Ken the cruiser

Just curious, were you able to go to either Punta Pitt and/or Espanola Island on your Southern Loop itinerary? For us, even though we are currently on the Inner (northern) loop on the Flora, Punta Pitt was closed to us because of the Avian Flu outbreak which started here a little over 3 months ago from what I was reading. Then also mentioned Espanola Island was closed to tourists as well. Unfortunately, Punta Pitt is the only stop that has the Red-footed Booby and Espanola Island is the only stop that offers access to the Waved Albatross. Just curious if you were able visit either stop on your cruise.

Day 7 - Dec 15 - San Cristobal Island Our morning excursion included a bus ride to the highlands to a Breeding Center with time afterwards to walk around the harbor before tendering back to the ship for lunch. San Cristobal had their greeting committee waiting for us once we got off the zodiac. Galapagos Mockingbird This little tortoise is less than a year old. And these are just a few years old waiting their turn to go out into the forest! And off we go to see some much larger adult Galapagos Giant Tortoises. Yellow Warbler Sally Lightfoot Crab More Galapagos sea lions hanging out on the harbor rocks. Galapagos Lava Gull Darwin Finch

Thanks! To be honest, I’m just going by what the naturalist tells me. But thanks for the correction as i don’t think I’ve taken a photo of a Ruddy Turnstone prior to this. 😁

Our afternoon excursion was to North Seymour Island which was basically a nursery for young Frigatebirds, Blue-footed Boobies, Swallowtail Gulls, and Sea Lions. Our first stop was to visit some sea lions. Among the rocks where the sea lions and their pups were, there were also some young Swallowtail Gulls with one adult near by. There was also a Lava Heron Along the way to the Frigatebird and Blue-footed Booby “nursery”, we came across a very small Green Finch. and a Galapagos Sandpiper Now on to the nursery! Young Blue-footed Booby stretching its wings. Blue-footed Booby with her young baby Blue-footed Booby sitting on her nest on top of the leafy mound. We came across some Galapagos Land Lizards along the way as well. Juvenile Frigatebirds practicing their flying techniques. An adult male Frigatebird with its puffy red neck! Young Frigatebirds just hanging out! Young Blue-footed Booby The same Blue-footed Booby from a different angle. Juvenile Blue-footed Booby Opuntia Cactus Young Frigatebird Baby Frigatebird Of course, there were some Brown Pelicans hanging out along the shore as we headed back to the zodiac Then there was this cute little lizard I had to take a picture of. 😁 Another Brown Pelican letting us know our ride was here! 😂 Then after we got back to the Flora and had dinner, we got to witness another beautiful sunset! 😁

Our morning walk was at Las Bachas on Santa Cruz Island, which mostly included walking along the beach observing a variety of wildlife. 😁 On the zodiac ride we saw a group of Frigatebirds flying overhead, the most we’ve seen flying together at any one time. Galapagos Sanderling Galapagos Brown Pelican who definitely has a lot of feathers to keep clean! 😂 Marine Iguana My DW found this cute Galapagos Lady Bug on her hand. I know, who knew! 😂 Prickly Pear Cactus A Green Sea Turtle had been napping early in the morning and this was the path it took back to the water. Ghost Crab and its nearby nest. They were all along the beach, but quickly slid back into their homes if anyone got too close. A flock of Blue-footed Boobys flying by. Finally, I was able to take a photo of a Galapagos Finch. Those little birds are quick and don’t stay in one place for very long! Galapagos Sanderling Sally Lightfoot Crabs crawling on the rocks Yellow Warbler Marine Iguana Galapagos Black-necked Stilt Galapagos Carpenter Bee! A Galapagos White-cheeked Pintail Duck racing against a Marine Iguana. 😂 This small island was loaded with various types of birds just hanging out. Another yellow warbler Sally Lightfoot Crabs playing king of the rock! Guess who won? 😂 A Galapagos Dragon Fly! 😁 Great Blue Heron Another Frigatebird wishing us well as we headed back to the ship. 😁

Day 6 - Dec14 (Thursday) - Santa Cruz Island (wet) and North Seymour Island (dry) In the morning we’re doing a walk along the beach excursion. Then at Seymour Island, the excursion will be a long walk.

