To Galapagos with NAT GEO

November, 2012

Guayaquil, Ecuador; Friday, November 16, 2012

It's been a LONG day - it's almost 2am Saturday morning (or, Friday night) and we just got into the hotel room. Still waiting for our luggage to get here, so I'll do my diary. We left the house at 7am, got to Logan around 9, the flight took off shortly past 11, and we got to Miami before 3pm. A long wait at the Miami airport. The flight to Guayaquil was at 7:10. It was a 5+ hour flight.

We flew American Airlines this time. I've been quite impressed with their Admiral Club lounge - much better managed than the United lounge. We had business class seats, so really did not suffer much, even though it's been a long day. The plane to Guayaquil was a 767. When I did not see a LCD for each seat, I was disappointed. But after the plane took off, the flight attendants passed out BOSE earphones and a Samsung tablet to each person in business class. We were able to watch movie or TV or whatever on the tablet once you connect it to the power source. Very neat!

This flight was recommended by Nat Geo so many passengers were for the same trip. Once we arrived at the airport and exited customs, Nat Geo staff was right there welcoming us. Everything was well organized and we were taken to the hotel by buses. Checking-in was very fast. Everyone gets a pre-arranged envelop which contains detailed information about tomorrow's schedule, etc. All very familiar - reminded me of the world trip with Nat Geo last year ....

It'll be a very short night - need to be up before 5:30am. Checkin luggages need to be outside the room door by 6am. Breakfast and then depart the hotel at 7:20am. Board the plane at 8:20am. Makes me tired just to think about it .... And our luggage is still not in the room yet - need stuff in them in order to wash and go to bed. Oh well. 

Ah, luggage is here! Bye diary - will write tomorrow.

Baltra, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador; Saturday, November 17, 2012

Up at 5:30am, after barely 2 hours sleep. Checkin luggages outside the room door by 6am, then breakfast, then left the hotel by 7:20 for the airport which was just 5 minutes away. The plane landed in Baltra around 9:15-ish.

So, Galapagos is a state of Ecuador and consists of a group of islands. It's actually a national park. Baltra is the name of one of the islands where the "airport" is. Well, the airport seems to be just a landing strip, plus a tent. But construction is going on for a building that’s supposed to be the airport. Nat Geo (or Lindblad) staff was there waiting for us. We had a few minutes before everyone was off the plane so we could all get on the bus. I stepped outside the tent to look at the bunch of shops right there. They had some nice T-shirts, but I did not have the time to guy any. The Nat Geo staff said there’s usually no bargaining here. Price was not too bad – about $17 a shirt which seemed to be of decent quality. Will definitely buy a couple on the way back!

The bus took us to the “dock” where we would take the zodiac to the ship. While waiting at the dock, we saw a couple of really cute bright red (or orange) crabs on the lava rock, some sea lions far away, and some birds. Somehow they did not get me too excited.

A short zodiac ride took us to the ship. We all had to wear life jacket on the zodiac (this would be the rule for this trip – zodiac == life jacket). This was a different kind of life jacket than the ones we had seen before. The real air blown jacket is actually wrapped within a heavy vinyl, velcrosed “coat”, which would fall aside if falling into the water. Neat! Hope never have to experience it.

The ship is quite small, and old. Later we learned that we have about 90+ passengers, plus 75+ crew which includes 4 Nat Geo photographers. By the way, this is very clearly the Lindblad expedition – all the crew members work for Lindblad, except the 4 photographers. And the crew members are 99% Ecuadorians, including the captain.

The cabin is really small. Even though I cannot remember exactly how much larger the cabins were on the other cruises we’ve taken, this one is small to the extent that we really feel crammed. There is a tiny desk which was taken up by the water pitcher and 2 glasses (which I had to move to the night stand between the 2 beds to make room so I can have a little bit of working space).  We have 2 twin beds. If I had known the size would be so small, I probably would have booked the top level cabin. Oh well! 

