twangster

Not bad as our first expedition excursion but it was time to return to the ship going back down the steep set of stairs roughly carved out of the rocks.  Our guide explains how best to proceed.

Silver Origin waiting for us.

This is considered a "dry landing" as we don't get wet getting in or out of the zodiac.


Looking back at Prince Philip's Steps.

The short ride back to the Origin.

Boobies and a dove living side by side with each other as they each do their own thing.

A finch looking for seeds.




Nazca Booby tending to a chick.

A young Frigatebird.

Galapagos Dove.

A Nazca Booby chick attempting to get a meal from an adult. 

A Booby using it's feet to keep an egg in the nest incubated.

An adult Frigatebird.

Our walk takes us closer to the edge of Genovesa where we hope to see an Owl that is not nocturnal as most owls have become.  The Owl is the top of the food chain here since there are no hawks on Genovesa.  Consequently they hunt in the daylight.

There are hundreds of birds in the sky in every direction.

Everywhere you look there is a bird.


And of course more Marine Iguanas.

A Finch and an Iguana ignore each other as they don't compete in any way.

Mockingbird.



Lava Cactus.


 

Marine Iguanas have adapted for life on the Galapagos islands.  Their food source has become algae on rocks in the sea and they excrete excess salt their cousins on the mainland don't have to worry about.





Everywhere around us Boobies are nesting.


A Galapagos Mockingbird.

Day Two - Genovesa
Three excursions today starting early with an advanced nature walk.  
After a short ride in the zodiac we climb a set of steep stairs to reach the top of Genovesa.
A Frigatebird.

The path is clearly delineated.  Our guide talks about the nesting grounds we are about to explore. 

There are birds nesting just about everywhere.

These birds have no natural predator in the Galapagos so they are not afraid of humans.

Juvenile Red Footed Booby.  Later in life their feet will become red.


A very young Booby waits for it's parent to return.


There are a couple of Finch varieties in the Galapagos.


A juvenile Frigatebird.


A Nazca Booby with a chick.

The Red Footed Booby.

Red Footed Boobies are the only Booby that nests in trees.

Currently it's almost 7pm on day two.   Great day in Genovesa today with three excursions.   Unfortunately that means I've got a lot of pictires to go through.    
A recap discussion and lecture on the Galapagos is about to start, then dinner.    
Today's photo dump when I can.

After dinner I ventured outside to see how the night sky was looking.  The cloud cover from earlier remained so I returned to my cabin to go through some pictures. 
Around 10:00pm I went out on my balcony and saw what I thought might be the Milky Way off my balcony.  Sure enough an app confirmed it so I went out to the deck eight forward star gazing deck that I took the pictures of Kicker Rock from.
I haven't spent a lot of time tweaking this just yet, but here is what I captured with a long exposure. 

 

The ship offers a premium internet option which I knew I'd have to purchase if I wanted to post very much at all.  $183 unlocks higher speeds and up to four devices.


 

At 7pm we had our destination talk specific to our next day at Prince Philip's Steps.  This back in the Explorers Lounge.
The bar menu for the lounge.

I saw the dinner menu outside the main dining room while walking through this area.

 

At 4:30pm we had the mandatory safety briefing.  We had been instructed a number of times to watch the safety briefing on our cabin TV's and acknowledge the video on the cabin TV.   After the safety drill we all gathered in the Explorers Lounge on deck four for our first orientation talk.  

After the talk some groups were asked to meet in the marina on deck 3 to secure snorkeling equipment.  I headed up to deck 8 forward to see Kicker Rock up close as we had been sailing slowly in this direction since the start of the safety briefing.
Sunset was taking place and a National Geographic ship had completed their sail past Kicker Rock.





With the naked eye you could easily spot hundreds of birds flying around or nesting on the rocks.





With that it was my turn to visit the marina to get my snorkel gear.

Basic internet is included and the Silver Origin has Starlink internet service.

A look back at the harbor.

Kicker Rock in the distance.

How the island looks from the sea,

At 3:30pm our suites were ready.
I'm staying in a Classic Balcony cabin.   Walking into the cabin the bathroom is on the left and a walk in closet is on the right.





The bathroom.

A sliding mirror panel allows you to see through the balcony door to the sea or it can be closed for privacy.

This cabin connects to the suite forward and the connecting door is in the walk in closet which can be closed off with a set of sliding mirror doors.



The balcony.



A bottle of Prosecco was waiting for me on ice. 

Radio chatter gave us permission to proceed so away we went to catch our first glimpse of the Silver Origin.


Our guide points out a Blue Footed Booby near us.

 



A glass of sparkling wine was waiting for us.

After a brief wait to check in it was up to lunch.  Not a bad lunch view...

