Category: Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands, January 2024

On our final day in the Galapagos we woke up early, 0630, as the Captain of the Evolution was going to be maneuvering around one of the most well known sites in the archipelago, Kicker Rock.  The island got it’s name from the fact it looks like a boot.

After getting on deck Fletcher pointed out all of these Frigate Birds catching a ride on the yacht’s rigging.

The view of Kicker Rock from the other side.

I took some photos of the interior spaces of the Evolution, as my friend Casey was interested in seeing more of the yacht.  This is the dining room.  We only ate in here about 30% of the time.  The rest of the time was spent dining alfresco on the stern.

This interior passageway connected the dining room with the reception desk and the lecture area.

This is the lecture area, where we watched various videos and received daily briefings on what to expect for the next day.

All in all the ship was very comfortable, the food was quite good on most nights, and the crew was super friendly.  It’s obvious they love their jobs!

I wanted to give a quick shout out to the “All-Stars” of the crew.  First up was the naturalists:

Bolo – He’s the lead naturalist, and for good reason.  He’s been doing this longer than anybody, and he was a walking encyclopedia of information, as were all the naturalists.

Diego – He’s an expert photographer and diver.  Very passionate about his work and he speaks perfect English.  If you want somebody to take your photo, Diego is the guy!

Gabby – She’s super into her job, and loves to mimic animal movements and make animal sounds, even though every animal sound she made was almost identical to the other animal sounds.  She was very funny, and a joy to be around.

My other top crew member was our Cruise Director, Steve.  He communicated very well and seemed to be everywhere on the ship…serving meals, working at the bar, whatever was needed.  No matter the situation, he was always upbeat and friendly.  He’s also the funniest guy on the ship, cracking jokes all the time.  An expert bar tender, if you are on a cruise with him make sure you get him to make your drinks…as he has a free flowing hand with the cocktails.  Yum!

The above is not to say the rest of the crew wasn’t great…they were!  I’m just saying that as a former manager, if I was to evaluate the crew overall, these 4 would get my “Outstanding” reviews.  Most everybody else would be “Exceeds Expectations”.  If you plan to visit the Galapagos, I highly recommend using Quasar Expeditions!  With everything that’s happened on this trip, they have truly been excellent to work with.

Here’s a shot of the Evolution pulling into San Cristobal.  It seems there is a bird in nearly every shot in the Galapagos!

We walked around the little seaside town for a half hour.  The waterfront is absolutely filled with sea lions!  Are the locals feeding them?  They sure seem to be sleeping something off.

One last video of sea lions on the waterfront.

I found it funny that they arranged a bus for a 2 minute ride to the airport….not sure why we didn’t just walk!  This is San Cristobal upon departure, and my last photo of the Galapagos Islands, as we were in the clouds about 3 seconds after I took this.

On the way to Quito we passed this volcano with the peak rising above the clouds.  This is Chimborazo, the highest mountain in Ecuador, at 20,548 feet! I’m not going to cheat like a Harvard President, so this next sentence is from Wikipedia (see how easy that was Claudine?)

“Despite not being the tallest mountain in the Andes or on Earth, its summit holds the distinction of being the farthest point on Earth’s surface from the Earth’s center, due to its location along the planet’s equatorial bulge.”  Pretty cool fact!

Up next, we finally get to see Colonial Quito.

The Evolution traveled overnight from Santa Cruz to the southern most island in the Galapagos,  Espanola Island.  We were rocking and rolling all night long…there must have been some serious swells.

Espanola means “little Spain”, and this island was named after the island in the Caribbean with the same name, discovered by Christopher Columbus on his first voyage.  Espanola Island is considered one of the oldest islands in the Galapagos, at 4 million years old.

We were supposed to go ashore at a spot called Punta Suarez, but because the avian flu was recently discovered here, we simply cruised the shoreline in the pangas.  We were fortunately able to pull into  a small cove, so we could avoid the waves.

Right after the above wave broke, the panga driver gunned it so we could avoid the next set.  Here was the next set.  Glad he got this rock formation in front of us!

The protected little cove was filled with various wildlife.  We have seen so many baby sea lions on this trip, but they are always so cute you have to take a photo!

The marine iguanas subspecies on Espanola Island are a completely different color.  The naturalists referred to them as “Christmas iguanas”, since they are red and green.  They are only these colors during mating season….which is apparently now!  The brighter colored iguanas are the males.  Quick question, are we still allowed to specify the sex of animals?  I can’t keep up with the current trends.

This female is still pretty colorful, showing off the red and black.

This cove had several boatloads of Homo Sapiens, which are not endemic to the Galapagos.  They are easily identified due to their bright clothing and the fact they hold a rectangular chunk of metal and plastic in front of their face about 12 hours a day.  Did I mention our yacht just recently installed Starlink, so you can be on the internet 24/7?

This guy in particular did NOT like Homo Sapiens invading his territory!

We cruised a ways down the coast and saw this sea lion family basking in the sun.  Their kid was the only one awake, and he was quite interested in the weird Homo Sapiens passing by.

To save on time we actually boarded the Evolution from our panga while the yacht was underway….by driving up the stern on a metal ramp they dropped into the water.  Reminded me of my Navy days!

We were headed to another part of Espanola Island called Gardner Bay.  On arrival, we had our last snorkeling adventure of the trip, which turned out to be the best one of all, because of the numerous sea lions that swam with us.  There were at least 7-8 of them that couldn’t get enough of us!

The bulk of the playful sea lions were obviously the young ones.  The mother just swam below us, keeping a watchful eye on her babies.  I had at least two of the young sea lions swim right at my face only to turn away at the very last second.  It was amazing!

Here I am in my new-age mask/snorkel combination.  I found this worked far better for me than the traditional setup.  Your mileage may vary, but it’s worth trying out if you have a snorkeling trip coming up.

One last shot of some sea lions in action.  They were so much fun!

After lunch we took the pangas to the beautiful Gardner Beach, with gorgeous soft white sand.

There were these friendly Galapagos Mockingbirds on the beach.  Fletcher even put some water in his hand and one of them drank right from his hand!  Cute little guys.

This young sea lion was getting a lot of attention from everybody on the beach.  I’m still amazed at how unfazed they are by our presence.

This is such a beautiful spot for a walk.

The sun broke out and made the sand look surreal.

I had to get a shot of Fletch in this beautiful setting.

After dinner we noticed the yacht had the stern lights shining in the water, and it was attracting a huge number of sharks.  There must have been 40 of them, maybe more, as they were hard to count since they were milling back and forth.  The extra light is from my flashlight.

Up next, we wake up early to view the iconic Kicker Rock before heading into San Cristobal, where we depart the Evolution and then fly back to Quito.