November 17-19: Exploring Cuzco, Peru
	November 6-9 and 16, 2014: Exploring Quito, Ecuador
	Return to Index for 2014

The second major event of our South American Odyssey was our cruise on the Celebrity Xpedition through the Galapagos Islands- of Charles Darwin fame. This trip to South America would tick off two "bucket list" items, and this would be the first of them.

We have just spent a few days on the South American mainland in the high mountain capital of Ecuador- the beautiful city of Quito. Our last night there (and our only night when we return) were actually part of the cruise package, but we will begin this section of the album with our departure to the islands on the morning of November 9th.

On the map at right, you can see right where the Galapagos Islands are- about 500 miles off the coast of South America and due west of Quito.

This index page will encompass our flight to the islands, the cruise itself, and then our flight back to Quito at the end of the cruise.

This will not be a typical cruise. First, we won't be on a large ship with all kinds of amenities, multiple restaurants and bars, and thousands of passengers. No, this will be more like cruising on a ship from Greenpeace- more like being observers on a working vessel. No shows, no fitness center, no spa, and no movie theatre. There will be lectures and daily excursions to the various islands- all conducted by experienced biologists, geologists, and botanists. The large tenders and cruise ship docks will be replaced by 12-passenger, soft-sided, Zodiacs (the colloquial name for the inflatables the ship carries).

GALAPAGOS ISLANDS INDEX Sunday, November 9 Quito's J. W. Marriott Flying to the Galapagos Boarding the Xpedition Monday, November 10 Santiago Island Rabida Island Tuesday, November 11 Mangrove Cruising Hiking Isabela Island A Zodiac Cruise Wednesday, November 12 Santiago Island/Sullivan Bay Lava Fields Hike Bartolome Island Summit Snorkeling off Bartolome Thursday, November 13 Santa Cruz Island Snorkeling on Santa Cruz North Seymour Island Friday, November 14 San Cristobal Island Tijeratas Hike Interpretive Center Puerto Baquerizo Moreno Cerro Brujo Saturday, November 15 Santa Cruz Island Galapagos Tortoises Puerto Ayora Sunday, November 16 Returning to Quito

This was such an amazing cruise, and resulted in so many pictures and movies, that I will doing something a bit different. I am treating our cruise through the Galapagos Islands as a trip of its own and, consequently, it has this- its own index page. This index page will give you entree into the individual days of our Galapagos expedition- six full days of cruising the shore excursions, and two partial days of the travel to and return from the Islands themselves. Using this index, you can go directly to a specific page (in case there is some particular destination you would like to visit or activity you would like to do.

To use the index, you can click on any particular date to go directly to the page for that date. I have listed the major activities for each day in case there is something specific you want to see. But if you would just like to accompany us on all the days of our expeditionary cruise through the Galapagos Islands, as most of you will, just click on the first day in the upper left corner of the index. Once on that first page (or any page) there will be the usual links to get you to the next or previous page(day) of our cruise through the Galapagos.

Whenever you are ready to continue through the photo album (in which the next group of pages will be devoted to our time in Cuzco, Peru), please use one of the "RETURN" links that you will find at the top or bottom of each page to come back to the top of this page. There, you will find the links that will take you onward or backward through the photo album.

We hope you enjoy coming along with us on this amazing trip through the Galapagos Islands. From the first day we began planning for this cruise, we knew that it was going to be one of those "once-in-a-lifetime" occurrences that people often talk about. As it turned out, even that expectation turned out to be woefully under-descriptive of our actual experience.

A vanishingly small number of world citizens will ever be able to visit this amazing place. Fred and I, and I assume Greg as well, consider ourselves fantastically fortunate to have been among that number. And to give credit where credit is most assuredly due, we are grateful to Greg for suggesting this cruise in the first place, and his generosity in making it more affordable for us.

We hope that you will find these album pages to be enjoyable, and that they can provide some small taste of what this magical place is like. If you can come here yourself, we think you will go away as awed by it all as we were.