameras and captured it on film. We high-fives each other in the water. Another amazing day!! 

 

We learned that years ago Ecuador could not afford to continue post mail services. Consequently, there are no post offices except on one island in the Galapagos. You land in the island via your dinghy, then hike up the hill to a clearing with a wooden mailbox ( see picture). Inside the mailbox are post cards from other visitors with delivery addresses to locations around the world along with notes. We picked out 3 that were in Sarasota area, brought them home and hand delivered them. We also left several addressed to our family and friends and they were each delivered within 2 weeks! 

 

Each night as we cruised, we were treated to traveling frigate birds, sunsets, AND endless star constellations. This included the Southern Cross, seen only in the Southern hemisphere. 

 

Once we disembarked the boat in Santa Cruz, we were able to see the famous giant tortoise, but in a zoo environment. We left there with a thirst to come back to see them in the wild, like Darwin, along with the penguins and albatross which is the largest marine bird in the Galapagos. We’re coming back again soon!