Ecuador Day 8 - The Galapagos

Jorge met us bright and early in the hotel and handed us off to Samantha who would take everyone to the airport on a bus.  We started seeing familiar faces from last night that boarded our bus - these would be our shipmates for the next six days.

Beth always gets a chuckle when she sees signs for scrambled eggs in Spanish (not an egg fan!)

Every airport we've been too so far has been relatively new/updated (better than the aging Dublin airport, which we experienced a couple of months ago!).  After beating Kim and Beth at a couple of more rounds of euchre, we boarded the plane for the just under two hour flight to the islands.

It wasn't long before we exchanged views of industrial Guayaqul for glimpses of the untouched, alien like landscapes of the Galapagos islands...

Seymour airport, on the island of Baltra, is the main way in and out of Galapagos.  It's apparently the world's first ecological / self sustainable airport.  Lindblad kind of whisked us through customs and we boarded a shuttle bus to take  us to the water.

All shuttling back and forth between our floating home the next 6 days was by Zodiac.  The Islander II was recommissioned in 2022 but was first built in 1989 as a private cruise ship.  A quick tour of the vessel had us smiling ear to ear.  What a fantastic space!

After getting our bearings, we were gathered for an intro talk by the head of hospitality, a smiling Ecuadorian grandmother named Alexa.  She gave a talk on the procedures and amenities of the ship, and pointed out that all staff were Ecuadorian and most were from the Galapagos.  She introduced our 3 naturalists (Fernando, Javier and Jose - all marine biologists) and Socrates - himself a Nat Geo specialist who was our chief excursion guy.

He explained about how snorkeling works, how to get on and off the zodiacs for dry and wet landings, then a bit about the ecology of the Galapagos.  We were called into a safety briefing and drill from the captain, and having successfully passed that (lol) we were brought down to the marina (near the back of the boat) for a wetsuit, snorkel and mask fitting.

What struck me as really surprising from Socrates was that he said there's a "tongue" shaped cold water current coming from Antarctica that brought cold water right to the Galapagos and this is one of the reasons it's so unique ecologically.   The mix of cold and warm waters means you can have colder water animals like penguins and some sharks, swimming with warm water tropical fish and turtles.   It's really the only place you can swim with penguins and not freeze to death!

We were introduced to the dining staff with an amazing lunch.  We were a little wary of the reputation of food on ships, but no worries here - lots of fresh fruit, vegetables and healthy proteins and pasta.  So impressed!

The guests that we've met so far are amazing.  There are 37 on board... 28 Americans, 4 Brazilians (a family) and 4 Canadians plus 1 girl that is Swiss, here with her American grandparents.   Most seem very well travelled and are good conversationalists.  95% of Lindblad/National Geographic guests are typically from the USA.

After some chill time, we had a reception on the stern upper deck area with wine and cheese etc.  There are plenty of opportunities to drink if that's what you were here for!  The ship is technically "all inclusive" though you can also opt for some higher end wines and spirits.  You have a stocked mini bar and coffee center  in your room 

We circumnavigated Daphne Major Island while Fernando, the oldest naturalist (and he said the oldest staff on the ship though he looked pretty young and strong!) Talked about the work of a Princeton sponsored study that has been studying the evolution of finches on that island over the last 50 years.  The conditions there continue the observations from Darwin that show how quickly some elements of evolution can happen.

After the wine and cheese there was a cocktail reception with champagne and a welcome from the captain and rest of the crew.   Then Socrates gave his briefing for tomorrow's events.

The briefing was pretty cool... it hit homes that this is an expedition ship... not a cruise ship.   There were of course options (and everyone has the option to skip anything of course) but most people, especially on the Nat Geo ships are here to experience and explore, so it sounded amazing.

A note for motion sick prone people.... the boat when anchored was not bad.  It sways gently from the point of the anchor, which I didn't find too bad.   I had taken 1 Dramamine just in case before lunch but by 7 o'clock now at the briefing, the boat was moving and rocking left and right in the sea.    The motion started to affect me... dizzy, sweating... not great!  I ended up skipping dinner and heading to bed.  Once in bed, the rocking actually felt great and I was out like a light.