What started as a conversation over a glass of wine is finally coming to fruition – we fly to the Galapagos island of ‘Isla Baltra’ to start our cruise of the archipelago. It’s a short flight as the islands are just about 1000 km from the Ecuadorian coast.
Our vessel is ‘La Pinta’, registered in Ecuador, with 27 crew servicing a max of 48 passengers. There are 46 on our cruise. We’ve booked the tour through ‘Uncruise’ and it is managed through a local company called ‘Metropolitan Tours’. Looks like a well-oiled machine.
After all are checked in we leave port for the nearby island of North Seymour. A panga takes us from the ship to shore for a short walk. Seymour is noted as a nesting ground of the magnificent frigate bird (especially for the bright red throats of the males during courtship) and for the large population of ‘blue footed boobies’. Lots of frigates, boobies, land iguanas, lava lizards and Galapagos sea lions. Our naturalist & guide Paul is great – very passionate.
D.
The breakfast buffet at the hotel in Guayaquil wasn’t too bad. Then we all load onto the tour buses for the ride to the airport. An easy check in and a couple hour flight to Isle Baltra (entry to Galapagos). After disembarking from the plane, we have a lengthy wait until it is Uncruise’s turn to use the transit to the boat. All the tour companies come through here and share the transit system. Dale has time to buy a hat. We finally board the boat, get settled, pull anchor and sail from Isle Baltra to North Seymour Island.
We have a 1.6 mile (all hikes are the same) hike exploring the island and the unique birds, this one is a ‘dry landing’. We have Paul for our naturalist (I’ve never met anyone so enthusiastic about what he does). We see many Magnificent and Great Frigate Birds, lots of Sea Lions and a small group of Blue-Footed Boobies. Later we take the pangas out and explore the coast by boat. It’s an early night for me and Abbi, the rest stay up for nightcaps.
M
