The Galapagos!

Last updated on May 20, 2022

We’ve had our trip to the Galapagos booked for months. The Tanzania safari and the Galapagos trip were the only destinations that we had locked in when we started this adventure. It is always difficult to decide whether to do a self-guided tour or an escorted tour. There are pros and cons to both. We have done several escorted tours in the past, a few pre-kids, and we have always enjoyed them. Given the length and complexity of planning this trip and since we are bringing the entire family, we have gone mostly with escorted tours and we have not been disappointed. Laura’s good friend Ellie highly recommended the Nat Geo trip as she had done it a few years ago and loved it. We found a combined Galapagos and Peru/Machu Picchu tour through National Geographic and booked it early.

Nat Geo has partnered with Lindbland Expeditions since 2004 to provide excursions all over the world. They have an international fleet of eight expedition ships, all of which feature comfortable cabins, a lounge, a library, and wellness services. Chefs on board create delicious meals that reflect the cuisine of the regions they visit using fresh, local, and sustainable ingredients wherever possible. On board each ship, they have landing crafts called Zodiacs, sea kayaks, snorkeling gear and wetsuits, and stand-up paddleboards. The hallmark of their expeditions is the team of experts that accompanies every trip; seasoned naturalists, undersea specialists, photo instructors, and researchers who share their knowledge and insights and bring each destination to life. All of the staff on our trip were native Ecuadorians and had extensive personal and professional connections to the Galapagos. Nat Geo and Linblad also support research, education, conservation, and community development initiatives in the areas they explore. 

The Galápagos Islands are part of the Republic of Ecuador. They are volcanic islands that are located on either side of the equator in the Pacific Ocean and located 563 miles west of continental Ecuador. They are officially called Archipiélago de Colón or the Archipelago of Columbus. This odd name dates back to 1892 when the world was gripped with the 400^th-anniversary celebration of Christopher Columbus’ famous voyage of discovery (He actually never never set foot on the islands and NO ONE uses this name). In 1570, the Galapagos Islands were included in a world atlas by a Flemish cartographer named Abraham Ortelius. He named the islands Insulae de los de Galapagos as the shells of the native giant tortoises reminded visitors of horse saddles and galapagos is the Spanish word for saddle. They are known for their large number of endemic species that were studied by Charles Darwin during the second voyage of HMS Beagle. His observations and collections contributed to his theory of evolution by means of natural selection.

The Galapagos Islands consists of 18 main islands, 3 smaller islands, and 107 rocks and islets. The islands are located at the junction of three tectonic plates and a hotspot where the Earth’s crust is being melted from below by a mantle plume, creating volcanoes. The first islands formed here at least 8 million and possibly up to 90 million years ago. The islands have a human population of slightly over 25,000. Only three of the islands are inhabited permanently. The islands were first given names by buccaneer Ambrose Cowley, who named the individual islands after some of his fellow pirates or after British royalty and noblemen. Ecuador took over the islands from Spanish ownership in 1832, and subsequently gave them official Spanish names. Even now some of the islands have three different names.

National Geographic runs two different itineraries through the Galapagos that continually alternate every week. There is an itinerary that centers around the easternmost islands and one that focuses on the islands of Isabela and Fernandina, two of the more geologically active islands. You can see our itinerary above that navigated around the eastern islands. Each tour company is required to have two itineraries to reduce the impact of tourism on the islands. The Galapagos National Park (GNP) strictly regulates immigration and tourism in the entire Galapagos archipelago. They have created over 48 visitor sites around the islands and they monitor them constantly. If they think a site is being overused or impacting the wildlife, they will close it down. Here is a list of the most important regulations that all visitors must adhere to:

• Only visit protected areas within the Galapagos National Park accompanied by an authorized naturalist guide.
• Stay on the trails! The trails at all visitor sites are very well marked. This helps preserve the natural habitats and keeps both you and the wildlife safe.
• Stay at least 6 feet away from wildlife (even if they approach you). This is the best way to avoid disturbing them.
• Never give food to any wildlife.
• Never introduce new food, animals, or plants to the Galapagos Islands.
• Camping is limited to just a few authorized areas and must be approved by the GNP at least two days in advance.
• Never take anything from the natural environment in the Galapagos.
• Leave No Trace is the motto! Make sure that when you leave a site, it looks exactly the same as when you arrived.
• To avoid the very serious risk of fires, all smoking or campfires are strictly forbidden in the National Park.

