Galapagos, Ecuador

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January 1, 2014

Today we left our winter home in Arizona and traveled to Guayaquil, Ecuador via Miami. Relatively painless connections and an overnight stay before our early morning flight to Baltra Island Airport and Santa Cruz Island, Galapagos.

January 2, 2014

Flight this morning from Guayaquil to Baltra Airport, Isla Baltra, Galapagos, Ecuador. Easy flight of under 2 hours.

Then some interesting ( to say the least ) connections from the airport via short bus ride, a short ferry ride, and a taxi trip to Puerto Ayora. ( all with our bags - Note to self. --Travel Light !!! )

This last segment included a visit to a land turtle viewing area in the wild. This was a very interesting walk through some nice countryside and a very close up experience with some very large, and old, turtles as well as younger smaller animals. A nice break after flights and sitting a lot.

Enjoyed a good lunch at a small farm and a stop to view a lava tunnel created in the last eruption of one of the local volcanoes. The landscape here is covered with lava flows and it is very interesting to see what a couple of thousand years can do with erosion, sink holes ( collapse of the tunnels ), and now over grown with various types of vegetation depending on elevation.

Quite a change in the country side, on a short drive, from very dry lowlands with cacti and various levels of forested areas as we went higher and then down to sea level at Puerto Ayora.

On arrival another very short boat ride to our room for the night at Finch Bay Hotel. Very nice !!



Back to Puerto Aroya for a walk about and look around this small town.

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