First Cruise Day
after i posted my blog and email the night before my Cruise, i walked around Santa Cruz looking for something to eat. on one of the streets close to my hotel i saw this Yellow Crested Night Heron ... walking across the street! ..... not close to the water at all .... paying no attention to me ... strange, but maybe he was an omen of the fantastic animals that i'll be seeing on my Cruise .....
it's a rather involved ordeal to get to the airport from the town .... taxi to the bus terminal 7am ... boarded bus at 7:20 for a 45min ride, .... then boarded ferry at 8am ... thinking that this is going very well ... then i waited 20min for a bus to take me to the airport where i was supposed to be met by someone from Yolita II to take me to my Yacht.
at the airport, i asked a Natl Park Guide where i was supposed to go, she said to the other terminal .... a not-so-short walk, dragging my bad through a cinder-path in the heat. only to find there was no one there ... i finally found an official-looking guy who called another official-looking guy, who said i needed to go to this other part of the airport ... there was no one there either; but he told me to wait that someone would get there. i waited nervously .... wondering if i really was where i was supposed to be ... at the airport? ...to get on a yacht? ...
finally around 10:30 people started arriving and some Guides showed up .... including ours. his name is Washington and he was born on the island. he's got quite a sense of humor, very enthusiastic, and good english, 40s. i liked him.
a lot of people taking Cruises were arriving on flights this morning, ...which is why i was waiting at the AIRPORT to get on a BOAT ... duhhhh ...it would have been wonderful if i would have been told what was going on; so i didn't stress out wondering if i was in the right place, or if the ship left without me :( ...organization and communication are not common here.
we waited at the airport until around noon, when everyone finally arrived and we got in a dingy to go to our yacht ....my photo this time ... nice huh? ....
by this time i had been visiting with Claire, Luke and Hendrik, who were going to be on Yolita with me ... fun people :) ....when we got on board we had introductions, briefing, safety procedures, etc. ....
looking at the other 15 people i was going to spend the next 8 days with ... i was VERY pleased with our 'group' .... we had 4 young couples, a couple with a very mature 12 yr old, and 5 singles. ...all ready to have fun! yeahhhhhhh !!!!!! .... no weirdos :)
we were assigned rooms, Claire from Ireland is my roommate. i like her and am happy about this since we'd already been visiting. we got settled into our room, but we noticed that the carpeting was wet ... and it smelled kind of musty in there. :(
we had a nice lunch, ... a big lunch, and then boarded our dingy, (which became like a second home to us), .... donned our lifevests, (which became second-nature to us), a mandatory requirement from the Navy,.. and went ashore to Bachus Beach.
this beach is actually on the North side of Santa Cruz ... so we hadn't really gone anywhere yet. we walked along the shore and saw Crabs and a few Marine Iguanas.
commentary: it's kind of funny to watch the people who just arrived in the Galapagos ... "ohh wow aww look ... a Marine Iguana!", ..... and they all moved in close to take photos :) ...i didn't take any, i have enough photos of Marine Iguanas :)
along the beach there were dozens of holes from the sea turtles laying their eggs ... they were one right after another ....
and some on top of others. i asked if it was possible that one turtle would dig up the eggs of another turtle in the process of digging her nest ... yes, that does happen, and we saw evidence of destroyed eggs laying around some of the nests :(
we walked back to the lagoon to see the Flamingos ... well, only one Flamingo today.... but it was prettier than at Isabela.
then we snorkeled a bit on the beach and around the rocks. it was going to be a short snorkel, so i didn't take my camera in with me today. .....which was ok, i saw the 'usual suspects' and a small Black Tipped Shark. a couple of the other guys saw a 'huge' shark.
back to Yolita to get cleaned up, then up on the deck visiting.
several Frigit Birds were flying very close to our boat and this one landed on a pole ... i was very excited to see one up close ....
and watched our first Sunset .....
a good big dinner at 7pm. we also got a briefing on tomorrow's activities: we will sail 7hrs north tonight to the Island of Genovesa. ...i am excited about going to this island and was a 'must visit' on my list ... it's not possible to visit there unless you are on a Cruise.
Claire talked to our Guide Washington, and he said that tomorrow they will take up the wet carpet. i hope that helps.
after dinner, everyone dispersed ... we were all tired ... not sure what from ... but tired.
i'm on a CRUISE !!!!!!!!!!!!! ...and it's looking promising: good people, good guide :)
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