I did an eight day cruise in the Galapagos on the Guantanamera yacht during the week of Christmas.  I thought the first day would be a waste, but it turned out to be one of my favorite island visits!

For some reason the fact that the islands were all barren, cacti covered, rocky places surprised me the most

While it is true that you waste a lot of time the first day, you still have time to see one island. I waited about an hour and a half at the airport for other people from the boat to arrive plus another 45 minutes on the boat once they realized the flight was delayed.  The rest of the cruise guests boarded, got their cabin assignments, and got settled.  This is when the guide introduced me to my new cabin mate (a thirty something single Indian doctor who works at Harvard).  We had both opted to share with a stranger rather than pay the single supplement!

I love blue footed boobies!

At about three pm, we went to our first island: Seymour Norte.

Right away we were happy because there was a mother sea lion and her baby sea lion pup right on the rocks where our dingy landed.  Also on the rocks we saw tons of bright red crabs- sadly we didn’t get to eat them. Just kidding- sort of.

Sea lions were everywhere!

We walked in land a bit and saw (and smelled!) more sea lions who were sunning themselves.  There were also many land iguanas, blue footed boobies, and magnificent frigate birds. It felt like everywhere we turned we saw more wildlife.

land iguana

The only downside is that it kind of spoiled us. After that first island I thought we would always be able to see that kind of diversity in wildlife at each island we visited.  While you can see many of the same animals on other islands, I didn’t find all of them on most of the islands we visited.

The frigate bird’s chest puffs up like a basketball while displaying for a female

Have you been to the Galapagos? What was your favorite island?