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Galapagos Day 2

Day 2 - May 25
Today started out good, but ended poorly. We had breakfast in the hotel, which was a decent buffet. I learned from my trip to Costa Rica don’t eat the eggs, so no runny scrambled eggs for me. But they did have an OK selection of lunch meats, cheese, fruit, fried bread, some odd little pancake thing, and regular bread. So breakfast was OK.
Our guide met us at the hotel at 7:30 AM to walk over to the meeting point for our tour. We then boarded a bus for a 40 minute ride to the boat. Once at the dock area we donned life-jackets and got on a rigid hull inflatable boat (RIB) boat to go over to the main boat which took us over to North Seymour Island. We boarded the RIB again to go over to the island and do a guided nature walk. We saw several frigate birds and blue footed boobies. We even saw some baby boobies. We also saw several seals, and land iguanas. The walk took about 2 hours, and it was in the sun the whole time, so it was important you had a hat, sunglasses, sunscreen, and plenty of water. From there we boarded the RIB again back to the main boat.


             

The main boat then went further down the island to the snorkeling location. We changed into swimsuits, and got masks and flipper before getting into the RIB again to go the snorkeling start point. I had my camera in its waterproof housing but apparently I did not install it correctly, but I wouldn’t know this till the end of the snorkel portion. I did see several colorful fish to include parrot fish and angelfish. I also saw a 3-foot reef shark. When I got back to the RIB that is when disaster struck, I noticed the waterproof cover was fogging up, and my worst fears were confirmed by Jim once I got back to the boat. The cover filled with about a ½-inch of water. Which looks like it got into the main body of the camera, basically killing the camera. I’m really sad and mad at myself. I shouldn’t of trusted the waterproof house and not taken my actual camera snorkeling the first day. I realize my camera is 7-years old, completely insured, and could be replaced but I was so looking forward to doing photography on this trip. This basically made the rest of the day sad for me. 
 

After the conclusion of snorkeling, we had lunch on the boat which was tuna steak with sauce, a beet and tuber side, and asparagus. For dessert we had cantaloupe. After lunch we went over to another area of North Seymour Island where we boarded the RIB and did a wet landing on the beach. The beach was nice, we saw some marine iguanas, blue footed boobies, remains of a barge the US sunk off the coast when it gave land back to Ecuador, and three flamingos. The flamingos were a lucky see, because there are very few on the islands. After that we got back into the RIB and headed back to main boat to journey back to port and the town.
Location: Unnamed Road, Puerto Ayora, Ecuador

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