We awoke under calm, sunny skies to find ourselves anchored at Puerto Vilamil, the main town on Isabela Island. The wake-up call sounded at the crack of dawn (5:45) in order to allow us to visit Los Tintoreras, a small island next to Isabela Island upon which cruise ship passengers are only permitted to land between 6:00 and 8:00 in the morning. … [Read more]
Preamble and Disclaimer: This is the first of eight posts that I composed while Chris and I sailed the Galapagos Islands on a luxury catamaran yacht. At the end of each day, I wrote about that day’s excursions and highlights. … [Read more]
We are heading off for an 8-day cruise on a luxury yacht. We may not have internet connection so may not be posting for a while. We’ll be sure to tell you all about our voyage when we’re online again.… [Read more]
The Galapagos Islands welcomed us with sunny blue skies and warm temperatures on Tuesday afternoon. The easy two hour flight was followed by a tedious and inefficient debarkation process that took almost as long as the flight!… [Read more]
Yesterday afternoon, we stumbled upon La Ciudad Blanca (the White City) located at the foot of Cerro del Carmen. Our discovery began when we observed a funeral procession leaving a church. … [Read more]
Guayaquil (pronounced why-a-keel) is the largest and most populated city in Ecuador with about 2.3 million inhabitants in the city and nearly 3.1 million in the metropolitan area. The city is situated on the western bank of the Guayas River which flows into the Pacific Ocean. … [Read more]
It’s hot, hot, hot and sunny – perfect beach weather. Too bad we’re not at the beach! We are now in Guayaquil with a few days to kill before we catch our flight to the Galapagos on Tuesday. The last few days did not go exactly as planned, but I guess that is bound to happen now and then. … [Read more]
Yesterday was a “chill” day. We slept in, had a leisurely breakfast in town, did some writing, photography, and generally just goofed off. Our hostel is a beautiful place to just kick back and relax. … [Read more]
Under a blanket of heavy, low clouds, we headed out to Los Frailes beach by taxi on Monday morning, with our diving friends, Eduardo and Paola. When we arrived at 10:00 in the morning, we had the entire beach to ourselves. … [Read more]
On Sunday, Chris and I went on a diving excursion to Isla de la Plata, also known as “Poor Man’s Galapagos”. This was the primary reason why we came to Puerto Lopez. We wanted to get a couple of dives under our belt before we went to the Galapagos. … [Read more]