Index
Day 1 - Guayaquil
Day 2 - Embarkation
Day 3 - N. Seymour/Rabida
Day 4 - Fernandina/Isabela
Day 5 - Isabela
Day 6 - Santiago
Day 7 - Santa Cruz
Day 8 - San Cristobal
Day 9 - San Cristobal
Day 10 - Return
Galapagos
Pre-breakfast hike paid off with a spectacular rainbow over the beach on Isla Santiago, a handsome yellow warbler posed obligingly for photos, and capped it all off with a Galapagos hawk that didn't mind posing for pictures, probably because he/she had just finished breakfast (looked like a sea turtle, maybe a crab as well?). Yet another amazing experience in a trip full of them, and that doesn't even include the juvenile Galapagos hawk that some other groups managed to see on the same beach.
Snorkeling after breakfast involved a sea cave, multiple massive schools of fish, and plenty of solitary ones-- including a shark, a ray, and I think a puffer fish.
Afternoon hike on Puerto Egas, a little further south on Santiago, revealed a more arid landscape of cactus and dry shrubs. A medium ground finch was another excellent example of Darwin's finches and on evolution. Venturing out to the rocky ground overlooking the water, sea lions and sea turtles put on a show for everyone, complete with one sea lion blowing bubbles for what seemed like hours, and a second who did a full-on-teeth-beared half-leap out of the water (aka yes, sea lions can f*** you up).
Wimbrels and lava herons became the focus as the hour grew late, and dinner that night was a barbeque on deck instead of in the dining room for a change.