Here we are, Ecuador! We landed on Monday afternoon already one day earlier than originally planned…unfortunately, Quito welcomes us with cool temperatures, heavy, heavy rainfall and fog. However, there were also good news as- once arrived- we actually managed to book the last cabin on a Galapagos Yacht as a last-minute deal for the next 5 days.. 🙂 Hence, early next morning we were already happily on board the airplane to Christóbal- one of the main Galapagos Islands, from where the Catamaran would embark..

Upon arriving at the port, we realized how lucky we are! We actually made it to GALAPAGOS, a dream destination on our bucket list, the sun was shining with 30*C and our Catamaran “Treasure of Galapagos” was simply beautiful! The 32m long yacht with three decks for a total of 16 passengers (all great company), plus 9 crew members and a guide was definitely more than we expected.

On day 1 we all went to see a nursery for very small tortoises, had great dinner (as every day) and then went to sleep while the Catamaran was cruising overnight to the island of “Espanola”, the oldest and southernmost Galapagos island. On a beautiful beach called “Gardner Bay” we started the day with snorkeling surrounded by many sea lions, while later on we saw Iguanas, Hawks and amazing birds called “Blue-Footed Boobies”. Those cute seabirds can be easily recognized by their really bright blue feet, which the male birds lift up and down almost like a dance during mating season to be more attractive to the females..

The next night we were cruising to another inhabited island called “Floreana” where we went swimming with huge sea-turtles (Martina’s Galapagos highlight!). An incredible experience as wild life on Galapagos seems to be completely fearless! We could get as close as 1 meter to any animal, swim immediately next to or above sea-turtles without them being bothered…(thanks to Kathy for the underwater photos..)

Early morning the fourth day we arrived at the little island of “Santa Fe”, where again sea lions joined us for a swim. During a land excursion we saw a special type of Penguins and Land Iguanas – as almost every wild life, those animals are unique to the Galapagos Islands and cannot be find anywhere else in the world. The same day we continued cruising to “Puerto Ayora”, a nice town on the island of “Santa Cruz” to visit the Charles Darwin Research Station. And- before flying back to Quito we even saw Giant Land Turtles in free nature- very gracious!

Well, at this point it is also time to introduce our new travel buddy “BLUE” – a “Blue-Footed Booby” mascot which from now on will be traveling with us around the world…;-)