Galapagos day 1

Galapagos Day 1

We left Quito on a 7am flight, which means we were all up at 4am. There is a bit of buraucracy in getting here. All sorts of controls, which are probably a good thing. There are some great pictures of the flight out of quito on Instagram.

We got to the islands at about 10 am. After a quick bus ride we were on our boat, the Montserrat. She is a decent size boat and there are 20 passengers, 12 crew and 2 guides.

Our first stop was Mosquera island where we met a number of friendly sea lions. Almost all of them were female and it was very special to see the mums with their pups. I even got to see a couple of them nursing.

We also saw a juvenile marine iguana, a lava lizzard, numerous pelicans and some very cool crabs.

I had my first try snorkeling off a beach. It was a good effort, but my mild claustrophobia kicked in and I didn’t spend more than 30 minutes out there. The guides were very helpful and understanding.

Everyone on the trip seem very nice so far. We have a good mix of folks. I would say about 1/3 are from the US. We have a few from Australia and New Zealand and a couple from Europe.

Here are some photos in no particular order.  Really slow internet and now I must dash.  More later.