Day 1 Saturday: We flew from Guayaquil, Ecuador to San Cristobal Island, the easternmost island of the Galapagos. The airport is in Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, a town of 8000, which is the capital and administrative center of the Galapagos province. Its bay is home to the largest sea lion colony in the islands. They are everywhere and not scared of people at all. Our boat, the National Geographic Endeavour II, was at anchor in Wreck Bay. We took Zodiacs to the boat after walking carefully past all the sea lions sleeping on the dock and on some nearby boats.

We arrived on board and located our cabins, 330 and 328 (a triple with a cool fold down bunkbed!). The kids spent the first few minutes doing rock, paper, scissors to figure out how to assign the beds fairly. We had a lovely first lunch finished off with a great carrot cake without nuts. Sy declared, “This is the first carrot cake that hasn’t made me throw up!” (see happy face and thumbs up above!). Note: The dining service takes food allergies seriously. Sy got a special nut free version of anything they served that had nuts and I was offered gluten free bread, meal options and desserts at every meal. We had a welcome orientation, safety drills, and drinks on the deck as we headed out through Stephens Bay and past Leon Dormido (sleeping lion), aka Kicker Rock.

After dinner, we noticed the boat rocking a LOT more than it had been when we first boarded. I put on my sea bands when we boarded, but they weren’t cutting it. I was worried that I would be seasick the whole week as I am prone to it (as my friend Ellie will recall…I vomited a lot off the side of her grandparent’s sail boat when we were about 10 years old). Trey and I took Dramamine, kindly supplied like candy in a box at the reception desk, and promptly went to bed to try to sleep through it. The kids were vaguely unsettled, but all fell asleep pretty quickly.

We spent our first full day on the southeastern island of Espanola. Trey, Marin and Sy headed off with the experienced snorkelers to the deep water drift-snorkeling off the coast, while Griffin and I went to Gardner Bay Beach to practice, which did not go well. Initially, he was very excited (see fully geared up and ready to go photo below), but then reality hit. He couldn’t (or wouldn’t more likely) walk backwards in the fins to get into the water…then the snorkel wasn’t comfortable…then the water was too cold…so we bailed and walked down the white sand beach to see the many sea lions sleeping on the sand. There were several nursing pups who were slurping away. It was our first experience being around wild animals who were not scared of us at all. A very unique experience! We also examined a dried whale skeleton on the shore.

There are only six species of mammals that are native to the Galapagos. The two weeks that it would take a natural raft to drift out to the islands is too long for most mammals to survive. Sea lions, fur seals, dolphins and whales arrived by swimming. Bats arrived by air in the same way as the native land birds, while rats likely rafted.

Sea lions and fur seals belong to the same family (Fur seals are not actually seals). They both have ears and use their front flippers for swimming. The have enough strength in their front flippers to support the characteristic sea lion pose. True seals use their hind flippers for propulsion and their front flippers are nearly useless. Sea lions form colonies, or harems, which are composed of a dominant bull and up to thirty cows with their young. The dominant bull has a stretch of coastline that he jealousy defends against all other adult males, but the females are free to wander from one territory to another. The bulls reach weights of up to 550 lbs and their territory tenure only lasts from a few days to as much as three months. Life is rough at the top. Females give birth to a single pup which is nursed for one to three years.

Fur seals are really a type of sea lion. They are less tolerant of the heat than most sea lions and this prefer cooler waters and shade. Their coat is much thicker and denser. They also have buggy, crazy eyes which is apparently because they hunt at night and need to see better in the dark underwater.