After unpacking things as much as I could, we took a walk around the ship. This ship really shows its age – everything feels old, including the furniture, the boat itself …. But it has all the basic stuff – lounge, dining room, library, a pool, a small gym, etc.  After everyone got on the boat, we had a meeting when the expedition leader, Carlos, did the one-hour introduction of everything, followed by the mandatory safety drill. Then we had lunch around 1:30pm. Lunch consisted of a soup, which was nice, and a buffet of various sorts. The only meat dish, chicken, ran out half way. The staff seemed embarrassed while we waited for the next batch. They later brought the chicken to our table. The food was just so-so. It’s good to be hungry at meal time.

The first activity was to the “Las Bachas” beach which involved wet landing. The ship docked quite a bit a way from the beach, and we all disembarked via the zodiacs. We followed our leads and walked around the beach. The wild life we saw included more crabs, bright red/orange, which were my favorites (on this beach), pelicans, one flamingo (which apparently was very rare and precious here), and a few other kinds of birds of which I cannot remember the names. I really could not get myself too excited about all this and I did not even bother to take out the Canon camera – just used my little Sony NEX5n, good enough ….

Ah, on the way back in the zodiac, we saw 2 pairs of mating turtles in the water! Apparently this is the mating season – all the animals here were supposed to be mating. It was hard for me to tell that the turtles were actually on top of each other, in the pretty turbulent water. One pair immersed themselves in the water as the zodiac got closer – the guide said they wanted some privacy :-)

Back to the ship shortly before 6pm. I got soaked on the zodiac ride back as I was sitting at the front right side. A good shower back in the cabin made everything more comfortable. Boy – the shower sure was SMALL!

Before dinner, there was a simple reception to meet the captain and the staff of the crew, which took an hour – many people dozed off, as everyone was very tired (remember nobody got much sleep last night). Dinner followed – simple buffet dinner. We came back to the cabin right after dinner.  So tired it was not funny! We quickly washed and went to bed. Like some other passenger said later – we did not even know our heads hit the pillow, and we were out! Did not even try to write the diary – now it is Sunday the 18th, and I’m writing it for yesterday.

We bought $50 worth of internet access, supposedly 100 minutes. But I have not tried it. We have been warned that think about the time we had dial-up modems at home, and that would be the speed. Plus the fact that it can be dropped any time. But, what the heck, I’ll give it a try later. I’m writing the diary in a word doc and will copy it to the blog if/when I can access the net.

The biggest blunder I made for this trip is that one of the 2 cameras I brought with me was the wrong one. I meant to bring the Mark 2 5D with the 16-35mm lens, but brought the 40D and 17-40mm lens instead. But this is not the worst part – I thought I brought the 5D so I only brought the batter charger and extra batteries for it. Of course they cannot be used, and my 40D is out of battery …. So, in essence one of the cameras turns out to be just a dead weight …. Sigh! So, what is my impression of this trip on the first day? I don’t want to be negative, but I would give it a 5 out of 10. Maybe it has something to do with it being so shortly after the fantastic Polar Bear trip 2 weeks ago, or maybe it’s just because I do not get too excited about birds …. We’ll see. One of the Nat Geo photographers told me that she would help to re-adjust my head.

North Seymour Island, Galapagos; Sunday, November 18, 2012

Up at 6am – I actually set our alarm so we got up at 5:45. Breakfast (buffet) at 6:30. We're at the North Seymour Island. The schedule was to disembark at 8:30. We were divided into groups – the long walk group, the photography group, and the short walk group. I was assured that people who’re interested in taking photos would not be bothered with kids as they would not be with the photo group.

