Today brought a jam packed agenda where we started the day off bright and early with a morning hike up to the mid-point of an old volcano. While resting and listening to Omar Medina, our guide, talk about the area, we got to see a baby hawk that landed right in a small tree above our heads. Then the mom, who was not happy with him mingling with the riff raff, shooed him off!! She dive bombed him to shoo him away. Again, this was a highlight of Kathy’s day as she is fascinated with raptor bird species. We walked to the top of the lookout where we got to see the lava flowing out of Wolf volcano, which just started erupting while we were in the Galapagos! It was not the largest eruption, but it was still pretty impressive to see nature in action. We quickly descended down the mountain and were soon on the dinghy heading back to the ship. A quick turn around and soon we were dressed to go to our first snorkeling adventure. We felt lucky to swim with the penguins, turtles, and cormorants. The water was clear and warm. A short break later and we sat ourselves down for a lunch which impressed the heck out of us. A pig, head and all, with a piece of fruit in his mouth, potatoes, rice, a starter of shrimp cocktail, and of course the wonderful dessert that had a yummy caramelized plum in the center of a bed of peaches. Kathy and Dave, along with the rest of our companions at our table (Chris, Elena, and G), passed on the shrimp cocktail, but we have it on good authority that it was amazing.
The afternoon siesta was brief and soon we were on to our second snorkeling trip of the day. We saw iguanas eating algae at the bottom of the sea bed, turtles swimming in the ocean, golden rays, penguins, and cormorants. Spectacular snorkeling all day long was had by the whole group. The afternoon saw us visiting an entire colony of marine iguanas basking on the hot sand and rocks, facing the heat of the sun in order to warm up for the upcoming night. We saw sea lions playing in the shallow polls by the sandy beach and Dave saw a mother nursing her young sea lion. Kathy tried to bid good bye to our guide Omar in Spanish, but instead ended up insulting him. (Note to Kathy: When speaking in another language, make sure you know what you are saying!) Apparently the sentence, “Hasta la …..” has a whole different meaning if the last word is changed. Kathy has decided she better not wade into the Spanish language. Learning French is good enough and Elena helps her with Italian and keeps it PG-rated. The Yolita was soon off to get a better vantage point of the volcano erupting on Fernandino Island.
At 8 pm, we crossed the equator. Most people gathered in the bridge to watch the ship’s GPS tick down to 0° 0’ 0”. Then, we backed up to cross it again because some people had missed the opportunity to photograph the GPS. Then, we crossed again on our way to our next stop, which we arrived at about 4 am. Each time we crossed, we had a little celebration.