Ecuador

Saturday, April 17. Our last full day in the Galapagos:-( Everyone had a very early wake up call at 4:00 a.m. when the boat left the harbor, though technically our wake up call wasn't until 6:00 a.m. After breakfast we were off on a hike on the island of South Plaza. It was probably one of my favorite hikes so far as we saw tons of sea lions, many of which were quite young, lots of land iguanas, a few marine iguanas and several different types of birds. After the hike we set sail for Santa Fe. When we arrived in Santa Fe we went for a short snorkel where we saw millions of salinas (a kind of fish) and several sharks – white tip reef sharks, black tip reef sharks and Galapagos sharks. After lunch we went for a hike on Santa Fe where we saw, once again, lots of Galapagos sea lions and iguanas. After our hike, another snorkel. We got to swim with the sea lions and the Pacific Green sea turtles. We also saw rays and more sharks. It was truly incredible. It was then time to set sail for the island of North Seymour. After our briefing and dinner, it was time to celebrate our last night on board and Captain Rodrigo broke out two bottles of tequila. It was shots all around. I, once again, put myself to bed at a reasonable hour, and Keith, once again, crawled into bed around 2:00 a.m.

Sunday, April 18. Wake up call was at 5:30 a.m. and by 6:00 a.m. we were off on an early hike on the island of North Seymour. We saw lots of Galapagos sea lions, more blue footed boobies (doing their mating dance called the boobie dance), marine iguanas, land iguanas and frigettes with large red sacks under their beaks (the males blow them up to attract females). Back on board we went for breakfast and a short sail to Baltra – our departure point. We bid our farewells to our crew and flew back to Quito. We spent the rest of the day checking out a market in the park and then had dinner with Annabelle and Adam – a couple from London that we had met while sailing the Galapagos Islands.

Monday, April 19. Keith and I spent the day wandering around Quito and generally catching up on laundry, internet, etc. We went to the TeleferiQo – a gondola that takes you up 2.5 km up the Volcan Pichincha. At the top, we were 4,100 meters above sea level. The views of Quito and the surrounding areas were amazing. We then did a little more shopping and headed out to dinner again with Annabelle and Adam. We also met up with another couple who had been on our cruise, Mike and Amanda, and we all had a few cocktails before heading off to bed.....