It was dry landing at the North Seymour Island, good! Our sandals are still soaked and there’s no chance of them drying out. This island is supposed to be the best place to see the frigate birds. And it did live up to its reputation! There were SO MANY birds! And it’s the first time I saw the male Frigate bird with the bright red chest fully pumped up! Amazing! And the most impressive thing is, these birds are not afraid of people! They just stayed where they were, no matter who was watching them and clicking photos! This is the beauty of this preserved land! We had to walk along the marked paths and were not allowed to step outside of the path, even though it was really attempting especially when there were great spots where we could have taken the photos at the best angle. The cutest birds I think were the blue footed boobies – their bright blue feet were just so cute! This was indeed the best season as our guide told us – there were many chicks with their mothers, and it was the season of mating (which was why we saw those pumped up red chests!). There were many sea lions, and there were many baby sea lions. It was very interesting watching one baby sea lion keep "walking" away from its mother, who desperately tried to get him/her back. The mother was growling and chasing the baby, trying to use her body to block the baby’s path. Finally the baby put his/her head in between 2 rocks, and the mother caught up.

We walked on the island till around 10:30 then came back to the ship. At 11am, the expedition lead, Carlos, spent an hour talking about snorkeling and the activities of the afternoon. Carlos has a good sense of humor and was a very funny guy, so listening to him was not boring. We then each got fitted our dive suit and flippers, snorkel mask, etc. I really do not have much interest in snorkeling – not that I don’t like to look at the fish in the water, just don’t feel comfortable in the water. But I got the gear any way. Somewhere in the next few days, I may do some snorkeling.

After lunch, there was a photography talk by one of the Nat Geo photographers, Jeff Swanson at 2pm, about some basics. It was a good talk. After the talk, it was the snorkeling, kayaking, or glass-bottom boating. Bob and I did not go with the deep water snorkeling. We went with the people who did beach snorkeling. Bob actually did some snorkeling, and I stayed on the beach, walked around to take photos of the sea lions on the beach – there were many of them. Again, there were baby sea lions looking for their mothers. The most interesting thing, however, was a pelican who got obsessed with the swimmers’ flippers. She would swim around chasing people who were swimming with flippers. And she would open that big mouth of hers, trying to bite the flippers. Very funny! I was trying to catch a few photos using my point-and-shoot, but did not get any good shots. I did not bring other cameras as I was not sure if I would go in the water.

After the beach snorkeling, we came back to the ship. Then we headed back to the beach again, to join a short walk and to watch the sunset.  The sunset was very fast. But the light before the sunset was so gorgeous. I again took some photos (this time using the Sony NEX) of the sea lions and the sunset – they were a little better than the point-and-shoot. Right after the sunset, we came back to the ship.

At the “happy hour” before dinner, Rikki showed some photos she took yesterday and today, with a talk, which was very nice. Then another staff talked about the sand. He showed the various sands in the Galapagos, through a telescope, which was absolutely amazing! I would never have thought sand could be so gorgeous – so colorful with amazing shapes!

Tonight’s dinner was not a buffet. Food was OK and the service was good. For entertainment, they are showing a Nat Geo documentary about the Galapagos at 9pm, which is going on while I’m writing my diary. I will go up to take a quick look, then call it a night.

My score of this trip has gone up, mainly because of the morning walk to see those amazing birds, etc. Also, the activities and everything else was well organized. I’m getting used to the small cabin and other things. I would give it between 6 and 7 out of 10. Tomorrow we’re going to the Fernandina and Isabela islands. Hopefully there will be more wild life!

By the way, internet is down, due to some storm in New Jersey, we were told. I have not even tried to activate our card – will try once the net is back.

Punta Espinoza, Galapagos; Monday, November 19, 2012

After I wrote yesterday's journal, I decided to skip the movie and try getting on the internet. It actually worked and I was able to access Travelpod, my new blog site. But it took me more than half an hour to copy and paste 2 entries – the saving kept failing and took many tries before it succeeded. The error complained about problem with the internet. I did a quick check of my google mail and found nothing important. Then I logged off – the stats showed that I used 42 minutes already. Wow …. Good that I did not try to upload any photos to the blog!

The day started at 5:45am. The ship was still sailing, but close to the destination. We went on the deck to watch the scenery and possible marine life. It was quite chilly, with the morning wind. Good we brought our windbreakers. The rising sun shined through the clouds, making those light rays – quite beautiful. Some people saw whales. We only saw the back of a couple, rather far away.