In the afternoon, we made a dry landing at Punta Suarez and saw sea lions, marine iguanas, Nazca boobies, blue-footed boobies, waved albatross, swallow-tailed gulls, lava lizards and many other animals. This trail was fun for the kids as it was boulder hopping almost the whole 2 miles. They played legitimate “the floor is lava” (get it?) and hopped the rocks happily. There is a blow hole half way down the trail on the side of the cliffs which was fun to watch. Our naturalist, Celso, had us sit for 2 minutes in silence on the rocks on the top of the cliff and just take it all in…listen to the sounds, smell the ocean, watch the wildlife going by, and see how the world exists without humans. It was a life changing experience and we were all glad to have done it. It isn’t often you stop to smell the roses per se and doing it at this site was incredible.

One of the most common sites in the Galapagos is the marine iguana sunning itself on the black coastal rocks. It is the only sea-going lizard in the world and is famous for its swimming and diving abilities. They are plentiful, usually near shallow reefs where there are extensive areas of intertidal zone. They feed almost entirely on algae, but occasionally eat their own feces or those of sea lions and crabs. To cope with the high salt content in its diet, the marine iguana must excrete salt through salt glands that are located above their eyes and connected via a duct to their nostrils. The forcibly expel salt by frequent sneezing.

Birds are abundant on Espanola Island with the blue-footed boobies, Nazca boobies, and waved albatross being the most prevalent. The most striking color in all of the Galapagos is the intense bright blue of the blue-footed booby‘s feet (Sula nebouxii). It is one of six species of the genus Sula known as boobies. Males display their feet in an elaborate mating ritual by lifting them up and down while strutting before the female. Its diet mainly consists of fish, which it obtains by diving and sometimes swimming under water in search of its prey. The blue-footed booby usually lays one to three eggs at a time. It practices asynchronous hatching, meaning incubation begins as each egg is hatched resulting in growth inequality and size disparity between siblings. In times of food scarcity this can lead to facultative siblicide. They also have very unique vocalization with the male using a long, drawn-out whistle and the female making a nasal honk. They use these sounds during a very dramatic courtship display with skypointing of their tails and sheepish posturing.

The Nazca booby was long considered a subspecies of the masked booby until it was recently recognised as distinct genetically and behaviorally. The female lays two eggs in a shallow depression on flat ground away from vegetation. The chicks are born featherless, but are soon covered in white down. The second chick born generally does not survive as it is killed by its elder sibling. Siblicide is apparently obligatory, not facultative, in these birds. These birds are spectacular plunge divers, plunging into the ocean at high speed in search of prey, mainly flying fish. 

The waved albatross, also known as Galapagos albatross, has a wing span of over 89 feet. Virtually the entire world population nests on Espanola Island and is endemic to this island. They have a rigid nesting schedule and are gone from the island from January to March while they roam the Pacific Ocean for food. Albatrosses pair for life and their lifespan is as much as 40 to 50 years. They produce one large egg that is incubated by both parents for two months. Their primary food source is fish, squid, and crustaceans. They also have a salt gland that is situated above the nasal passage that helps desalinate their bodies, due to the high amount of ocean water that they imbibe. It excretes a high saline solution from their nose. They are spectacular flyers and can stay in the air for hours without stalling.

Early the next day, on Monday at 620 AM, we had a wet landing for a hike at Punta Cormorant on Isla Floreana. Trey and I made the decision to do this one alone and leave the kids on board sleeping. We told Marin the night prior that she was in charge. Floreana Island is a rolling island with numerous extinct volcanic cones amidst scrubby vegetation. There is some crazy history on this island involving marooned whalers, prisoners, colonists, a toothless dentist and a self proclaimed empress. We walked down a beach of olivine sand to a beach with fine white coralline sand that is a favorite nesting site for green turtles. We also saw flamingos in the large salt pond and many shorebirds. We saw rays mating in the shallow waters that initially looked like shark fins coming up out of the water. And the coolest thing that we saw was Glaucus atlanticus (aka, blue sea dragon, sea swallow, blue angel, blue glaucus, dragon slug, blue dragon, blue sea slug and blue ocean slug). It is a species of small, sea slug; essentially a shell-less gastropod mollusk. They feed on Portuguese man o’ war and other venomous siphonophores stealing their stinging nematocysts and storing them within its own tissues to use as defense against predators. Humans handling the slug may receive a very painful and potentially dangerous sting.