I take it back when I said we haven’t anchored overnight yet at a port. It’s 9:15 pm and we just dropped anchored at Santa Cruz where we have a morning excursion tomorrow, and the ship feels a little wiggly right now! 😱

It took a lot of multiple clicks from different angles using my iPhone SE camera. Today wasn’t too bad. I think I only averaged 150 pictures on each excursion! Yesterday, I think I averaged around 500 on each excursion! 😂

The views from the top definitely would have been awesome. We were also told at the beginning of our cruise that Puerto Pitt on San Cristobal Island, where the Red-footed Boobys hang out, as well as some other areas such as two sites on Espanola Island where the Waved Albatross breed, have been temporarily closed starting last Sunday to visitors due to Avian Flu. The Galápagos national park activated emergency health protocols on Sunday following the report of dozens of dead and sick birds on two islands, Wolf and Genovesa, in the northern part of the Pacific archipelago, which lies about 1,000km from the South American continent. That would really have be a bummer if we were scheduled to visit there as that’s one of our fondest memories from our Xpedition cruise 8 years ago. Hopefully they will be able to get the Avian Flu under control soon. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/20/galapagos-islands-avian-flu-outbreak

This afternoon’s “long walk” excursion up the mountain was canceled due to rough waters at the landing site. If you look closely on the righthand side of the photo, you can see the wood walkway, which starts near the dry landing site, that we would have used to walk to the top. We then signed up for the zodiac ride which took us to the back side of the island passing Pinnacle Rock along the way. But we did get to see more wildlife on our trek, to include my first sighting of the Nazca Booby flying overhead. 😁 Galapagos sea lions lounging around A couple of Galapagos penguins If you look closely in the lower lefthand corner of the picture, you can see where the two penguins were hanging out. Sally Lightfoot Crabs Mollugo Lava Flowers Pinnacle Rock Blue-footed Booby in its nest on the side of Pinnacle Rock Nazca Booby flying overhead Frigatebird resting on a small outcropping on Pinnacle Rock. By the time we got back to the ship the waves had died down somewhat near the original excursion’s landing spot, but it was still pretty rough. Then after dinner, there was another beautiful sunset. Then tonight after 10 pm we are going to go out on our balcony to see if it is clear enough to see some meteors busting through the atmosphere from the Geminid Meteor Shower. 🤞 https://spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=13&month=12&year=2023

I just wanted to say, while I’m sitting on our balcony watching life go by as we wait to go on our afternoon excursion: - If your budget allows it, booking a sky suite with a balcony on the Flora has been awesome so far, and the internet works great, even with the sliding glass door closed. BTW it’s the cheapest cabin category on the Flora. - We would avoid booking an infinite veranda for one main reason other than the AC shuts off when the window is open. Flys and other flying insects. Yesterday evening we had to eat our dinner inside the cabin rather than out on the balcony as the flies were quite plentiful outside. Hence, unless you like flys in your cabin, you definitely would not be opening your IV window at Tagus Cove or any other stops where they might be flying around. - When we booked this cruise in Dec 2021, the S2 Sky Suite with Veranda was about the same price as an Xpedition suite, around $8700 pp. By March 2022, our cabin price had gone up by $1000 pp, and by June 2022 it was $1700 pp more than what we booked it for. So IMHO if you’re looking to book a Galapagos cruise on the Flora, book it as soon as the new itineraries get released. That’s all I got other than to say the Flora is an awesome ship and the service has been the best we have ever experienced on any cruise we’ve been on before! But then there are only 98 passengers too! 😁 For those interested here is the average monthly forecast for Baltra and probably most of the Galápagos Islands. https://meteum.ai/baltra-island/month/may

Pictures from our morning “long walk” across the Sullivan Bay lava fields. We brought walking sticks with rubber tips and I’m sure glad we did. The ship had wood walking sticks for you to use, but the rubber tips really made the difference as the path is literally walking over lava flows for most of the 2-mile journey. Our “chariot” has arrived! 😁 Some groups took the high “road” around while we took the low “road”. Of course, we had a greeting committee waiting for us. 😁 Sometimes the high tide comes up 10-15’ which is why this log was so far inland. But it was high and dry today for our visit. Lava cactus Mollugo This is an example of the grass starting to grow in this “younger” flow. According to an internet search, this “small, white, diffuse halos surrounding the darkest lava flows are probably sulfur-dioxide-rich snows and frosts that have been vaporized by the hot lava.” I know, who knew! 😂 Candelabra Cactus. This one is around 100 years old. Tree Mold. This is where a tree was when the lava flow moved around it, then subsequently “consumed” it. BTW in the lower part of the photo is what the bottom of the ship’s walking sticks looks like. More mollugo Bartolome Island off in the distance. Galapago Locus, first jumping away from me (see its hind legs) which I was then able to catch up to and get a better picture (somewhat). What can I say, it’s an iPhone SE! 😂 Our “chariot” has returned! Lava Lizard Brown Pelican with Bartolome Island in the background Can you see the little Lava Lizard in the picture? 😁 Our next stop, Bartolome Island! 😁