After breakfast, we disembarked and began our visit to Punta Espinoza. This was a rather young volcanic island, without too much vegetation (yet), and full of black lava rocks. It’s famous for the marine iguanas. Sure enough – iguanas everywhere! They’re black so can be easily mistaken as rocks. I really can’t say I like them – they’re quite hideous looking, actually. But it was interesting to see them, especially that many of them! It’s like carpets of iguanas! They climb onto each other (supposedly for warmth). Big and small. The big ones sometimes fight with each other, to protect their territories. The way they warn each other is very funny – they jerk their heads and open their mouth towards each other.  Aside from the iguanas, there were sea lions, some birds, and some turtles. Unfortunately there were not too many turtles – I would have loved to see some big turtles as those I’ve seen on magazines. Maybe on some other islands. The iguanas are smelly – they live in these big groups and go to the bathroom there. When the place gets too dirty and smelly, then they move to a different patch. Rain and ocean water would wash the dirty patch out in time, then they would move back. Interesting life.

We went in groups of 16 (max, by park rules), and we were only allowed along the paths (so we don’t destroy the iguana eggs buried in the sand). Even though we were with the group that was supposed to focus on photography (i.e. we don’t get rushed to go go go), there really was not much chance for real photography. Hard to find the right angle, among the people and with the rules. I brought my tripod this time, but ended up attaching it to the backpack – no chance to really use it.

We came back a few minutes before 11. The snorkel trip left at 11. We decided to forgo it. Bob is snoring now, and I’m downloading the photos, charging the batteries, and writing my journal. This afternoon, there will be a couple of photo sessions. One of the Nat Geo photographers, Kevin Schafer, will give a short presentation which should be good. Then we will do a zodiac trip around the island – will have to take photos from the zodiac. Not sure what we will see and how the photo thing would work, but we’ll see ….

Oh, by the way, I’m very disappointed in the photos I took…. Out of the however many, hardly anything that came out really to my liking …. I miss the polar bears!!

Took a nap after lunch and skipped the photo/camera teaching session. Then went to the talk by Kevin Schafer the NG photographer. It was a great talk about his own experience and how he became a NG photographer. Fascinating! This guy started his photography career when he took a job in Antarctica as a mailman. One day he was offered a helicopter ride into the emperor penguin colony. Those emperor penguins not only were not afraid of them, but also curious enough to poke their heads into the helicopter to see what’s going on. That’s when he started his love for the penguins. He took some photos of them. One of the photos won an award. He wrote a book about the penguins – "Penguin Planet". I will go get this book.

After the talk, it was the zodiac ride along the edge of the volcanic island. Oh boy! That was some zodiac ride! The ocean was quite turbulent. Our little zodiac was tumbled up and down. It was impossible to take photos, at least for me. I only brought my Sony NEX. When our zodiac got close to the shoreline and the water got calmer, I was able to take a few shots. I really wish I could have used the good telephoto lens! There were many blue footed boobies, flightless cormorants, frigates, Galapagos penguins, and turtles (in the water), as well as furry sea lions (they’re my favorite sea lions!). I was able to take a few shots using the Sony. Surprisingly some actually came out not too blurred! The rock formation was amazing! Can’t describe them with words! The Lindblad guide we had in our zodiac was Gabby. I really like her a lot! She is Ecuadorian and living right in Galapagos, married with 2 teenage kids. If I got this right, she married a French. She is very knowledgeable, very kind and classy, soft spoken, a very likeable person!

The ride back to the ship was not as bumpy as the trip over. We came back to the ship shortly after 5. We both took a shower, then joined the rest of the group on the front deck – we were supposed to cross the equator shortly before 6pm, and there was a small party there. There was sort of a celebration. And we also watched the sunset.

Before dinner, Kevin Schafer did the photo recap of the last 2 days and gave some simple good tips on how to make the background of the photos we take more complimentary to the subject. I’ll make sure to remember that next time I will bring 2 knee pads with me! Vitally important. I really need to remember to lower myself to the ground to take some of the photos to get the best result! After Kevin’s talk, a crew staff member gave some quiz about birds, which was followed by Carlos talking about the activities for tomorrow.