Later that day, we did a Zodiac tour of Champion Islet and then did a drift-snorkeling adventure around the islet. This is the only island where a small population of the Floreana Mockingbird still exists. They were driven to extinction on the main island by introduced cats and rats. This islet has rocky shores that are the homes for many Galapagos sea lions. The underwater cliffs were swarming with so many colorful fish! I felt like I was swimming in a giant salt water aquarium. There is a current here that carries you along the coast, but with the Zodiac drivers within sight it felt relatively safe. Marin, Sy, Trey and I got in while we left Griffin watching from the Zodiac. I had no expectations that he would snorkel since our beach practice opportunity yesterday failed…but I think he saw that we were loving it and was feeling FOMS! He eventually got in and saw a ton of fish. It was fun hearing him squealing underwater when he saw something cool. He had a tendency to head off at full speed after something he saw so I had to keep hold of the back of his colorful, but uninflated, life vest (a must wear if you are under 12).

I put my iPhone in a water proof case to take underwater photos, but they are pretty poor. I spoke to one of the Nat Geo photographers on board later and he said you really need to add lenses to the camera before trying for any decent underwater shots. Oh well. My murky green photos of the kids diving down will have to do for this trip.

In the afternoon, we kayaked to Post Office Bay where a barrel is still used for an old mail swap tradition that goes back to whaling days. It was first mentioned in 1793 by British Captain James Colnett. Charles Darwin also visited this beach on Floreana when he went ashore during his 5 week visit to the Galapagos in September 1835. To this day anyone in the area can place mail in the wooden barrel and it will get picked up by whalers, other boats in the area, or ecotourists and it will be delivered to destinations, mainly in Europe and the United States. We went through the barrel one by one and picked up about 6 post cards that we will hand deliver to people who live near us in PA. One offered a home made meal if it gets delivered and one touching one said, “I hope we are never apart longer than it takes for this card to reach you.” Marin dropped in a few post cards. It may take a week or it may take 10 years to get to us. Griffin was not happy in this photo as it was late in the afternoon after a long day and he had just fallen down.

Tuesday, we had a dry landing at Itabaca Channel dock on Santa Cruz Island. Santa Cruz hosts the largest human population in the archipelago in the town of Puerto Ayora with more than 12,000 inhabitants. The Charles Darwin Research Station (CDRS) and the headquarters of the Galápagos National Park Service (GNPS) are located here. The CDRS is a biological research station operated by the Charles Darwin Foundation under the auspices of UNESCO that was established in 1959. It has a natural history interpretation center and carries out educational projects in support of conservation of the Galápagos Islands. The Station has a team of over a hundred scientists, educators, volunteers, research students, and support staff from all over the world who perform scientific research and monitoring projects in cooperation with the GNPS. On Santa Cruz Island they operate a tortoise breeding center, where young tortoises are hatched, reared, and prepared to be reintroduced to their natural habitat.

We took a 45 minute bus ride to a ranch that is owned by a native family and happens to be located in the middle of the migration route for the giant tortoises. It is the largest living species of tortoise, with some weighing over 900 pounds. They provided us with tall rubber boots to wear on the hike due to mud and tortoise poop. These tortoises can live to be over 100 years old in the wild making them one of the longest-lived vertebrates. Captive Galapagos tortoises can live up to 177 years old. You can tell the age of a tortoise because the rings on their shells wear off as they age and they continue to grow no matter their age. The males grow to be larger than the females. When startled, tortoises retract their head and limbs and this is always accompanied by a dramatic hiss of escaping air as their lungs shrink to accommodate the added volume in their shell. Apart from the cow-like moans of the males during mating (yes, we heard this), this hiss is virtually the only sound that they make.

They are herbivores with a diet that consists of cacti, grasses, leaves, lichens, berries, melons, oranges and milkweed. Their digestion is so poor that they are even able to eat the apples from the native poison apple tree (Hippomane mancinella). All parts of the tree contain strong toxins that are poisonous to humans. Its milky white sap causes a strong allergic rash. Even just standing beneath the tree during rain will cause blistering of the skin from mere contact with this liquid. Ingestion of the fruit is potentially fatal producing severe gastroenteritis with bleeding, shock, and bacterial superinfection, as well as the potential for airway compromise due to edema. Wherever you see a poison apple tree, you can expect to find tortoises as they spread the apple seeds around. Tortoises only defecate once every 8 days and when you come across it, it’s similar to an elephants in that it is full of undigested grasses, seeds and fruits. We had a nice lunch at the ranch and relaxed in their hammocks and watched the tortoises go by .

