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| Family photo on Jean's 80th Birthday |
Keith's mom was turning 80 this summer and she decided that she wanted to treat the whole family to a trip to the Galapagos which was such a generous gift to all of us!! We decided to tack on a few days at the beginning to relax in Panama before we met up with the rest of the family. When we booked the trip, we were still working; however, the first day of the trip was the day after Shawna's last day of work - so this also became our first trip in retirement. Not a bad way to kick off that monumental event as well!!
Panama:
Accommodations:
Hotel La Compania - A beautiful, luxury hotel (owned by Hyatt) located in the old, historic part of Panama City. We stayed here for one night. Our room was quite large and the bed was very comfortable!
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| View from our balcony - Hotel La Compania |
Isla Palenque - A beautiful, small boutique hotel located on the beach. There are 8 villas, each tucked away from the ocean to provide privacy, with large windows looking out towards the ocean. Each had a large front porch with a swing, a large bedroom with a sofa to relax on, and a bathroom at the back that was outside - so our showers were also outside!
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| Isla Palenque Hotel |
Activities:
In Panama City, we walked around the old town seeing a few of the sites in the area and then in the morning, we went to the Panama Canal. We did not get to see a boat go through the locks - although we did see one pass through in the distance through the newer canal. The exhibits were closed for renovation but we did get to see the iMax which was informative. The locks were very cool. We thought Panama City was quite beautiful so we will definitely return for a longer stay!
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| Panama Canal |
On Isla Palenque, we did a lot of relaxing by the pool and on the beach, sitting in every lounge chair, day bed and hammock we could find! One afternoon, we went for a hike - it was very muggy so thankfully it was not a long one - however, we did get to see howler monkeys on the hike. Another morning we did a 1.5 hour kayak tour in the bay which was fun - thankfully, it was cloudy that morning so not as hot! And one afternoon, we got massages at the same time - they set up the massage tables on our front porch so had them outside with the sound of the waves in the background. We both thought it was in the top 5% of massages we had ever had! Everything was included in our stay except the massages and the alcohol.
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| Beach outside our villa |
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| Lots of pool time |
Restaurants:
Enkai - A Peruvian Japanese restaurant in Panama City. We had dinner here. We shared a tiradito (which is like sashimi) for an appetizer, a stir fry dish for our second course and a skirt steak for our entree - all very tasty.
El Santuario - Located in our hotel in Panama City, we had breakfast here. Nice selection from the buffet.
Luigi's - Located in our hotel in Panama City, we had lunch here. We shared a cheese/meat tray and a caprese salad.
Isla Palenque - We had all of our meals here (included in the nightly rate) at the hotel. For breakfast, we usually had yogurt, fruit, eggs or pancakes. For both lunch and dinner, we had choice of starters, salads, entrees and desserts. For lunch, we had a salad each and split an entree - usually some sort of fish, chicken, pork or beef and then we did the same for dinner. All of the food was quite good.
Ecuador / Galapagos:
Accommodations:
Oro Verde - Located in Guayaquil, we stayed here two nights at the beginning and one night at the end. The hotel was a very nice city hotel - similar to what you would get at a Hyatt or Marriott. Rooms were large and clean.
Lindblad Boat (Endeavour II) - We stayed on the boat for seven nights. Our room was very nice - large with a king bed and a deck and chair. Bathrooms were also reasonably sized. We had a large window above our bed so we could see outside. Our room was located on the third level - same level as the lounge which was convenient!
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| Our room on the boat |
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| Our boat |
Activities:
On the Friday, we had a full day in Guayaquil so Josie had researched tours we could do and we landed on doing the cocoa farm and city tour which was great. Our guide picked us up at the hotel and we drove about 30 minutes out of the city to the cocoa farm where we got a tour of the farm and then learned about the chocolate making process - we even got to make our own chocolate bars. We had lunch here with plantain cakes to start along with chicken and rice for entree. Food was pretty good. After this, we went back into the city and walked around a bit as the guide pointed out a few of the historic landmarks. The guide was very funny and informative - definitely recommend this tour.
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| Cocoa Farm |
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| Making chocolate |
On Saturday, we checked out of our hotel and all took a bus to the airport where we boarded a 2 hour flight to San Cristobal - the third largest island in the Galapagos. We then took smaller buses to the port where we boarded zodiacs to get to our ship. At the port, there were a few sea lions hanging out so the kids started to get excited! Once on board the ship, we settled into our rooms, had lunch, and went through the safety briefing. That evening, we had the captain's welcome cocktails on the top deck while we circumnavigated Kicker Rock in Stephen's Bay and then we had dinner.
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| Kicker Rock |
Each day after that was quite busy with activities - leaving the boat 2-3 times each day to do land based or water activities. There were also presentations by the naturalists in the lounge each afternoon as well as in the evening before dinner.
On Sunday, we spent the day on Espanola Island where we got our first taste of the tame and magnificent wildlife on the islands. In the morning, we snorkeled in Gardner Islet where we also go to swim with the playful sea lions and then went to Gardner Beach to walk around a bit. In the afternoon, we did a 2 mile walk disembarking at Punta Suarez. This day we saw sea lions, marine iguanas, lots of birds and in particular got to see the mating dance of the albatross! We also had our first blue footed boobie sighting!