Tomorrow we’ll be at the Isabela island, which is supposed to have lots of land iguanas (which I like much better than the marine iguanas!), and possibly some giant tortoise. We’ll get up at 5:30 to join the 6:30 optional photo focused walk. After that, there will be snorkeling, sea kayaking, another late afternoon exercise walk. We have not decided what to do besides the morning photo specific walk yet.

It is now 9:40. They’re showing the 2nd part of the Galapagos documentary (which was broadcasted through the speaker phone in the cabin). Bob is in bed. I need a little time to digest dinner and then go to bed too. The ship is moving, towards our next destination.

Carlos said it well – this is not a luxury cruise, but an expedition cruise. I’m getting used to it and liking it better every day. Taking photos is much harder in this environment, especially with the water, the zodiac, etc. Maybe I should forget about taking photos and just enjoy the activities ….

Galapagos Islands, Ecuador; Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Up before 5:30 to join the photo-focused group to disembark at 6:30. It was wet landing but followed by a walk for which Carlos emphasized that we need to wear good walking shoes. The staff would bring towels for us to wipe our feet once we get on shore. So we went bare foot in the zodiac, carrying our sneakers. After we got on shore, we wiped off the sand from our feet and put on our sneakers.

We were told that this island was famous for its land iguanas, and if we were lucky, we might see giant tortoises. As soon as we got on shore, we saw sand flying from behind the sand bank – it was by a big tortoise, digging. We quietly sneaked over and took a few photos. After we had our shoes on and walked just a few steps onto the path, we saw 3 tortoises – one big and two small. Many photos followed, of course. Then along the walk, we saw a couple of more tortoises, but hardly any iguanas. Our guide told us that it was because the weather was still too cold for them. We saw their caves all over the place, but only saw 3 or 4 on the entire path. Photo angles were very limited (remember that we were not allowed to step outside of the path). By 8:30, our walk was done. While we were waiting for the returning zodiac and putting our gears together, a Galapagos hawk flew by. Our guide whistled. It flew so close on top of us! Unfortunately I had already packed my Canon away. I scrambled to take out the Sony and took a bunch of pictures with the hawk landing on a tree top.  A couple of them actually came out alright, to my surprise! I really should learn how to use this little Sony thing – it can do all the modes, but I could not figure out how to manipulate the few buttons to adjust the ISO, etc. Maybe this is what I'll do now – it’s only 9:30, and nothing is available before lunch.

Yup – read the NEX manual and learned a thing or two. Can’t even remember what else we did before lunch …. Ah, we went to the lounge and chatted with the Nat Geo photographers and other fellow passengers. After lunch, we attended Rikki’s talk about how to be creative about all the photos we take. A very good talk! I will look into Blurb again and explore some other ways of sharing the photos with family and friends.

Originally we signed up for Kayaking at 3pm. But I chickened out – don’t think Bob and I would coordinate too well in the 2-person kayak and I am really scared of the ocean. So we did nothing until 4:30pm, when we were to take a vigorous walk/hike. It was indeed a rather tough hike, or maybe I am just too out of shape. The zodiac dropped us at the foot of the mountain and we hiked all the way to the top! It was made harder because we were told to catch up with the first group, which got there 2 zodiacs ahead of us. Boy – I thought I might die of a heart attack, climbing up the steep steps! But we did it! The view from the top was very beautiful! I took a few photos using the NEX, but nothing came out too great. Oh well! When we arrived at the shore coming back, I heard dog barking, which turned out to be a couple of sea lions. I guess they were not happy to see us disturbing their evening hours.

It felt good after the shower. We’re now going to the lounge for the happy hour and the talks, followed by dinner.

Tonight the ship will sail back across the equator again and dock by the island of Santiago. Not sure how much more photo opportunities there will be for wild life, but we’ll see ….