Tortoise numbers declined from over 250,000 in the 16th century to a low of around 15,000 in the 1970s. This decline was caused by overexploitation for meat and oil, habitat clearance for agriculture, and introduction of non-native animals to the islands, such as rats, goats, and pigs. Tortoises themselves have no natural predators. An estimated 200,000 animals were taken before the 20th century. The relatively immobile and defenseless tortoises were collected and stored live on board ships, where they could survive for at least a year without food or water (some anecdotal reports suggest individuals surviving two years), providing valuable fresh meat, while their diluted urine and the water stored in their neck bags could be used as drinking water. Tortoises can be found on seven of the islands, but they have become extinct on three others. 12 subspecies of the original 14-15 survive in the wild with a 13th subspecies having had only a single known living individual named Lonesome George that was kept in captivity and until his death in June 2012. 

In the afternoon, we went on a hike to Bachas Beach. There are several large barges that sank here on the coast and the name Barges Beach was lost in translation and turned into Bachas Beach. There were many marine iguanas, birds and stingrays. We avoided the dunes as many green turtles lay their eggs here. We saw thousands of Sally Lightfoot crabs, scientific name Grapsus grapsus, also known as the red rock crab. No one is sure how the Sally Lightfoot crab got its name, but there are rumors it was named after a Caribbean dancer. This crab lives among the rocks on the turbulent, windy shore, just above the limit of the sea spray. It feeds on algae primarily, sometimes sampling other plant matter and dead animals. It is agile, capable of leaping, and consequently hard to catch. It has been observed in a cleaning symbiosis taking ticks from marine iguanas on the Galápagos Islands.

On Wednesday we disembarked at 7:45 AM to visit Cerro Dragon, or Dragon Hill, off the coast of Santa Cruz Island. This was the home of the endemic Galapagos land iguanas which were almost wiped out in the 1960s by feral dogs. A hugely successful breeding program has allowed the population to recover. We walked about 2 miles around the rocky trail on the hottest, sunniest hike we have done so far. Griffin ended up on Trey’s shoulders a few times. We finished the trail walking past several Galapagos sharks that were congregating in the very shallow waters near the dock.

We went deep water snorkeling along the coast of Santa Cruz Island and saw our first hammerhead sharks! I have always been scared of swimming in the ocean because I am scared to be eaten by a shark. It was with some trepidation that I forced myself to get in the water at every opportunity because I did not want to miss out on seeing cool things while snorkeling. These sharks don’t seem to want anything to do with us, fortunately. It was a really awe inspiring sight to see them casually swimming by. It is also funny to me that everyone yells “shark shark!” and then starts swimming AFTER the shark instead of heading for the boat! But they swim out of view so quickly that if you want to see it you have to follow it.

We went to El Eden Islet and took 2 doubles and 1 single sea kayak out. We saw tons of green turtles and baby white tipped reef sharks in the “nursery” area in the shallows of the mangrove trees. We paired up: Trey and Griffin, Marin and Sy and I went alone. The water was a bit rough outside the nursery areas and I got a bit sea sick despite my ever present sea bands.

We had a lovely roof top wine tasting while we went around Daphne Major Islet during sunset. In the 1970’s this islet was chosen by British scientists from Princeton University, Peter and Rosemary Grant, as a natural lab to study the ecology of Darwin’s finches. They lived on top of the islet (its really a large rock!) for 1-2 years! Studies continue here today as we learn more about natural selection and evolution. A book about them called The Beak of the Finch won a Pulitzer Prize.

On Thursday, Trey and I disembarked early (the kids slept in again) at 6:20 AM for a hike on Bartolome Island, which is a volcanic islet just off the east coast of Santiago Island. This is a younger island and there are very few plants that can survive the dry drought conditions here. The landscape is a volcanic one with rust colored cones and grey/black lava flows with lava tunnels. It’s 376 steps and many boardwalks up to the view point where you can see 360 degrees around the island. This is a great place to see how islands initially become colonized by plants and animals. It feels like it is a few million years behind the other islands in the archipelago.

