On this morning as I enjoyed my coffee at the table in our suite, enjoying the forward view, two frigate birds flew through the balcony. When I rushed out to the balcony with my camera, I found a female and a juvenile hovering just above the ship at quite close range. What a great way to start the morning!
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| Juvenile Magnificent Frigatebird |
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| Male Magnificent Frigatebird |
Our first excursion of the day was a short walk (with optional swim afterwards) at Urbina Bay, Isabela Island and was a wet landing. This was our first chance to see giant tortoises in the wild.
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| Yellow Warbler - There were so many of these on this island! |
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| Ground Finch |
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| Just a few feet off the path, this tortoise seemed to be waiting for us. |
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| Land Iguana |
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| Galapagos Cotton |
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| Female Yellow Warbler |
Back on board, we had a little downtime before lunch which was a Spanish themed buffet. We took advantage of that downtime to enjoy the hot tub on our balcony.
We also stopped into the gift shop during the mid-day break and found a coffee mug I really liked. This wasn't like a normal cruise where you set up an onboard account tied to your credit card since there is almost nothing to spend money on. The gift store staff said I could pay with cash or credit or they could invoice me on Thursday when I would have to settle up with Guest Relations. We didn't have any money on us and so she just encouraged us to take the mug and she wrapped it up for us. It was kind of weird to just walk out with merchandise without any exchange of money or write up or even asking who we are! (Although I realize with only 40 passengers on the ship, she clearly knew who we were.)
At the special station on the lunch buffet, they had an amazing seafood pasta with so many different kinds of seafood, including octopus.
Paul stayed on board for the afternoon deep water snorkel at Punta Vicente Roca, Isabela Island which was a good decision. He doesn't enjoy snorkeling quite as much as I do and this wasn't a great experience. The water was a bit rough even in the cove and cloudy. I saw a number of turtles but not much else.
We had originally signed up for a zodiac ride that afternoon at Punta Vicente Roca but with how rough the water was, we decided to skip it. Here was the view from our balcony around that time.
That evening before our briefing, we crossed the equator so there was a wine and cheese gathering at the Beagle Grill, a countdown and music and dancing.
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| Staff and passengers alike limboed under this ribbon. |
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| Our Captain Ernesto Thoala is on the left |
Our typical nightly briefing followed this event with dinner at Darwin's Restaurant.
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