After being on over 22 cruises on big ships, I was looking for a different experience. The thought of being on a ship with only 16 passengers sounded very intriguing to me, so began our trip. Traveled from Newark, NJ to Quito Ecuador. Arrived late at night and checked into Hotel Eugenia.

We were picked up early by the Adventure Tour Van and off to the airport again, after a few hours flight we landed at Baltra Airport and took a short bus ride to the ferry. The ferry took us over to Santa Cruz Island where we finally began the vacation of a lifetime.

Our tour guide Jamie took us to a very lovely outdoor restaurant where we had …

Very beautiful black lava formations, including one named Darwins toilet because of the ebb and flow of tide causing a flushing sound just like a toilet ( I kid you not),

Breath taking black sand beaches and sea lions abound. I find our tour guide Jamie very knowledgeable and informative. He tells us of how territorial the male sea lions are …

We learned of the tradition of the Post Office. Our guide explained people would put post cards addressed to themselves in the box and that the next visitors would check to see if there was a card addressed to someone near their home. If the visitor found one, they would take it and mail it when they got home. Happy to report I found one with …

After a climb of 380 steps we arrived at the top of the island with a fantastic view of Pinnacle Rock and the lava formations. Well worth the climb.

Aboard our ship while having lunch, the captain called out there were pilot whales right by our boat. We all rushed out with our cameras in hand and got some nice pictures of the whales. I have …

I have never seen so many different species of birds.
We saw the blue footed boobies and fuzzy baby boobies They are amazing and so entertaining. The male boobies do dance, spread their wings and put their beaks in the air and make a whistling sound to attract the females. Also, found out the deeper the blue of their feet the healthier they …

I never thought I would use beautiful to describe a crab, but the sally light foot crab is indeed that. We saw lava lizards as well.

We went to the Central Interpretation Center, There was information about Charles Darwin's visit to the Galapagos, and also of a colorful rich heiress who had thoughts of building a hotel for the rich. How sad …

We could either have a dry or wet landing with our pangas, this day the water was a bit rough, but our skilled drivers kept us safe.

We were able to see the pacific green sea turtles mating. What a sight. I learned how they bury their eggs in the sand.

At Gardener Bay while standing at the edge of a small pool of water up on the beach, I was …

Today we went to private property where there were empty tortoise shells on display, and of course one of the men from our boat had to try on the shell. We all laughed at his struggle to get out.

I noticed the difference between the tortoises we saw there as compared to the ones we saw at the Darwin Center. The tortoises were much more aware …