TO DARWINS FINCHES AND BIG TORTUGAS!!!!

To Darwin's land of Turtles: 

Up at 0500, to assure we had our bags out and pack up our carry on, etc,  etc, etc. 

Checked out of the hotel and had a quick breakfast and boarded a bus to the airport. Soon we were on our way. The whole air time was about 2 hours and 15 minutes with a stop in Guayaquil. We soon landed in Baltra and boarded a bus for the short drive to the ferry which took us to Santa Cruz. We then boarded another bus and made our way to Manzanillo Ranch for lunch and to see the giant tortoise. 

Our large group has been divided into two smaller groups for our activities here on this portion of our trip. Each group has a local naturalist to act as a guide. Eduardo is the local guide assigned to our group and he is related to one of the guides we had with Nat Geo. 

After the lunch and tortoise visit we again travel by bus to the dock where we catch a small panga (water Taxi)  to our hotel’s  dock. We are staying at Finch Bay Hotel.  We find this to be a very nice property and are soon checked into our room. There is a great looking pool, bar and dining room. The rooms are well appointed and simple. Thus they are perfect. The staff is very friendly and we received a warm welcome with a cool wet towels and a cold glass of passion fruit juice. 

We have already seen Boobies, Ground Finches, Smooth Billed Ani, Whimbrel,  Giant Tortoise, Blue footed boobies, Iguana, and sea lions.  The sea lions, in true form, have found their spots on the benches at the dock, Sally Lightfoot crabs, Heron, pelican, etc etc etc Oh the Galapagos Mockingbird. 

The weather is warm again and we will be briefed this evening about the next days activities. 

Soon we had dinner, I had a chicken and plantains, while Lynn had a tuna dish, all fresh and very well presented. Dessert was a passion fruit mousse. 

Tomorrow we head over to Santa Fe Island for some wildlife viewing and snorkeling.