 
 

It didn't take long to begin to see some marine life.


From here we board zodiacs for the ride out to the ship.



They can only accommodate one zodiac arriving at a time followed by the check in process so we took a tour of the harbor while waiting our turn to arrive to the ship.

Once through immigration we collected our luggage and rolled them outside to a waiting truck.  From there we would board busses for the short 10 minute trip to the harbor. 


There are a limited number of busses on this island and so we had to wait for a bus to drop off the first set of guests and come back for us.  
A benefit of waiting is that our naturalists were talking about various things and wait...  along comes a giant centipede measuring about six inches long.  These are pretty rare apparently and our guides were excited to see one.

Some of the sights around the village on the ride to the harbor.




 

Departing Guayaquil we were able to see more of the extent of this large city.

The flight over to the Galapagos islands was smooth and pretty much a straight shot.

Soon we were able to get our first glimpse of the Galapagos islands.



Kicker Rock, something we will see more of later.

I inadvertently captured the Silver Origin in this next photo.  The ship is towards the left near land waiting an anchor for us.



With that we had arrived to the Galapagos Islands.

Either that or it's so easy to compromise the hackers would think they are in a honey pot to catch and track them so they would immediately stop and back out.

At 4:30pm we had the mandatory safety briefing.  We had been instructed a number of times to watch the safety briefing on our cabin TV's and acknowledge the video on the cabin TV.   After the safety drill we all gathered in the Explorers Lounge on deck four for our first orientation talk.  

After the talk some groups were asked to meet in the marina on deck 3 to secure snorkeling equipment.  I headed up to deck 8 forward to see Kicker Rock up close as we had been sailing slowly in this direction since the start of the safety briefing.
Sunset was taking place and a National Geographic ship had completed their sail past Kicker Rock.





With the naked eye you could easily spot hundreds of birds flying around or nesting on the rocks.





With that it was my turn to visit the marina to get my snorkel gear.

At 7pm we had our destination talk specific to our next day at Prince Philip's Steps.  This back in the Explorers Lounge.
The bar menu for the lounge.

I saw the dinner menu outside the main dining room while walking through this area.

 

The destination talk.


I'm not going to post these for every day but here is how the rest of today and day two will play out.

 

After dinner I ventured outside to see how the night sky was looking.  The cloud cover from earlier remained so I returned to my cabin to go through some pictures. 
Around 10:00pm I went out on my balcony and saw what I thought might be the Milky Way off my balcony.  Sure enough an app confirmed it so I went out to the deck eight forward star gazing deck that I took the pictures of Kicker Rock from.
I haven't spent a lot of time tweaking this just yet, but here is what I captured with a long exposure. 

 

Day Two - Genovesa
Three excursions today starting early with an advanced nature walk.  
After a short ride in the zodiac we climb a set of steep stairs to reach the top of Genovesa.
A Frigatebird.

The path is clearly delineated.  Our guide talks about the nesting grounds we are about to explore. 

There are birds nesting just about everywhere.

These birds have no natural predator in the Galapagos so they are not afraid of humans.

Juvenile Red Footed Booby.  Later in life their feet will become red.


A very young Booby waits for it's parent to return.


There are a couple of Finch varieties in the Galapagos.


A juvenile Frigatebird.


A Nazca Booby with a chick.

The Red Footed Booby.

Red Footed Boobies are the only Booby that nests in trees.

Marine Iguanas have adapted for life on the Galapagos islands.  Their food source has become algae on rocks in the sea and they excrete excess salt their cousins on the mainland don't have to worry about.





Everywhere around us Boobies are nesting.


A Galapagos Mockingbird.

Our walk takes us closer to the edge of Genovesa where we hope to see an Owl that is not nocturnal as most owls have become.  The Owl is the top of the food chain here since there are no hawks on Genovesa.  Consequently they hunt in the daylight.

There are hundreds of birds in the sky in every direction.

Everywhere you look there is a bird.


And of course more Marine Iguanas.

A Finch and an Iguana ignore each other as they don't compete in any way.

Mockingbird.



Lava Cactus.


 

Boobies and a dove living side by side with each other as they each do their own thing.

A finch looking for seeds.




Nazca Booby tending to a chick.

A young Frigatebird.

Galapagos Dove.

A Nazca Booby chick attempting to get a meal from an adult. 

A Booby using it's feet to keep an egg in the nest incubated.

An adult Frigatebird.

Not bad as our first expedition excursion but it was time to return to the ship going back down the steep set of stairs roughly carved out of the rocks.  Our guide explains how best to proceed.

Silver Origin waiting for us.

This is considered a "dry landing" as we don't get wet getting in or out of the zodiac.


Looking back at Prince Philip's Steps.

The short ride back to the Origin.