Aboard the Samba for our tour of the Galapagos, part 1

March 17th we flew from Quito to Baltra in the Galapagos.  After a bus ride from the airport and a ferry ride to adjacent Santa Cruz Island, our group (14 passengers plus our naturalist guide) was taken to a tortoise reserve for lunch and a hike to see the tortoises.  They are indeed large.  We saw them walking around, eating the vegetation, and even a pair mating.

Hard to see, but two tortoises mating

After our tortoise visit, we were driven to Puerto Ayora for transport to the Samba.  It's smaller than most of the other tour boats we saw, but with an excellent crew.  Our naturalist guide, Morris Garcia, was extremely knowledgeable.  The other crew members, in addition to running the boat, shuttled us back and forth to outings in the two dinghies and also took turns at the helm as we navigated from one location to another (frequently overnight).  The chef kept us well fed with three full meals each day plus fresh juice and snacks when we came back from excursions.  And our captain didn't hesitate to detour from our planned route if something interesting cropped up.

Sunset our first evening, in Puerto Ayora

Samba

Each evening we had a little briefing where Morris would outline our plans for the next day, and then leave the plan on a white board in the dining area.  Here's the plan for the first day.  All the others started at 6 am with either breakfast or an outing first and then breakfast after.

We were very fortunate with our group of fellow passengers on the Samba.  Ten of the fourteen were a family group from British Columbia: three siblings and various of their adult children.  All delightful people, several trained biologists, and all very fit for snorkeling and hiking.  The other two passengers were a late 20s couple from Chicago, also fun and engaging.

Because I was not able to blog as we went, I jotted quick notes on my phone each day during our outings.  Morris is such a fount of information about the flora and fauna that I struggled to catch even a fraction of what he imparted.  I will paste these notes into subsequent blog posts, and supplement with some pics.