Dia Catorce: The Galapagos Islands

I slept better than I have the past two weeks. The slow steady rocking of the ship, the steady hum of the engines lulled me right off to sleep. The sea level atmosphere also allowed me to breathe which also helped.

We awoke, dressed and headed for breakfast. What a spread. Eggs cooked anyway you like, a buffet with everything you could want and some of which you shouldn't be eating. But we're on vacation. We are going to be playing hard and heck we can go back on our oatmeal breakfast diet when we get home.

The first adventure was a wet landing on Isabela Island at Urbina Bay. A wet landing meaning the panga, or inflatable dinghy, noses up to the beach, turns it's stern end to the beach at the last minute and then lets the waves carry us in where we each, in turn, dismount into the water and walk ashore in knee deep water. This was pretty exhilarating since there was no easy of knowing exactly how deep or cold the water would be. The waves and current tossed us around and filled our sandals with the heavy volcanic sand.

Ashore we headed down the trail which lead us first to a land tortoise which just happened to be out grazing on the dew covered grass. At each stop our guide, Andres, gave us a detailed explanation of the flora and fauna of our location. He explained about the poison apple tree that we shouldn't touch because it would give us a rash, the cotton plants that actually produced cotton and had beautiful yellow flowers. The cotton bowl was surrounded by a protective set of leaves that looked like a Venus Fly Trap. We next came across individual land iguanas scattered here and there amongst the underbrush. Our hike lasted about an hour and a half after which we found ourselves back at the beach.

From there we spent about an hour snorkeling in the small bay. The water was pretty murky and not particularly good snorkeling, but was full of the nutrients that make these waters great feeding grounds. We didn't see much on this dive. Kind of disappointing. However, a few people did see several sea turtles.

Back to the ship in our panga, we showered, for the second time today, then off to lunch. We managed a well-deserved nap. Slept like a baby again.

The afternoon outing was a dry landing and hike along the shore on Espinosa Point of Fernandina Island through Mangrove trees and across lava beds. We were able to see seals lolling on the beach and among the cool mangrove trees. Sea turtles swam in the water right off shore, but the big surprise were the hundreds of marine iguanas that laid about on the rocks. They were everywhere, sometimes we nearly stepped them. They blended well with the rocks and hardly moved.

Back to the ship after a very hot hike and another shower! Dinner was a BBQ out at the bar on the fantail of the ship. Bowls of salads and rich desserts, arroz, papas, veggies and the BBQ meats, sausages, chicken, beef, pork. Huge piles of each. We ate al fresco at teak tables and chairs. A lovely sky overhead with a gentle breeze made it a lovely evening. We sat with a couple from Austin, Texas, Josh and Mary and had a delightful conversation with them.

We fell into bed by 9:30, early yes but most everyone is exhausted after a full day of heavy physical activity. Leslie had also sprained her ankle and we needed to get some ice on it. I went in search of it and before long we had her lying down with the ice pack. We were concerned about her ability to take the hike and snorkel tomorrow morning. But that's another day and so we drifted off to sleep.