Galapagos I

Monday, January 13. clear, hot , 86 with a sea breeze to cool it down.

That 3.30 am wake up call was not needed as I awoke from a solid four hour sleep at 2.30. Fellette was up not long after me and we were ready and out of the room in a heart beat.

The day was a blur with an early am juice and banana breakfast in the lobby, a
45 minute bus ride and a 5.30 am check in for a 7.00 flight with one stop before we got to the Islands around 11.00. We were on the ship, the Galapagos Legend, capacity 100 passengers, by 11.15 and to our cabins.

The flight was a good flight mostly over the sea and I was surprised at the vastness of the group of islands. From the sky and on on land the vegetation is almost non existent near the water but does get greener as we get a bit of elevation.

There was a short bus ride to a launching pad for zodiacs that took us for the 20 minute run to the ship, 12 passengers each boat. By now our 3.00 am wake up was long forgotten. On the ship it is very casual with an attempt at luxury. All good mind you. The staff is all good looking virile young Ecuadorians who are attractive, male or female. They speak cute broken English and all very, very polite.

The cabin we chose is about the size of our closet on the Amsterdam and the porthole is the size of a toilet seat. All this is good stuff as we are inclined to live in this dream world of do what we want and have what we want when we want it. Nice to get a dose of reality.

After a bit of adjusting to our cabin size it was lunch and then shortly it seemed to the briefing and zodiacs where we were dispatched from the ship with almost military precision. Off to see the giant tortoises about 30 K away, by bus after a challenging ride in the zodiacs for about 20 minutes.

The tortoises are located on a farm and they are everywhere and have free reign. We were all shutter happy for some time but after a while all the tortoises look the same.

Back to the ship after a 30 minute bus ride and a 20 minute zodiac ride where we all lost our dignity and got soaked and laughed ourselves silly. A Hot short shower and off to dinner where we had a wonderful time with a French Canadian couple from Quebec City.

After dinner there was a short welcome drink from the captain and we met the crew. It was interesting, this was the first captains party we have been to where the captain did not speak. All Ecuadorians do not speak English obviously.

Great day, very long but what the heck, we are here for a good time, not a long time. The ship moves at night and after a good sleep the adventure will start all over again in the morning.