TODAY WE HOOK UP WITH OUR CRUISING PALS ON THE GALAPAGOS LEGEND

November 20, 2014

Today marks the start of our fabulous cruise.  I have been on other Galapagos cruises.  I have also visited a few islands where you can stay on an island and do local expeditions at your own speed.  However, I have never had the chance to travel to the western side of Isabela, down the Bolivar Channel where the cooler Humbolt current meets warm tropical waters.  There is food for both cold water and warm water animals.  The abundance and mixture of foods leads to plentiful and varied animal life.  In addition to western Isabela we will visit Fernandina, Santiago and Rabida islands.

Muriel and I met the tour group at Baltra airport.  Ginny and her 15 golfers from Vancouver arrived on schedule to go on the same boat as us.

On our way to the airport we went on a private small ferry with two armed men in camouflage carrying guns and holding dogs on leashes.  The dogs were trained to sniff out organic matter like a shark's fin or a sea cucumber leaving the islands illegally.

Once we teamed up with Ginny and golf group and many other people who were going on the cruise (100 people in all) we went by van to an area on the channel.  A panga picked us up and took us to the Galapagos Legend.

We got settled in and sorted out into groups.  Unfortunately, we couldn't be in Ginny's group as it was already at maximum size.  We were placed with super nice Canadians (who now live in Illinois), a young man from Seattle and at least a dozen people from France.  Our group guide, Whitmore, was very fluent in French.  We all managed but it was awkward as most of guiding was done in French.  We five mainly English speaking persons banded together and tried to sort out the information and directions as a group.

Stay tuned for pictures coming down the pike.