Galapagos, Ecuador 1/24/2017 Tu

The flowers are gorgeous here. We said goodbye at breakfast to the lovely Cecilia and her husband Washington. Did you know that it is very popular in Ecuador to name your children after famous American Presidents ? Yes, indeed, there are many Washingtons, Lincolns, and in fact Donald Trump was so popular that the naming registry put a halt to naming your son after our current President! Presidential names were not the only popular names, in fact Milk of Magnesia was also a common name! I kid you not!

Today we are going on an excursion to South Plaza Island. We were met by a bus that brought us to the pier where we had been dropped by the ferry yesterday. Our yacht was called the Sea Finch. It had an air conditioned room that you could sit in, and or lay out on the front deck area. There were a limited number of seats where you could stretch your feet out. I nabbed one. Steve got the bench. We had lunch in the air conditioned area. There was also a bathroom and changing area on the boat. We approached Plaza Island and were met by many sea lions. The red creature on the left is a Sally Light Food Crab. The guy on the right is a sea lion. But you already knew that!

This is a picture of Nadine, our guide. She was from France and often times sounded like Inspector Clouseau.

Nadine is telling us about seals in this videoclip.

This is a blue footed booby on the cliff. I better get a better picture of one for this trip. In case I don’t get a better picture here is a professional one. I should probably just tell you the names of the animals and have you look them up. You won’t even need to read my blog then!

These are cacti, the land iguanas eat them for food. I feel bad for this guy. He wore a black shirt, black pants, and has very dark hair. My hair is very dark, I call it the color of bittersweet chocolate. If I don’t wear a hat in the sun, my head heats up lickety split.

Here is an iguana. Here is a dead iguana. We finally turned around to head back to the Sea Finch. I don’t think that the altitude app on my iPhone works worth a ding dang. Steve says they do have a big margin of error! We saw this yacht on the way in to the dock in Puerto Ayora. Oftentimes the town is mistakenly called Santa Cruz, but that is the name of the island.

Here I am with Sally’s Go pro on my head. I will be lucky if any of the pictures turn out. Steve thinks that I look like a member of the Borg Collective from Star Trek-The Next Generation. Steve ended up going snorkeling. I didn’t as I can’t see well enough without my glasses on, and Nadine, our guide, said that you couldn’t wear glasses and a snorkel mask. No pictures of Steve and the group snorkeling, although I went out on the Zodiac with them, and I was afraid that I would drop my phone in the water! Here is a picture of me in front of a fruit shop. I am hot and bedraggled. I am going to count this as a visit to a grocery store if we don’t visit on on Friday when we go back to Guayaquil. Otherwise I am going to have to give up my streak of visiting a grocery store in every state or country that we go to!This is a lovely view of the pool and the restaurant where we had our breakfasts and dinners.

After watching the sunset at the hotel we had dinner. No pictures of food tonight, I am tired of being away, and just want to sleep in my own house and do laundry again.

Have you ever been to The Galapagos?

Do you think that you will return in your next life as a Blue Footed Booby?

Do you speak with a French accent?

Bonus question! Would you rather name your child Trump or Milk of Magnesia?