A don’t believe we will be anchored overnight at any of the afternoon locations on this itinerary. So far there has been a very gentle “rolling” when moving overnight to the next stop which pretty much puts us to sleep in about 3-5 minutes! 😁 But at the same time, the weather has been great. Just a heads up, though. The rainy season here is between January and March and it starts getting hot here after that. Both of our cruises here have been in late November (8 years ago) and now in early December and we’ve had no issues with the weather (or waves) either time. BTW as I’m sitting on my balcony typing this, here is my view of the Xpedition. Right now it’s about 11:55 pm, so they show be heading shortly to their next stop.

Day 5 - Dec 13 (Wednesday) - Sullivan Bay (Santiago Island) and Bartolome Island I guess we won’t be moving positions during lunch today as Sullivan Bay is off our starboard bow and Bartolome Island is off our port side. Look who is parked next to us, the Xpedition, as their morning stop is at Bartolome Island before heading to Santa Cruz Island for their afternoon stop. Today, we’re going on 2 long walks. There were options that included tendering, but “strolling” through the lava fields and walking to the top of a mountain sounded like more fun after tendering on both excursions yesterday. 😁

We will be on the Sapphire Princess in an aft-facing cabin which hopefully will enhance our viewing options of both the wildlife and the beautiful scenery down there. 😁

FWIW our next cruise will be a 30-day B2B starting in mid January to South America which will include 4 days cruising around the Antarctica Peninsula along with seeing a bunch of wildlife in Argentina, Chile and the Falkland Islands! 😁

While we had lunch, they moved the Flora to Tagus Cove. Our 1-hour afternoon tender ride consisted of a zodiac cruise along the cliffs of Tagus Cove, which was just as awesome as our morning adventure, but in an entirely different way as you will see. This time we were greeted by a couple of sea lions playing in the water. We initially cruised to the far end of the cliffs and worked our way back. Our first stop was a Blue-footed Booby hangout! 😁 Brown Noddy Terns Brown Pelican and a Blue-footed Booby hanging out together Galapagos Marine Iguana Here is a threesome made up of a Pelican, Booby, and a Tern. Peek-a-boo! A sea lion just popped up from behind the rocks when we arrived. Brown Noddy Tern heading simewhere Sea lion, Wingless Cormorant, and a Brown Noddy Tern A couple of Wingless Cormorants enjoying a quiet moment together. Can you find the “round” starfish amongst the barnacles? 😁 We had a visitor in the form of a sea lion pop up as we were cruising along as well! Male and female marine iguanas. Any every once in a while, a Blue-footed Booby would fly overhead, probably on the way to their group hangout. An adult Brown Pelican Then we came upon this group of marine iguanas. with a Galapagos Penguin hoping the didn’t see him. One of the 5 volcanos in the Galapagos I just wanted to point out our water shoes are doing fantastic, and highly recommend getting a pair if you decide to come to the Galapagos! Galapagos sea lion taking a nap Wingless cormorant. And then to top it off, we got to see some more Galapagos Penguins! 😁 Before heading back to the ship with a Brown Pelican waving goodbye! Then it was back to the cabin to enjoy another beautiful sunset! 😁 Only took 493 photos on the afternoon excursion! 😂

Besides all that, boxed water and all the Starbucks specialty drinks, to include their very tasty hot chocolate, are free too!

For those that might be interested in an alternative to the lunch buffet in the main dining room (which has a different ethnic theme each day), here is the menu for the Ocean Grill and Bar up on Deck 7. My DW also tried their hot chocolate and it got her stamp of approval.

