Day 1
Mostly a travel day, we drove from Ft Pierce to the airport, avoiding any Bonfire of the Vanities moments and also toll roads. It is kind of pick one though. Miami is not a user-friendly airport in any way, with long walks from rental car return. Flight left at 5:30pm and arrived in Guayaquil at 9:30. No time change. Transfer to the hotel was smooth and we were soon asleep.
Day 2
After breakfast at the hotel, we transferred back to the airport for the flight to the Galapagos, specifically Baltra island. We didn’t see much on Baltra, since buses took us directly to the dock for a departure to the ship by zodiac. It is pretty much desert, though I guess there must be some town for the workers supporting the airport. There used to be a US military presence in WWII but it is pretty much gone apart from graffiti on nearby islands. Ugh, what a legacy.
Our stateroom on the top level (deck 4) was very nice, but we sure got a lot of flights of stairs over the days since the dining room was on deck 1, and we went on and off the ship on deck 2.
After lunch on board the ship, we went ashore on Santa Cruz Island at Playa Las Bachas. The guides said there was a chance to see flamingos here in a lagoon next to the beach, and we were successful. In fact, there were at least 10 flamingos with pink adults and whiter juveniles, plus yellow warblers, crabs, a few marine iguanas and other birds. Then back to the ship at close to sunset for dinner. The food was good every day.
