A 6am cab to the airport, smooth check in and then I was all set for my eight day adventure in the Galapagos Islands. The flight stopped for a good hour in Guayaquil but landed in Baltra on time, around Midday Galapagos time.
At the airport I couldn’t find the representative from my boat for quite some time, but eventually I found Leonidas (our guide) and we collected an older German couple and headed via shuttle and then dingy to our boat - King of the Sea. Once aboard we met the other guests and had lunch before changing to snorkel around the north of Isla Santa Cruz, quite near the airport. We had a good mixed group, a couple from Czech Republic, the Gernams from my flight, a coupe from Colorado, a mother and her daughter from New Mexico, a French guy fro New York and two Swiss girls.
It was freezing in the water for our snorkelling journey but we were lucky enough to have a sealion join us for a while, a few white tip reef sharks, loads of colourful fish and quite a large marine turtle. The colours of the landscape were also incredible. Back on the boat we had at least 20 Frigot birds flying overhead, we saw Blue Footed Boobies and the sunset over the horizon as we headed towards Puerto Ayora.
Once we moored in Puerto Ayoro we had dinner and then Leo, our guide invited me to join him to meet his family. Since I had nothing else to do I accepted the invitation and we ended up at his Uncle’s house for most of the night where I was forced to bring out my best spanglish. I think I did ok :)
