5-6 to 5-15 Ecuador and Galapagos

We only spent one night in Quito and only had an afternoon to poke around. But it certainly struck us as a more interesting and maintained place than Lima. We both thought that we would like to come back some day, see the sights. Maybe I could get Sue to go on an Amazon tour by boat.

The pictures are all below my description. They are a few of the wildlife we saw. While my description of the trip may make it sound like we were uncomfortable, we actually had a wonderful time. Its all about the wildlife and the geology.

We flew to Baltra,Galapagos and went by ferry and bus to our boat, a Catamaran for 16 passengers. The boat was in the main harbor on Santa Cruz island. The tour group was roughly split between Europeans and US folk: Swiss, Germans, Australians, 2 Brit couples (one consisting of two ladies), some folks from Boston, the W's and us. The method of seeing the Galapagos is for the boat to move between ports, sometimes during the night, often during the day when the ports are close, take a walk after a wet or dry landing (i.e. feet wet or dry after a landing on a beach or a landbar) from the Zodiac boats, then go snorkeling. A return to the boat between the walk and snorkeling might be in the plan. We ate all our meals on the boat - lots of food but nothing extravagant, just good wholesome food. Lots of vegetables, almost no fish, surprisingly. Breakfasts were my favorite. I never found myself looking forward to the meals but, as I say, it was good food.

These boat tours are typically two weeks in length. They visit the Eastern islands and then the Western. Our week took place during the Western island portion. These are the younger islands, more volcanic. It was a good choice. We first visited three ports on our way around Isabela, the largest island. Sue and I did go snorkeling, though we were not very comfortable doing it. There is a lot of wave action and the snorkeling is along cliff faces in most cases. Sometimes we skipped the sessions or got out early. Sue was bothered by the motion and also the lack of boundaries - it was often open water. But we both had bright yellow inflatable vests so no fear of drowning.

Sue's seasickness was with her with a vengeance - the Sea Bands around the wrists that worked OK in Alaska didn't even touch the sensation here. When the boat was in the bays, the waves made it wallow a lot. On some portions of the trip, the seas were very rough. And the small boat just bounced around a lot - the shallow draft allowed them to get closer to shore than larger boats but it also meant the boat really moved around in the water. So Sue spent a lot of time uncomfortable and taking Dramamine. I took it during one or two rough night passages.

From Isabela's west side we toured Fernandina just across the small channel between the two - then up to Santiago (crossing the equator on the way - we actually crossed three times, with the second pair being photo ops and for toasts), to Rapida north of Isabela, and to Sombrero Chino. Next, we went to Bartolome island where there are some classic views typical of Galapagos. Our last morning we went to the N. Seymour island bird areas and got our closest and best views of the roosting Blue-footed Boobies and Frigate Birds. And then it was back to Baltra and the flight home, via stops in Panama and Houston. We missed our connection to DC in Houston (predictable beforehand but not actionable until it happened) and spent the night in a Houston hotel. Made it home mid afternoon on Sunday.