Galapagos Islands - Day 1

Another early morning start to catch the TAME flight from Quito to Baltra via Guayaquil.  The hotel managed to give us some fruit and rolls for breakfast before we left for the airport.  At the airport we met Darwin who is our naturalist guide for the Galapagos trip. There was another couple that were also going on the cruise who also took the same flight.  We did not introduced ourselves until we got to Baltra.

Once at Baltra we had to pay our $100 US park entry fees.  It was a little unfortunate for us as we had already paid World Expeditions the money but somehow it did not come through so we had to pay the $100 again.  Never mind, we will be reimbursed once back home.

After going through the park fees payment and collecting our luggage we boarded a bus which took us to where our panga was waiting to take us to the Beluga. The Beluga was to be our home for the next 8 days.  We found out that the couple was Jim and Ivona from Pennsylvania.  Later on another person Elisabeth joined us as well. The Beluga can take up to 16 guests but until Tuesday it was just the 5 of us.  Fantastic.  On board we met the Captain - Santiago, Boat pursar - George, Pedro - cook and 6 other crew members. Meryl and I got the cabin on top deck. That was lucky was I was seasick for nearly 2 days and needed the fresh air.  I tried just about everything but nothing appeared to work. It was really tough luck as Pedro prepared such wonderful food.

Soon after we got on board we had to go through the emergency drill.

As soon as we arrived you could just see sea lions and frigates everywhere. 

We sailed down a little bit of Santa Cruz island and went for a walk at Cerro Dragon. The last time Darwin was here it was dry but it had rained a few days ago so now the place was quite green and full of mosquitoes. We were also greeted by many sea lions and marine iguanas. They were just simply lying about and carrying on their own business. Along the walk we also saw our first sally light-foot crabs, Galapagos mocking bird, galapagos doves, land iguanas, lava lizards and many new plants as well.  Apart from the mosquitoes and the mud, everything else was just fantastic. Our boots were so caked with mud it was really quite hard to walk properly.  On our way back to the Beluga on the panga we were followed by hundreds of mosquitoes.  I felt like a pin cushion.

At 6:30pm we had the welcome cocktail by the Captain and then dinner at 7:00pm.  According to Meryl, dinner was fantastic.

During the night we sailed from Santa Cruz to Santa Fe.