Galapagos Islands Blog Day One

June 17, 2015 at 9:18 PM

Galapagos Islands Departure Day - June 17th, 2015

Here we go .... we arrived into Quito, Ecuador last night and checked into our hotel for a quick sleep, and it was quick as we had a 7:00 a.m. departure for the airport for our flight out to the Galapagos Islands. The islands are located about 1,200 km’s off the coast of Ecuador. We arrived onto the island of San Cristobal mid afternoon where we met our Guide and Island naturalist Omar. We traveled by coach to the harbour, here we transferred by small zodiacs to our private ship, which accommodated our group of 16 photographers and was hosted by a crew of 8.

After lunch we visited the San Cristobal tortoise breeding centre, where they breed one of the 11 populations of the Galapagos tortoises. The visitor and nature centre gave examples of how the Galapagos Park Service works on breeding an helping to preserve the tortoise population. This is very important to the region as over the years the population on tortoise has been depleted by hunting for food and introduction of animals that are not natural to the islands. Through the tour and our blog we will share the many ways the naturalists are now working very hard to restore the islands and preserve some of the most unique species of birds, animals and plants you will ever come across on our planet.

Tonight after dinner and our nightly briefing we set sail for the Island of Santa Fe. All our major sailings will be done at night. Enjoy this cross section of images from our first day of our Galapagos Islands adventure. Photography, hiking and snorkeling here we go...

Kim checking her messages prior to us arriving at Pearson International Airport

Our arriving flight on San Cristobal Island, Ron, Angela, and Nancy in this photo

Anne Marie arriving with the group

Kathy, Kim, Rob, Christine, Fern and Howard are we ready and excited???

A panoramic of San Cristobal harbour

Sabrina makes friends with some of the locals as we get ready to board our ship

This time of the day the locals take a rest

Christine asking directions

One of the local sea lions posing for Rob

The sea lions take over the harbour area every day and mix in with the tourists and locals

Mother and her baby, they are not bothered by people as you walk by

Some of the tortoise feeding on elephant ear leaves at the breeding centre. Each one has a number

Once they reach a certain size they are released into the wild

A mocking bird as we walked along the trail at the breeding centre

Our home away from home for the next 8 days

Another view of our private charter and floor plan, this ship has 9 guest cabins - Galapagos Queen

Kim during our muster drill, prior to setting sail

Howard and Fern fitting their life vests

Sabrina is all set ... it’s not so bad when we all have to wear them!

Nancy is an expert at this, she is joining us for her second tour of the Galapagos :)

Bill, Karen and Wendy having fun

Getting ready for our welcome drinks and crew introduction

Our dining area

Lounge and briefing area

Omar introduces Captain George and the crew

Night shot of the pier as we prepared to set sail

That’s a wrap for our first evening blog from the Galapagos Islands. Tomorrow we will be photographing on the island of Santa Fe and Turtle Cove. Good night from all the Trekkers in the Galapagos.