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| Red Footed Booby |
Galapagos Islands – Darwin's
exploration of rare species of animals found only on these remote
islands off the coast of Ecuador – this was a destination high on
our “bucket list.” Last year we received a National Geographic
advertisement offering free airfare from Miami if we booked a 10 day
excursion. After a short minute of discussion, we were “in” for
this opportunity. The day finally arrived. We headed down the
highway to Miami Airport and boarded our plane for a 4-1/2 hour
flight to Guayaquil, Ecuador. This is the largest city in here –
close to 3 million people. Customs was a breeze through this modern
airport. We were whisked away to the Hilton where we spent a short
night since there was a 5:30 a.m. wake up call. We stumbled down to a
wonderful breakfast and headed for our next flight, a 1-1/2 hour
journey to San Crisobel where we jumped on a 12 passenger zodiac for
a quick trip in the harbor to our beautiful ship, the National
Geographic Islander. Our cabin is a lovely compact room with a
comfy queen size bed, little bathroom with shower and a nice desk for
writing emails.
We participated in a mock abandon ship
drill and then were briefed on the week's activities. After lunch we
rode on a zodiac (called “panga” here) and made a wet landing on
a soft sandy beach for our first exploration on national park land,
at a site known as Cerro Brujo, which translates as “Wizard Hill.”
We saw sea lions, a marine iguana and shore birds and swam in the
turquoise water. The sea lions and other animals have no fear of
humans. They laid in the sand close to us! Early to bed for us –
tomorrow we have another early wake up call so we can participate in
kayaking before breakfast.
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