Galapagos Islands

I stayed at the fabulous Swiss Hotel in Quito, Ecuador. The next day I flew to the Galapagos. The trip is very well organized and the ship is wonderful. The ship may carry no more than 100 passengers. Luckily, there are only 56 passengers so there is plenty of room. I have not gotten sick...thank God! I met some very nice people from Israel, Canada and New Zealand. I joined a group of 4 women, some married without their husbands, and one not married. We have had a great time. I am currently on San Cristobal island. No other island has had any civilization on it. We have had the opportunity to snorkel every day in different places. The water looks like it does in the Carribean, which allowed us to see a huge sea turtle right next to our boat even though he was swimming in fairly deep water. I went snorkeling yesterday and a Galapagos penguin swam right next to me. I saw some exquisite fish. The sea lions like to chase and play with you in the water. How humbling to know that other creatures rule the world here and humans do not!

The animals, marine life, and flora are unbelieveable here. What a beautiful thing to see all in nature living in harmony. I have pictures of sea lions, huge iguanas, and beautiful red/yellow crabs living next to one another. I also saw huge nests of pelicans and many endangered birds. Some of the mothers were feeding their babies. There are sea lions and hundreds of large iguanas everywhere, We saw the giant turtles this AM and will be going through the Charles Darwin research center this after. The trip so far has been everything and more than I could have every imagined.

I am sorry I can't upload my pictures now, but my cable to my camera is in my other suitcase, which I left in Quito while I traveled to the Galapagos. I will get back to blogging after I get back to Quito and join my new family.