I've been to Colorado Springs twice. The first time I went was over Labor Day in 2004 for a 4 day weekend. This year, it was more to go visit my sister and her family, but I did manage to squeeze in a couple of excursions on the side. The first 2 days of our visit was indoors, it was constantly raining in Colorado Springs. My first visit to Colorado, we went rafting down the Arkansas River. It had been my 2nd experience rafting, the Arkansas River was pretty tame in comparison to the rafting that I had done in Costa [View Full Entry]

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My last day in Ecuador, I decided to take a day excursion to Cotopaxi. It was close enough to Quito, and I was rather curious about this volcano. I was really excited about getting up close and personal with a volcano, even though there were no lava streams flowing down the sides. On a clear day in Quito, you can see Cotopaxi. It reaches a height of 19,347 feet, and is the second highest summit in Edcuador. Little did I know that Ecuador has plenty of volcanoes (some active, others dormant). On our way, we stopped to take photos, before the [View Full Entry]

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Day 8 - Our life on the boat would come to an end in the morning. We docked at Santa Cruz. Our morning, and last excursion would take us to the Darwin Station. The Charles Darwin Research Station was established in 1964. It is a great place to visit, to learn about marine conservation as well as terrestrial conservation. We got to watch a short movie, which featured land and marine critters. Also, the station places emphasis on keeping the Galapagos Islands preserved. A real treat was seeing Lonesome George. Lonesome George is the last known Pinta Island Tortoise. There are [View Full Entry]

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Day 7 - We sailed to Santiago Island. Also known as James and San Salvador, it has numerous landing sites. Santiago was a favorite island for whalers and pirates. Our first morning excursion was on James Bay. It was an easy walk. The sand was quite dark, almost black, but it was soft to walk on. We saw Fur Sea Lions. The difference between Fur Sea Lions and Galapagos Sea Lions is the Fur Sea Lion is smaller in size, has thicker fur, and the ears are barely visible. There were masses of Marine Iguanas, it was careful walking. Perhaps, one [View Full Entry]

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Day 6 - We took a quick stop at Sombrero Chino on our way to Bartolome Islands. Snorkeling in Sombrero Chino was awesome!! The water was clear, temperature was comfortable, and it was sunny. While snorkeling, I encountered a Shark underneath a rock, took a photo, but nothing happened. My camera had ran low on batteries. In the afternoon, we arrived at Bartolome. We saw 2 Penguins on the shore. [View Full Entry]

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Day 5 - We sailed to the island of North Seymour. Seymour Island is one of the more exciting islands when it comes to bird life. We saw Frigate Birds, Blue Footed Boobies, and Swallow Tailed Gulls. The Frigatebirds were neat to watch. Frigatebirds are known for their red pouch on their necks. During mating season the males thrown back their heads, inflate the pouch (sometimes to the size of a soccer ball), and shake trying to capture the attention of female frigates. Frigatebirds named for the warships once used by pirates are the pirates of Galapagos birds. Frigatebirds are poor [View Full Entry]

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Day 4 - We sailed to Santa Fe Island and arrived early in the morning. Thankfully, the sailing was much smoother than the night before. Santa Fe Island is located in the southeastern part of the Galapagos Islands. On our way to our morning excursion, we were treated to a swim by of White Tipped Reef Sharks. Totally incredible! It was hard to photograph them from the side of a dinghy. Our morning excursion, we saw several Land Iguanas. Most of the Land Iguanas I saw were beige to golden in color. One of my favorites was the Prickly Pear Cactus. [View Full Entry]

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Day 3 - Our sailing to Espanola was quite rough. It would take 8 hours to sail to Espanola. I was grateful to wear sea bands so I didn't experience any sea sickness. If I had to compare the sailing to white water rafting, I would say this would be Level III. It truly was rock and roll in the boat. Espanola is the oldest and the southernmost island in Galapagos. This island is secluded so the wildlife on Espanola has adapted to the environment. Our first excursion, we managed to see quite a few Sea Lions. The Male Bull Sea [View Full Entry]

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Day 2 - We arrived at the island of Floreana. This island is one of the oldest islands in Galapagos, and is about 5 hours west of Santa Cruz Island. Floreana has quite a history of buccaneers, whalers, convicts, and colonists. In 1793, British Whalers set up a Post Office Barrel to send letters to and from England. Today, tourists drop off and pick up letters or post cards without stamps, to be carried to their destinations. The postcards we saw were from all over the world. One post card was rather sad, a young man was saying his "final goodbye" [View Full Entry]

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Day 1 - We flew from Quito to Baltra island on a 727 jet. I had visions of flying to Baltra on a puddle jumper, but I was wrong. I was hoping to see Iguanas being chased off the runway, as I had heard these stories. The only creature I saw at the airport (besides tourists) were Lizards. We were ferried over to Santa Cruz Island. Our ferry ride was entertaining, we saw a Sea Lion sitting on a dinghy and 2 Sea Turtles mating. We finally arrived at our boat. I took this trip through Gap Adventures. Our boat (Gap [View Full Entry]

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