Ecuador

With our trusty ride parked for the winter, Jenny and I decided to take advantage of the time to cross an item or two off the bucket list. The choice? Macchu Picchu! While we were planning the trip, I recalled one or two times when Jenny had expressed a desire to check out the Galapagos. We’ll likely not visit them on the boat-I’ve sailed there twice, and it’s not really a very good cruising destination. So, we decided to roll a short visit there into our itinerary, since we were going to be in the neighborhood already.

Jenny flew first to Seattle, arriving there on the same day as I did on the Constellation.

Jenny also got to meet Paul Bieker, the mad wizard of boat designing and Rocket Science’s creator for the first time.

After a few days, mostly spent wrapping up the year’s duties on the boat, we departed for Quito.

We had a free day in town, spending in the area around the ‘Mitad del Mundo’, with a little hike to a nearby crater thrown in.

The following day, we left early for the flight to the islands. We were greeted by a genial chap holding up a big sign with the name of our boat, and plastered with 2 stickers to put on our chests to help the folks on the other end identify and shepherd us along efficiently. This was, however, not a surprise.

A note about the Galapagos is in order here. It’s really not like anyplace else that folks commonly travel to. 97% of the land is part of a national park, and it’s forbidden to venture around on your own. A naturalist has to basically guide your every move. It’s a bummer, but it’s also necessary to minimize the impact on the fragile islands. So, you have to be prepared to accept this kind of tight control when you sign up.

But, the folks in charge of all the tourists are generally very good at what they do, so it’s not too bad.

We got a great last-minute deal on one of the newer, more luxurious boats in the trade. The Santa Cruz II is about 200′ long, and holds up to 90 passengers. We had 79 aboard, from all around the world. I was the only American, interestingly. The ship itself is awesome. Clean, great food, a couple of hot tubs, and really good service all around. There are some pretty run down boats in the islands, so we were happy to discover our upscale surroundings.

After getting settled into our cabin, and getting the obligatory safety briefing, we began our mini-cruise.

We spent the next 4 days touring the eastern islands. Each day would consist of an AM and a PM excursion at a different site, with plenty of free time and gourmet meals in between. Excursions were split up into 7 groups, keeping things at least somewhat intimate. I believe the park service requires this, anyway. We had a fine bunch, a couple Australians, some Brits, a couple from Hong Kong, Jenny and me.

We’ll let the pictures tell most of the story on this one.

Next stop, Cusco, Peru and some very thin air!