Later that day, we all snorkeled from the landing beach and saw the tiny Galapagos penguins swimming in the water and hunting for fish! That was a highlight for me! They are so fast and quick underwater, darting and turning in their chase. They are endemic to the Galapagos and the only penguin found north of the equator. The cool waters of the Humboldt and Cromwell Currents allow them to survive despite the tropical latitude. It is one of the smallest species of the 18 penguin species in the world. Each penguin keeps only one mate for life, and breeds year-round. Their nests are typically in caves and crevices as protection against predators and the harsh environment. One parent will always stay with the eggs or young while the other will be gone for several days to feed. They take turns like this for five weeks. The Galápagos penguin has a lifespan of about 15 to 20 years, but due to predation, life expectancy in the wild is significantly reduced.

That evening, we went out with Bernie along the shore of Sombrero Chino, an island named for its appearance like a Chinese hat, to see the sunset and watch the animals and birds. We saw several penguins perched on the rocks as they returned from hunting. What a gorgeous place this is morning, noon and night!

On Friday at 8 AM we did a wet landing on to Genovesa Island. The name is derived from Genoa, Italy, the birthplace of Christopher Columbus, and has an area of 5.4 square miles. We anchored in Darwin’s Bay which is a huge submerged caldera of a dormant volcano. Genovesa Island is nicknamed the bird island and it is easy to see why…it is a seabird’s paradise!

This was the second “bird island” experience we had and we were amazed by the numbers of birds and the interactions we witnessed up close. No birds are afraid of people so they just stand there as you watch them. We saw swallow-tailed gulls, Nazca boobies, red-footed boobies, and frigatebirds. We witnessed a bird that likely got its leg caught in the crook of a branch and died upside-down. Interestingly, the naturalists stated that they do not involve themselves when the animals die from natural causes. Only if there is a man-made cause will they intervene with a distressed animal.

The red-footed booby (Sula sula) is the most abundant of the booby species in the Galapagos, but the least often seen. Thankfully, they have a huge nesting ground on Genovesa Island so we got to see a large number of them nesting and flying. Adults always have red feet, but the color of the plumage varies from white to grey to brown. Its bill and throat pouch are colored pink and blue. They are powerful and agile fliers, but they are clumsy in takeoffs and landings. A major difference between the red-footed booby and the other two species is that the red-foot nests in trees and shrubs, only rarely on the ground. 

Frigatebirds have predominantly black plumage, long, deeply-forked tails and long, hooked bills. Females have white underbellies and males have a distinctive red gular pouch, which they can inflate to the size of a soccer ball during the breeding season to attract females. Their wings are long and pointed and can span up to 7.5 ft, the largest wing span to body weight ratio of any bird. They are able to soar for weeks on wind currents, and spend most of the day in flight hunting for food, while roosting on trees or cliffs at night. Their main prey are fish and squid caught from the water surface. Frigatebirds are referred to as kleptoparasites as they occasionally rob other seabirds for food, and are known to snatch seabird chicks from the nest. They often use bullying tactics like pulling at a wing or tail to get other birds to drop what they are carrying. We saw frigatebirds steal regularly from the boobies. If a booby takes off with some nesting material in its beak, the frigatebirds gang up on it and take it right out of the sky. It’s quite competitive!

We had our last deep water drift-snorkeling around 1030 AM and it did not disappoint! The water was quite rough and visibility was not as great as some of the other spots, but we saw 4 hammerhead sharks (one was quite large, around 15 feet, and two with bites taken out of them). Apparently, they were bitten by “larger” sharks like a tiger shark which we did not see. It is still a rush to hear someone yell, “Hammerhead, Hammerhead!” Everyone swims over while you point out the shark and then you all swim after it so you can observe it for just a bit longer before it quickly disappears into the murky depths. We also saw 2 groups of hundreds of rays all swimming together (see murky photo below). It was a highlight day for sure! We even had a red-booby fly next to us as we road the Zodiac back to the big boat. It was a very cool experience.

