Getting the land boat with the better of the 2 8 day trips (forced by yet new regulations to make boats to go more places) and something that would match a diving boat in June was no small feat, and Ellen from boutiquetravel.net was great help getting everything lined up and organized for us (we waited until June because it increased our chances of seeing whale sharks although the tradeoff was colder waters).
Anyway, we had to fly to Miami, and from there flew to Quito, a nice ancient town high up (over 9000ft) which we visited before flying to Galapagos:
Quito
Plenty of high peaks with Glaciers in the Andes
Jesuit church filled with gold leaves
Don't bullshit Mc Guyver. Latitude 0 Calculada con GPS my ass!
The real equator line was outside their property in the street.
Galapagos
The next morning, we got up way too early to fly to Baltra in GalapagosOne Week of Land Excursions on Galaven
We got to see many non easily accessible Islands via our 8 day land tour on the Galaven. You'll find the details on that page.2 days in St Cristobal
After getting off Galaven, we had 2 days to burn in St Cristobal. We used them to explore the Island. It's a nice little town, and we liked the Miconia hotel we stayed at, although it had the suckiest internet I ever had the chance to witness so far. I guess that gave me an excuse to go outside some more :)St Cristobal is a nice little town where sea lions come and cross the street and sleep on bus benches :)
it was too high for the poor little guy to jump. I walked him back to a place where it was able to get back to sea.
we got a fast ghost crab to get out of breath so that we could catch it. Poor thing was missing a leg already
One Week on the Aggressor II
There again, I wrote a page on our diving with Galapagos Aggressor IIDay Trip to Bartolome
Due to the lovely regulations, we were within swimming distance from Bartolome just 10 days prior, but not allowed to go there that day, so we had to spend a lovely 6 hours boating there and back from Santa Cruz after our Aggressor tour. The climb and view were nice, even if too short compared to the trip. The snorkeling was actually the same place we had been to just 10 days prior, which was a bit of a downer, but I was able to see a penguin swim and fish for a few minutes, which had I had failed to see last time, so it wasn't all for naught even if the backtracking felt wasteful, in both fuel/pollution and time.
It was a bad day for the little fish :)
the ducks were very happy to be fed :)
Oreo cookie festival and amusement park. We almost missed out :)