Last night after we came back to our room after dinner we wandered out onto the balcony. We were rewarded with the most amazing sight – swallow tail gulls, which like to fly alongside the ship to feed on the fish that come to the ocean surface drawn to the lights from the ship – were putting on a spectacle for us. They were zooming past, back and forth, all around, all just like flickering lights passing by. It was impossible to capture except in my mind’s eye.

The morning began with a beautiful sunrise. We had our little in room breakfast with coffee which is just enough to get us going for the days first adventure.

We all met up as usual to get assigned a tender for going ashore. Once again we were in the first one. This morning was to be a “long” walk followed by an opportunity to swim or snorkel. That meant we had to collect our snorkel equipment bag as well as our life jackets.

We had a “wet” landing, which just means we waded in the water getting off the tender. We were at the Punta Cormorant area on the island. The trail was a fairly easy one, with only a few rocky areas to navigate. Soon along the way we came upon a large lagoon that had a sizable population of flamingos! They were beautiful! Some all grouped together, some off singly. I spotted one white one from a distance, which the naturalist said was a juvenile.

Along the trail we came across several lava lizards, a painted locust and a colorful caterpillar.

We kept to the trail eventually coming to a beautiful beach, which was known to be a Pacific Green Sea Turtle nesting beach. Apparently most have already come ashore and laid their eggs, which were in all the large divots above the tide line. We did see a few of them poking their heads up out of the water but it was always too briefly to capture it.

Along the beach we saw more Sally Lightfoot crabs, and I’ll say they are aptly named. I was watching one in the middle of the beach while it was just standing there, when suddenly it scurried so fast right past me that it had me jumping out of the way.

Prior to leaving the beach or guide showed us a turtle egg which had not hatched. It was smaller than you might imagine.

Finishing our walk, which was less than two miles, we all collected our snorkel bags to head into the ocean. Well, I’m not very good at that to say the least, but I did brave going in for a dip without the scuba suit. The water temperature was surprisingly nice, especially as we were all hot and sweaty. I ignored the snorkeling as one had to go out further than I was comfortable with plus those who did said enough people stirred up the sand making it hazy and hard to see. But Patty said she saw a few colorful fish and Alison, one of our new friends said she spotted a chocolate chip starfish.

Back onto the tender and to the ship where we dutifully washed all the sand off our beach shoes and rinsed out our snorkel bags.

Lunch on board then we chilled on our balcony until it was time for the afternoon adventure. Today we had a group of 16 of us going over to the area called Punte Vicente Roca. We were heading out for a kayak excursion so with that many it took awhile to load 8 kayaks. Not everyone was particularly graceful but we all got on board.

Today we had convinced our new friend, Joan, to give it a try. Her daughter, Alison had previously kayaked. So Patty agreed to ride with Joan and Alison and I were together.

It was a great paddle! We passed more Blue Footed Boobies, pelicans and sea lions. We had one particular large male sea lion that seemed to enjoy our company. He swam all around all the boats, barking and diving and flipping around and even put his head on the edge of several boats.

Eventually we paddled back to the tender, climbed aboard and they tied all the kayaks into a train and off we went to a small beach area.

We walked along, sinking into very moist sand, with waves lapping at us. We were heading to this unusual spot that had a barrel for a post office! It was begun back in 1793 when ships passing by the islands would leave letters hoping another ship coming along might take them and bring them to the recipient. So now visitors leave post cards. We sorted through them to see if any were addressed to places near where we live. The practice is if you take one you should hand deliver it. Though Patty and I wanted to participate we completely forgot to bring the cards.

We walked back to the tender and made our way back to the ship.

And now comes the not so good part. Yesterday I started getting congested and had a cough. Patty suggested I go to medical to see if they had any decongestant. The doctor told me their protocol was to first test for Covid. I didn’t think anything about that as I’ve had every shot and booster. But no, I tested positive. So that’s the end of my Galapagos adventure aside from staying in my stateroom alone until we’re to fly out. They’re moving Patty to another room. Hopefully she stays well as she has had no symptoms. Selfishly I wish I didn’t know and just carried on but that’s not fair to the other 91 passengers and the crew of 86. I know they’ll take good care of me from a distance. Here’s hoping I’m good and well for the follow on journey to Peru.

Apparently there are other issues. One of the men whom we met in Quito is quite ill so they diverted the ship to the island with a hospital for him. Plus, the park has noticed a number of birds dying, with no explanation thus far, so they’re having to adjust the itinerary.

Patty and the others said they’ll keep me posted on what they do and see so if there’s anything of interest I’ll write it up for you readers. Otherwise, fingers crossed that the story continues into Peru.