Galapagos Islands Tour Nov 2nd 2016
November 03, 2016 at 1:14 AM
Nov 2nd, 2016 - Quito to Galapagos Islands - Tortoise Breeding Centre
Today we flew from Quito to the Galapagos Islands landing on the island of San Cristobal. After meeting our Galapagos Naturalist and Guide we made our way to the port and transferred to our ship, the Queen of the Galapagos. The Queen is an 18 passenger catamaran ship, 9 cabins and 8 crew members and our home for the next 7 nights. We had time to unpack settle into our cabins, check out the ship, have lunch then return to the port and where we travelling by motor coach to the Tortoise Breeding Centre in the highlands. Conservancy is very important to the islands and here the the centre ensures the continued growth of the tortoise population.
We retuned to our ship around 5 p.m. for dinner and briefing on our next days activities. Overnight we will sail from San Cristobal to Santa Fe where we will have a 6:30 a.m. photo shoot on our first island of the tour. Enjoy a few images from todays journey.
First blog map shows our two flights today, airlines have to refuel at the coast prior to flying to the islands. They require enough fuel to fly back to the mainland.
Here’s a map showing the route we will sail tonight.
We were not sure if Bernarda was going to fly the plane or just wishing the pilots a good flight!
Arrival in the Galapagos
Greeting committee
Seals and sea lions can be found in port and all over town.
Our ship Queen of the Galapagos, just fresh out of dry dock and ready to sail.
Some of the flowers as we walked the trail at the breeding centre.
Yellow warbler checking us out as we walked the trails.
This tortoise was close to the entrance of the centre.
Close-up
Fran taking a few shots as we started on the trails.
Dave taking a few shots.
A large tortoise feeding.
This is the dry season so the centre will put down leaves for feeding.
Mona taking a few shots of the babies, the double screens are put down at night so rats don’t get in and eat the babies.
Omar our naturalist talking to the group about the centre and the work they do.
As the sunsets on our first day, good night from the Galapagos.
That’s a wrap for this evening, more photos and stories from our first island Santa Fe. Good night from all the Trekkers in Galapagos.