Galapagos Islands, Ecuador; Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Up at 5:30 to do the optional pre-breakfast walk leaving at 6:30. It was quite nice to be up early and catch the morning light and cool temperature. It was wet landing onto a very fine sand beach. There was a group that did the long walk, the so called nature walk. For those who did the photography focused walk (which had 3 zodiac-full of people), we stayed around the beach and took some photos of the hawks and the landscape. There was a couple of sea turtles mating in the water – we have actually seen such scenes almost every day, as this is their mating season. There was really not much else to take photos of, but it was a pleasant short walk. We were back at the ship around 8:20.

After breakfast, activity options included snorkeling, kayaking, and glass-bottom boating. We were hoping to do the glass-bottom boating followed by kayaking with a couple of fellow passengers who offered to teach and watch out for us. Unfortunately we were too late to sign up for the kayaking. We would do the 10:30 glass-bottom boating.

The glass-bottom boating turned out to be quite good. We rode the zodiac to where the glass-bottom boat was, which was close to where people did the snorkeling. On the zodiac ride to the boat, we saw a manta ray – or, to be more accurate, the shadow of the manta ray – right below the surface by our zodiac. It caused quite a bit of excitement. The ray was very big. Unfortunately we did not get to see it again while we're in the glass-bottom boat. We did see quite a lot of other kind of fish. I really wish I were not afraid of the deep water and would do the snorkeling! ….

The glass-bottom boating was only half an hour. We came back to the ship shortly after 11. We then went to the lounge and looked at the photos Terry (one of the passengers we got to know) took. They were fantastic! We chatted for a while and then it was lunch. After lunch, there was a talk by Jennifer, the other Nat Geo photographer, about how to take photos of people. Then at 3pm, we went out for our walk on shore – again it was wet landing, and I walked in my sandals full of sand. The walk was nice! Saw birds, sea lions, marine iguanas (I really did not care to see them any more, very ugly creatures), crabs, etc. Time went by quickly and before we knew it, the sun started to set. By the time we got back to the ship, it was already past 6pm. I took my shower, downloaded the photos, and then went to the happy hour. Today it was the Nat Geo under water specialist who gave us a slide show about all the under water creatures we saw this time. It was nice! Then Jack the Nat Geo photographer showed us a few photos he took just these few days, with focus on the brown pelicans and blue footed boobies. Both are really amazing birds!

Dinner tonight was barbecue on the back deck. Delicious! After dinner, one of the crew members, Christian, sang and played guitar for us. He is actually a musician, with published CDs. I like his music – will try to buy a CD by him. He was our guide for some of the trips.

Tomorrow we will be on the Santa Cruz island and visiting the Charles Darwin Research Station. We’ll see the giant tortoises and will see the town and do some shopping!

Sana Cruz Island, Galapagos; Thursday, November 22, 2012

It was a full day away from the ship! We docked at Puerto (Port) Ayora on the Santa Cruz island. I think this is the 2nd largest town in the Galapagos. It was the first time in this week that we saw houses! We disembarked at 7:30am, and immediately walked to the Darwin Research center. We saw giant tortoises and land iguanas, and little baby tortoises being incubated. This is where that "Lonesome George" resided until he passed away a few months ago. Now replacing him, there is “Diego”, who is a tortoise they got from the San Diego zoo. He is an “American citizen” as they said, and he's here to help raising the giant tortoise population. The giant creatures were almost extinct. In the old days, people killed them in hundreds of thousands, for their meat. Because of the fact that these tortoises can live 6+ months without eating or drinking, the pirates captured them and put them on their ships, like “refrigerators” so they can have fresh meat for months. It’s really sad to hear this! Now these animals are protected. We would see a lot more of them, the wild ones, in the afternoon.

