Keepin' it real... again: DAYS 1 and 2: Galapagos tour on the Floreana yacht

Day 1 starts out really rough. I was told to meet the group at the airport in Santa Cruz island at 10:30 in the morning, then we would get a shuttle to the yacht and start the tour. To make a long, annoying story short, the guide was late and without a sign to greet everyone and each person was given different directions for the meeting point and time.

Eventually things got sorted out and we started our eight day, seven night tour of the Galapagos. It began with a satisfying, but late, lunch on the boat. Then we went onto Santa Cruz Island to go to the Highlands and check out the Tourtoise Reserve and Los Gemelos.

The reserve is home to probably hundred or more of these big guys. And they have the freedom to roam anywhere they please.

Los Gemelos are a couple of sinkholes that go more than 100 meters down and is not traversable by humans.

Overall, the first day was a waste for people who plan on being on the island beyond the duration of the tour because these places are accessible by car and open to the public without an official guide. For almost all the places in the Galapagos Islands that tourists can visit, an official guide is needed. This is more to babysit the tourists so that we don't play with the animals or stray from the paths onto animal breeding grounds, for instance.

Day two was probably one of the best days overall. After a sloshy ten-hour ride along the waters overnight, we arrived at the northeast island Genovesa. It should be noted that these islands have two names- English and Spanish because of the many buccaneers and pirates that passed through.

These nazca boobies were on the yacht chilling out as I woke up:

We started in Darwin Bay on an overcast morning with a wet landing on the beach where sea lions were still asleep or else digesting their breakfast.

Along the beach were many birds as we walked a couple kilometers along the coastline.

a red footed booby on the left

a young red footed booby on the left and adult on the right

baby masked booby

we were walking above this coastline

after the walk, we donned our snorkling gear and swam along the same beach that we arrived. I did not have a wetsuit nor lifejacket, so I didn't wander to far to witness this stingray that others saw. By the way, almost all snorkling photos were taken by another tourist, who had an underwater casing for his camera. I was able to purchase a disposable underwater camera with film, which is currently at the developer.

After snorkling, we went back to the boat for lunch, then we went to El Barranco, taking a dingy along the coastline to view the birds hanging out, then up Prince Phillip's Steps, which were built for a prince to get up the steep cliffside without getting his fancy pants dirty. Here we saw many boobies, masked, nazca and red footed. Plus some frigates, finches, cranes and even an owl on the way back to the boat.