Kelly and I left on August 2nd to head to the Galapagos Islands!!! We flew from SLC to Atlanta then on to Quito (Keeto), Ecuador. On Day 1, we toured the city - Quito is the Capitol City with an elevation of 9000 feet! We walked through the city, viewed many churches, and even got to check out the Presidential Palace. We had a delicious lunch on the top of a mountain overlooking the city on one side and a caldera (inactive volcano crater) on the other. The avocado potato soup was very memorable to me (Kelly you need to get that recipe!). After lunch we went to the Equator Memorial. Come to find out, the advent of GPS unveiled the fact that the memorial was built 147 meters off the Equator (oops!). Gotta love Garmin. For dinner, we enjoyed a group dinner at the city theatre. There, we were serenaded by an outstanding Ecuardorian singer. He had some serious pipes! Here is a slideshow from our day in Quito (the first day of the trip mixed with the last day of the trip).
Day 2 started early, as we left our hotel to check our flight to the incredible Galapagos Islands! We arrived on the island of San Cristobal around Noon! Upon our arrival, we immediately headed to our cruise boat, The Expedition. After a quick lunch and a safety briefing, the ship arrived at our second island, Espanola, the oldest of the Galapagos Islands. Within five minutes of stepping foot on Espanola, we observed marine iguanas, blue-footed boobies, sally light-foot crabs, a female sea lion that had given birth to a pup sometime to the past 20 minutes and a frigate bird. Simply amazing!!!! The frigate bird was swooping down into the water and eating the placenta from the recent birth. Amazing! We spent about 2 hours on this visit to Espanola and we saw it all!!! The Waved Albatross stole the show! They walked rather awkwardly on the ground, but they glided ever so gracefully through the air! Wow! Blue-footed boobies were plentiful as well. No, they are not what you think. Blue-footed boobies are beautiful birds that have blue feet. Look for yourself! What an incredible way to start an amazing trip! Here is one favorite video with a Momma sea lion trying to get her pup out of the water from the rising tide --
I won’t bore you with all the fascinating, once-in-a-lifetime details of the next 5 days of the trip, but I will mention a few of the other highlights! One day we saw a whale breaching while we were sitting in the hot tub on the ship. That afternoon, on the way to an island excursion, the drivers spotted the whales again, and we spent over an hour following a family of three humpback whales who were putting on a show. The zodiac boats we were in (12 in each boat) were easily one third the size of the big whale! We felt like we could be in a cartoon where we may get launched up on the blow hole! Check out this video --
Most days after our excursions on land we had the opportunity to snorkel in the water along the shore. Some days that included snorkeling with sea lions, sea turtles, penguins, flightless cormorants, and exotic fish. On our final day on the islands, we visited the Charles Darwin Research Station where they are breeding tortoises from each island to reintroduce them into the wild. We were lucky to have seen one in the wild, as most live further inland where we did not travel. At this research center, we were able to walk around amongst the tortoises. Enjoy the slideshow of the animal pictures!
We spent another day in Quito at the end of our trip and enjoyed walking throughout the city on their Independence Day!
What an amazing trip!!!