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| Sea Lion |
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| Marine Iguana |
On Monday, we spent the day on Floreana Island. In the morning, we did a one mile walk starting at Punta Cormorant. We walked along the beach and then over to a salt pond where there were lots of flamingos feeding on shrimp. We also saw some more blue footed boobies. Once on board, we moved to Champion Islet where we did some more snorkeling mid-morning. That afternoon, we kayaked in the bay where we saw a ton of baby sharks - both white tipped and hammerhead. While we never saw the 'mother' sharks, we did wonder where they were!!! After kayaking, we visited the Post Office Barrel where people leave postcards for others to deliver if you happen to live in the area where the post card is meant to go. We stood there for about 30 minutes while some of the passengers read out the location for the cards - the process was not the most efficient but a cute tradition. Lily ended up with about a dozen cards to take back to Austin.
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| Blue Footed Boogie |
On Tuesday, we spent the day on Santa Cruz Island, the second largest. We first went to the Charles Darwin Research Center where we leaned about the conservation efforts of the tortoises and also saw the 'stuffed' Lonesome George who died about 6 months after our last visit to Galapagos. He was famous as being the last species from the island they found him on. We then walked around town a bit and took buses to one of three morning activities - most of us went to a hydroponic farm where we saw how they grew lettuce and herbs along with coffee beans. Lily and Josie went to visit one of the schools. After this, we took buses to the highlands where we visited one of the tortoise farms. We had lunch here - a buffet of pasta and chicken - not too bad for mass produced buffet. We walked around the farm seeing some of the tortoises and got to 'experience' two of them mating - the kids were scarred by this as we watched a quite large male grunting on top of the female who did not look like she was enjoying it!
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| Tortoise at Charles Darwin Center |
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| Hydroponic Farm |
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| Tortoise at the farm |
On Wednesday, we spent the day on Santa Cruz Island again - this time on the side that is not inhabited. In the morning, we did a two hour hike on the island to see the land iguanas. The vegetation was quite lush so it was hard to find them but we did end up seeing three different ones. We also did a bit of snorkeling before lunch. In the afternoon, the kids got a chance to learn how to drive the zodiac boats. That evening, we circumnavigated the Daphne Major Islet - a beautiful small island - while enjoying a wine tasting on the top deck.
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| Cocktail reception while sailing around Daphne Major |
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| Land Iguana |
On Thursday, we spent the day on Bartolome Island, the fourth largest island that is a volcano islet with little vegetation - that said, it was beautiful with a nice half moon shaped bay and sandy beach. We did an early morning hike up to the peak with over 376 steps to the top. Along the way, we learned about the formation of this island and got some great pics at the top. We went to the beach and the kids snorkeled a bit and then we went for another deep water snorkeling where we say penguins swimming quite fast as they were hunting for fish - very cool! In the afternoon, we sailed over to Sombrero Chino which is off the coast of Santiago Island where we did even more snorkeling! The interesting thing about all of the snorkeling we did is that we never got bored - each trip we saw something new!
On Friday, we spent the day on Genovesa Island which is known for having a very large bird population and jokingly referred to as the "Hitchcock Island". We anchored in Darwin Bay which is a huge, submerged caldera of the dormant volcano. We did an early morning walk on the Prince Phillip's Steps trail where we saw a bird extravaganza - so many of them everywhere - nasca boobies, red footed boobies, frigate birds and swallow tailed gulls. We even saw two owls! In the afternoon, we went back to the island to do a shorter walk along the beach where we saw even more birds but also some sea lions.
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| Swallow Tailed Gulls |
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| Red Footed Boobie |
Since this day was Jean's birthday, we asked the National Geographic photographer to take some family photos of us on the top deck at sunset. We then watched the slide show of what the guests submitted for the 'best of' pictures, followed by a farewell toast and then dinner. The staff baked a birthday cake for Jean and brought it out while singing to her. Our table also had birthday balloons hung above us.
On Saturday, we had to leave the boat by 8am so we got up, packed, had breakfast and disembarked on our final zodiac ride. Our flights departed out of a different island - Baltra Island. We took buses to the airport and then had the two hour flight back to Guayaquil. Our flight was a bit delayed so by the time we got to the hotel, we checked in, cleaned up, had dinner and then went to bed early as we had a very early wake up call the next day.
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| Many water activities |
On Sunday, we all woke up at 2am as we had to leave the hotel by 3am since our flight was at 6am. We were all on time but not as chipper as prior mornings! We all flew back to TX with Graham going on to NM and Lily going on to Austin. Such an amazing trip filled with great memories. The kids were super surprised by how nice the boat was and they had a blast seeing all of the wildlife - truly a trip of a lifetime!
Restaurants:
La Fondue - Located in our hotel in Guayaquil. We had dinner here just the two of us the first night we arrived and then with the whole family on our last night of the trip. Food was decent. We shared the fondue and raclette the first time and for the second meal, we all shared fondue and then Keith and Shawna split a steak.
El Patio - Located in our hotel in Guayaquil. We had breakfast here and dinner. Breakfast was the typical nice buffet. Dinner was just OK.
Lindblad Boat (Endeavour II) - We had all of our meals on the boat except for one day we had lunch at the tortoise park. Breakfast was a buffet with an egg station. Lunch and dinner was a salad/soup with choice of entree and dessert. We usually had the salad and then each got a half portion of the entrees which we then split - the entrees usually were a fish and some meat dish along with vegetables and a starch. Food was pretty good except for one meal that none of us liked.
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