In the afternoon, we disembarked on the Zodiacs with our guide Christian to Prince Philip’s Steps on the far side of the bay. This was a dry landing hike on what the boys called “a bird island” when they reached the top of the steep steps. There are birds everywhere…in bushes, flying overhead, walking down the trail, squeaking, squawking, hooting, whistling. If you stand still and look up, there are hundreds upon hundreds of birds flying overhead. It feels like you are in Jurassic park! (photos below)

We saw hundreds of Magnificant frigatebirds with their red gular pouches puffed up in hopes of attracting a mate. We found a dead baby bird that the kids examined closely. We finally found a short-eared owl after an hour of scanning brown rocks for a tiny brown bird. The owls hunt the smaller petrels, often on foot. There were many Nazca boobies making nests and courting each other. We saw the fur seal with its huge dark eyes (it hunts at night in the dark apparently). When we left and went down the steps to the Zodiac, there was a resting sea lion at the bottom of the rocks that we had to quietly skirt around to avoid it.

That evening, before dinner. we watched the final slide show of everyone’s best photos which was super fun. We did get the video and slide show that was put together by the videographer Andres, and Jonathon, one of the naturalists and photographers. We are hoping they have some good underwater shots as ours were pretty terrible quality. The kids all got awards for being young, aspiring conservationists and a license that shows they learned how to drive a Zodiac. Marin was especially proud of the work that she did in her field guide. which documents examples of all the cool things that she saw and learned this week. She won a NatGeo/Lindblad baseball cap for her efforts.

Saturday was our day of departure. The week went by so fast! While I am not a fan of boats in general due to sea sickness, this boat was the bomb. From the excellent service, to the amenities (gym, spa, library, lounge with drinks and snacks 24 x 7, amazing dining service and food, knowledgable naturalists and boat staff), I am super sad that it is over! Everything works like clockwork and the crew is so attentive and caring. We left our rooms at 6:45 AM for our last breakfast and spent the remaining time in the lounge enjoining the ambiance. We departed the boat at 8 AM on our last Zodiac ride to shore.

We were lucky to hear a variety of talks by the 4 awesome naturalists on board the boat. Bernie, Christian, Jonathon and Celso talked about the Human History of the Galapagos, Introduction to Photography (real cameras and iPhones), Charles Darwin and the Voyage on the Beagle, among other topics.

We also visited the bridge several times where the kids were able to learn all about the navigation equipment from the captain and the second in command. One of the coolest instruments that they have lets you see every ship in the archipelago in real time. It was disheartening to see all of the fishing boats from Japan and China idling just outside the protected Galapagos Marine Reserve. The kids also learned how to drive a Zodiac as one of the intrepid guides took all of the kids out for their own adventure. Marin and Sy each took a turn, but G was too scared. They even let Marin dock the Zodiac.

We met some really nice people on the trip. It was a wide range of folks from retirees, to a father and teenage daughter, to pairs of friends traveling together, some UPenn connections, and 2 families with kids. Our group had 30 less people than it was supposed to because the main flight from Miami to Ecuador was canceled and they couldn’t rebook them due to the Easter holiday. At first I was concerned, as we chose this week because there were supposed to be 15 kids on the boat. I thought ours would have more fun with more kids around, but it turned out that we did not mind at all as there was so much space, no waiting, easy access to the staff and fantastic service all around. This is definitely a bucket list trip!

Tip: Make sure your kids are old enough to snorkel and that you are not too old to snorkel. It was a highlight for sure! They offer a glass-bottomed boat that you can go around in to view the ocean life below, but it just isn’t the same as being in the water. The water is cold at times so they provide shorty wet suits. You can wear 2 wet suits and socks in the fins if you really get cold. I did this for Griffin and it helped him stay in the water longer. Some people brought their own caps. We all wore long-sleeved swim shirts under the wet suits for warmth and to prevent any jelly fish interactions. We didn’t see or feel any.

Tip: There are many other tours that go to the islands. You can stay on land and take just day trips or you can take a smaller boat that holds fewer people.

Next up…we continue out trip with Nat Geo through Guayaquil to Peru, the land of the Incas!