Friday, May 30
I flew from Guayaquil to Isla Baltra in the morning. Jodi, Jessica, and I met our guide and several other people who would be joining us on our boat once we arrived on the island. We then gathered our belongings and made the quick drive out to the docks to board the Friendship boat that would be our home for the next 4 nights. When we arrived on the docks, we were greeted by several sea lions and iguanas who had made the area the home. It was my first introduction to the animal life here and it was just like I had heard...the animals have absolutely no fear of humans and you can get right up next to them with no fear of being attacked or them scrambling away. The boat was more or less what I was expecting for what I had paid...it was old, small, and over flowing with cockroaches. But, I got a great feeling from the group I would be traveling with and was ready to get started. Our group consisted of 3 Americans, 1 Canadian, 1 Brit, 1 Dutch, 2 Israelis, 1 Chinese, 1 Brazilian, and 6 Ecuadorians.
Once we had all 16 passengers on board (plus 7 crew), we headed out to Isla Santa Cruz for Playa Bachas. Here we got our first real taste of animal life on the islands. We saw tons of crabs, pelicans, frigate birds, marine iguanas, and a lagoon with a few flamingos. After hiking around the island for a bit, I was able to strap on my fins, mask, and snorkel and get a glimpse at underwater life in these secluded islands. The snorkeling was not great, but I did get to see tons of fish (including parrot and puffer) and a few eagle rays.
After about 40 minutes of snorkeling we all re-boarded the boat and headed out to Itabaca Channel between Santa Cruz and Baltra to spend the night. We had an incredible sunset and enjoyed it from the top deck of the boat. I then got to spend my first night on the boat (I had the top bunk...with about 10 inches of space between the mattress and ceiling) and tried to sleep despite the noise coming from the engine room and other creaking spaces of the ancient boat.
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