Discovering the World Sans Valise: Galapagos - The cruise on Aida Maria

As I mentioned in the previous post, we managed to get a last minute 8 days/7 nights cruise on the 16 passenger Aida Maria yacht. Since only 13 passengers had signed up for it, we were fortunate to be upgraded to an upper deck cabin. There were 7 crew members on the boat as well. We picked itinerary B which included San Cristobal/South plaza, Santa Cruz, Isabela, Fernandina, Santiago, Rabida, and North Seymour islands....a real treat altogether. The food on the boat was delicious and super healthy. The crew was fantastic. Our guide Christian was very knowledgeable and friendly. All in all, it has been a really nice experience for Glenn and myself. We saw a lot of wild life, including marine and land iguanas, hawks, blue footed boobies, penguins, swallow tail gulls, snake, flightless cormorants, sea lions, frigate birds, whales, dolphins, crabs, aquatic turtles, sharks, rays, finches and other types of birds and fish.
The Galapagos islands are volcanic islands and the newest most western islands of Isabela and Fernandina have active volcanoes. Unfortunately, there has been a drought in the Galapagos for the last 3 years and not surprisingly, the drought is affecting the wild life. For example, cacti do not put as many fruit and these fruit is the source of food for land iguanas. More rain, por favor!

Each day, we took one or two walks on the islands with our guide. We also went snorkeling at least once a day, sometimes twice. On some days, we toured the coast line in the pangas/dinguis. These daily activities created an amazing opportunity to see wild life. Having only 13 passengers on the boat and two pangas made getting on and off the boat very easy and fast.
The boat was very comfortable, the cabins were clean, and the crew was very efficient and reliable.
The captain would do the longest crossing at night and some of them were quite bumpy. Bonine tablets spared us from getting sick!

I forgot to mention earlier that our camera gave up while we were in Quito....just before the trip to the Galapagos! I had no choice but to use my cell phone to take the pictures. The zoom is not as good but the quality of the pictures is actually quite high. We ordered a new pocket camera and had it shipped to Marion and Keith in London. We will get this camera when they join us in Cusco...tomorrow!

And now...here are the pictures that I hope you will enjoy.