After visiting the Darwin center, we walked to town, which consisted basically of one main street that was lined up with shops. I got a few T-shirts and a silver ring with blue booby feet. Around 11am, we boarded a bus that took us to a privately owned factory that makes coffee, sugar cane products, etc. After that, the bus took us to a restaurant for lunch. A very nice place – it was surprising that they would have such a restaurant here. After lunch, the bus took us to a private property of a native Galapagueno. Apparently he owns a large stretch of land, which happen to be on the giant tortoise’s annual migratory route. It was really magnificent!! I had never ever seen so many giant tortoises scattered all over the lush land!

This town is so different from all the places we’ve been to in the Galapagos so far. It is so green and lush, whereas the other places were very dry, brown. This is why people live here. It’s tropical weather – warm and moist. Thank goodness there does not seem to be mosquitos around, otherwise I would have been eaten alive, walking on the giant tortoise land.

After visiting the wild giant tortoise, we rode the bus back to town – it was about a 30-minute ride. It was a few minutes past 4pm. Most people took the zodiac and went back to the ship. I dragged bob shopping again – wanted to get a stuffed animal, the land iguana, for Caleb. A kid on the ship got it and it was quite cute. And I got it. Oh forgot to say that there was a fish market on the main street, right by the ocean. There are a bunch of pelicans and 2 sea lions hovering around. One of the sea lions followed the fisherman everywhere. While he was cleaning and skinning the fish, the sea lion stood right by his side, just like a puppy dog, patiently waiting, sometimes nudging him. He gave the sea lion 2 big chunks of fish skin, and the sea lion swallowed it just like that! People were taking photos left and right. A very crowded scene, but very interesting. I felt bad for the pelicans – they did not seem to get anything ….

We took the 5pm zodiac back to the ship. Now I’m washed and clean and downloaded all the photos. No “wow” pictures …. Very disappointed in myself ….

It’s Thanksgiving today. Hope the family and friends back at home are all having a happy one!

Punta Pitt, Last Day of Expedition; Friday, November 23, 2012

Last day of the expedition. We got up shortly before 6am and got on shore in the first zodiac at 7:30am. There were 4 options for the morning activity – photo specific walk, natural history walk, photo specific zodiac ride, and zodiac ride. The walk was to hike up to the top of the mountain of Punta Pitt, which is a volcanic terrain at the northeastern end of the San Cristobal island. San Cristobal island hosts the capital of the Galapagos, which we will visit this evening. And that's where we will disembark tomorrow morning.

The hike was a good exercise. It made me realize how out of shape I have become, sadly …. But I made it. We took photos of the sea lions after we did the wet landing on the sandy beach, of the sceneries, and of the red footed boobies which were really cute! They and the blue footed boobies are one of my favorite birds here.

It was the same trail that every walking group followed, but different groups approached the end differently, which was a loop from different angles. I saw the young kids, who are not much older than Caleb, walk the entire trail. I would really love to bring Caleb with us to this place, when he is a little bit older. It’s a great experience for kids!

We finished the walk and came back to the same sand beach around 10am. Some chose to stay there and swim. Bob and I were among the ones to return to the ship. After coming back to the cabin and cleaned up, I started packing ….

A week has gone by since we came onto this ship. I feel very differently now from when we first came on board – I have really come to enjoy and like this expedition! And I really enjoy some of the passengers we have come to know a little bit. I really like Jack and Rikki Swenson, the photographer couple, and Kevin Schafer! Very very nice people and really want to share their photography knowledge with others, no matter what level they were at. The crew members are very nice! Carlos the expedition leader is such a funny guy. He deadpans jokes in all the talks he gives every day! The people are one of the most important factors which make the trip enjoyable.

I would like to do such an expedition again! As far as the expectation is set appropriately and know this is not one of those leisure or luxury cruises like the ones we did to Tahiti, you would get all the enjoyment out of it! And of course, good preparation is key – need to bring the right shoes, clothes, hats, and the right cameras and lenses!

This afternoon’s main activity is snorkeling, by a rock formation called "the kick" or “the boot”, which juts out of the water. That rock formation does not allow zodiac to go around it, so the ship will sail around it at 5:30 to allow us to view and photograph the scenes.