Day 5 - Dec 12 (Tuesday) Elizabeth Bay and Tagus Cove on Isabela Island In the morning we did an awesome 1-hour zodiac ride around Elizabeth Bay. It wasn’t long before we came upon these 2 Black Sea Turtles getting a little frisky. Then came the Galapagos Penguins, which by the way were quite plentiful as you will see, with a Brown Pelican flying overhead! Here were 2 cormorants (I think) just enjoying the weather like we were on this beautiful morning in the high 70s. 😁 This is a Blue-footed Booby diving for breakfast! and then off it went to find a place to perch and ponder its next target area! 😂 Frigatebird flying overhead Galapagos Sea Lion More penguins swimming around with a Blue-footed Booby doing a little grooming. All totaled it seemed like we saw at least 50 or more penguins swimming around in the different areas of Elizabeth Bay we visited. And not to be forgotten, there were also a few flies that stopped by to say hi every now and then! 😂 A Blue-footed Booby probably heading to its next feeding area. A young “juvenile” Brown Pelican More Galapagos penguins Then it was time to head into the mangrove area to see what’s hanging out in there. Lava Heron Sally Lightfoot Crabs A Galapagos Mockingbird keeping its distance up in the tree. Galapagos Sea Lion Lava Heron heading over to find a good spot to watch for something to eat. And to our surprise, we weren’t alone! 😱 The water always seems so amazingly clear here in the Galapagos! What I found interesting about these next two Brown Pelicans is that the first one appears to have a white head while the second one has a brown head. I wonder why that is? Maybe the first one is an older adult while the second one is still in its young good looking stage. 🤔 Another bunch of Sally Lightfoot Crabs A couple of Blue-footed Boobys and 2 penguins swimming in the background A Flightless Cormorant and a Lava Heron on the rocks to the right of it. Flightless Cormorant A couple of Frigatebirds having fun flying around Once we got back and went out on our cabin balcony, these two Brown Pelicans were slowly cruising by. BTW I took over 400 phots this morning and these were the ones that made it to the finals! 😂

Thanks! The thing about me and pigeons is this. You may have noticed in my below signature I like to do Live From threads when we’re on a cruise, which is quite often especially since cruising started back up. I also love taking pictures of wildlife, big or tiny. However, in some locations the only wildlife we see, besides those cute little insects, are pigeons, and to be honest who really pays that much attention to pigeons and insects when you’re on a cruise. So to try to make my Live From thread picture taking more enjoyable at every stop, I’m always on the “hunt” for pigeons and sometimes insects and try to name them accordingly. However, a pigeon is just a pigeon, right? 😂 What has amazed me since starting this trend is that while looking for any “elusive pigeons” (or doves), it helps me focus on taking pictures of all kinds of wildlife, big or small, that we might see on our cruising adventures. For us we’re cruiseaholics and searching for the elusive pigeons just makes it all that more enjoyable. 😁

We haven’t been to a stop yet where there have been a lot of birds congregating together … yet. But we could definitely hear them when we were walking on the trails today if a mockingbird or finch had something to say. So far the sea lions have made the loudest sounds, especially the larger males when we start heading in their direction. 😂

We did! It got a little warm in the afternoon, but all in all it was a pretty day!

Day 4 - Dec 11 (Monday) - Afternoon excursion walk around Rabida Island We had our 2nd wet landing of the day and had a greeting committee awaiting us! 😁 Male and female Galapagos Sea Lions Then we walked a short way to a small lake where we saw flamingos and White-cheeked Pintail Ducks. Then it was time to head inland and uphill where we ran into a couple of Galapagos Lava Lizards. along with some dormant plant life, to include Incense Trees, that come back to life starting in February during the January - March rainy season. And a Hidden Mickey! I know, who would have thought one would be way out here in the Galapagos! 😂 We also saw a couple of Frigatebirds and a Brown Pelican along the way flying overhead. Once we got back to the beach, we saw a Blue-footed Booby flying back and forth along the shoreline looking for something to eat. The next sequence is of a Brown Pelican flying by. I posted all 4 shots to show what some of the Santiago Island terrain in the background looks like. Then it was time to head back to the ship. The beach area was also used for snorkeling on the lefthand side. Then finally after relaxing back in the cabin for a short while, it was time for another sunset dinner on our balcony. 😁

This afternoon's 1.5 mile walking excursion is on Rabida Island. Here’s where the Flora is currently located. Here’s a photo on Santiago Island, which we were just at this morning.