Galapagos Islands - San Cristobal, Ochoa Beach

After spending the night in Quito, we flew to the Galapagos Island of San Cristobal. From there, we met up with our guide, Hanzel, from Gap Adventures and took a small "dinghy" boat (8 people sitting up on the sides of the boat) to our "big" boat, which housed 16 passengers (8 cabins) and a crew of 8. I don't know that any of us were expecting to arrive in an open air, one-room airport, have our luggage brought to us on a tractor pulling a trailer (after being sniffed for drugs by a dog) and then immediately be ushered onto a small boat with our carry-ons (they brought our other luggage on separately- there literally was not enough room on this boat for us AND the luggage :).

After a briefing and delicious lunch on the boat, went started our adventure by visiting Ochoa beach on San Cristobal. We hung out with sea lions, several people snorkeled (although I didn't that first day) and enjoyed the beautiful beach and scenery. Getting on and off the small dinghies to get to shore for our "wet landing," which was new to us at first, quickly became routine. All our days were structured for us into excursions of wet or dry landings and three meals a day were provided by our wonderful crew. Although we were moving each day in the early am and had plenty of activities planned each day, I found it relaxing to have someone else in charge of my schedule. Other than waking up at a certain time each day, I didn't have any decisions to make or requirements. They rang a bell for mealtimes, where they provided a huge variety of fruit, salads, main entree and dessert. I sure could get used to this life! ;)

These pictures are from our day at the beach. The sea lions were all around, sleeping in the sand, under trees, some in the water with the snorkelers, and another at the foot of my beach towel, curiously sniffing my shoes. What a beginning to this adventurous trip- seeing all the sea lions up close right away, though we were to find out that it is not at all unusual here in the magical Galapagos! To see more pictures from this day, visit my photo website. Enjoy! :)