The afternoon went quietly. A few experience snorkelers went snorkeling but did not seem to have seen too much of anything around that rock. One lady told us that the water was kind of murky. Around 5:30, the ship went around the rock while all gathered on the front deck and had some champagne to celebrate the end of the expedition. The before-dinner session was a quick good-bye message by the captain, followed by all the passengers (who wanted to talk) spoke a few words about the trip. Dinner was served at 7. After dinner, we were allowed the chance to take the zodiac to visit the town. A few of us did. But it was quite disappointing. A short street along the ocean had a few junky stores open, selling cheap T-shirts and souvenirs. The most interesting site was the sea lions sleeping on the side of the street. We wondered around for a few minutes and then rode the zodiac back.

This is it! The end of this expedition. What’s my score for it? I’d give it a 10, out of 10, for an enjoyable expedition and OK photography experience. As I watched the kids on this ship enjoying it, quite a few with their grandparents, I really hope to do this again, with Caleb!  Really hope we’ll get to do that in a few years!

Tomorrow morning we will disembark around 8:30am (assuming the plane from Guayaquil leaves on time), then fly to Guayaquil. Then we fly home on Sunday via Miami.

Guayaquil, Ecuador; Saturda, November 24, 2012

This was the day to leave the ship and to travel back home. We got up around 5:30, checkin luggage out by the door at 6:30, clear out of the room by 7:15 (so that the crew can clean up the rooms for the next group to come mid-day). We then all waited in the lounge (where they showed a movie about Darwin) and chatted with each other. Around 8:30, Carlos said we could disembark now. The 6 or 8 zodiacs took all of us to shore, then the buses took us to the airport, which was close by. The flight took off around 11, and we got to Guayaquil around 1:30. Everything was very well arranged. The same local travel guides met us at the airport. Buses took us back to the Colon Hilton hotel. The room assignments and keys were waiting for us there. The luggage were later delivered to the room.

There was an optional city tour (with additional charge), which Bob and I took, with a few others from the ship. Our guide took us to a few key sites in the city and told us the histories along the way. The 2 most interesting things to me are these:

The Ecuador tradition for New Year celebration is to burn these dolls made from papier-mache. Many stores are starting to make these papier-mache figures now. They range from small ones to very large ones. Disney characters, superman, spiderman, famous sportsman, singers, etc. etc. The bus took us to the district where these dolls are being made. I only had the lousy point-and-shoot camera with me, so was only able to take some terrible pictures, from the bus (through the dirty windows glass). But I will post a couple here just to show what it's like. So every family will buy these figures - one per person. For example, our guide has 9 grand children. She will buy one for each. It'll be their favorite characters. They will burn them on New Year's Eve, in their backyard, before mid-night. Then after mid-night (on New Year's Eve), the kids will go to bed and the adults will go dancing, till 5 or 6 on New Year Day. This is their New Year's celebration.

Another interesting thing was the green land iguana in the city center garden. This is yet another kind if iguana, different from the marine iguana or the land iguana. And you can touch them, if you want/dare to. I really wanted to, especially after seeing a kid doing it. But somehow did not quite bring myself to do it. They all live in that garden, on the lawn, in the middle of the city. A very interesting site!

Another interesting site was the old Guayaquil town, which was actually the slum. The houses were painted different colors, on the hill. They looked quite shabby, if you get closer.

We toured the city mainly on the bus. But we got off to walk through the garden where the iguanas were, and then walked through the famous cathedral, and then walked along the river. A lot of constructions were going on and a lot of good things seemed to be happening. There was a botanical garden along the river, which looked very nice!

We were back to the hotel before 6pm. Since we did not really have lunch, we thought we could have an early dinner in one of the hotel's restaurants. But they were not open until 7pm, so we had a couple of drinks and some snacks with a couple of fellow travelers. Then Bob and I went to the steak house, and had a very mediocre dinner. Back to the room and tried to get on the net, but did not have much success. Went to bed before mid-night. 

Tomorrow the wakeup call will be at 4:30. Luggage out of the door at 4:45. It'll be a long day going home.