Ross Cunniff

This is the story of an epic adventure. These two photos are iconic of our experience: Orca off Isabela Same orca, different perspective This trip was nearly two years in the making. Jill's mom, Marie, started talking about a trip to Ecuador that a mutual friend of ours had made. I mentioned that I had always wanted to see the Galápagos Islands, and it turned out that she has, too. So we embarked on a grand plan. I started by researching various Galápagos tour groups; I found this website describing  Galápagos  trips in 2009 and 2013 particularly helpful. We chose Ecoventura for our tour group; they came highly recommended, have been in operation for a long time, and have a strong commitment to sustainability . I also highly recommend them; they were very helpful preparing for the trip, and the service provided by the crew and guides was top-notch. For a ship, we chose the MV Origin , partly because of its very large windows (hoping that would reduce chances ...

Still recovering from our bout of gastro, Jill, Marie and I waved goodbye to our fellow passengers as we rested up for a couple more hours: Sofia, crewmember, Leysa, Sarah, John, Mariangela, Pedro, Barb, Cedric, Suzanne, Pete, Panga pilot, Francois When it was time to go, we met everybody at a little cafe in Puerto Baquerizo Moreno. A yellow warbler pretended to be our barista: Yellow Warbler We walked to the bus; on the way, we saw a very large lizard - I think it is what a Lava Lizard looks like if it gets enough to eat: Lava Lizard? At the airport, I took my last wildlife photo on the Galápagos (this trip, anyway): Grasshopper Here are Jill and Marie preparing to board the airplane: Jill and Marie The flight was uneventful; it was cloudy, so I mostly watched the flight map: Flight map We got a taxi to our hotel (back at Parque Historico) and Jill and I did a little more exploring while Marie rested. We saw more hummingbirds: Short-taile...

This day was fun, but was marred by Jill coming down with a gastrointestinal bug (and then later Marie and I both ended up with it). If we had to pick a day to have this happen, this was a good day (no airplanes involved, mostly wildlife that we had seen). Marie and I were not yet experiencing symptoms, so we went on the bus to the highlands. There we saw a variety of Giant Galápagos Tortoises. The first were on the road to our destination: Galápagos Traffic Jam Tortoises on the road Galápagos Tortoise We of course all got out of the bus to look: Sarah, John, Suzanne, Fabricio, Pete, Cedric, Francois, Barb Tortoise stuck in barbed wire John, Francois, Cedric, Fabricio, Sarah, Pete, Marie, Barb, tortoise It was a good thing that we did, because one of the tortoises got its shell snagged by a barbed-wire fence. Our guide Fabricio pulled the strand up so the tortoise could get through. At our destination, we donned boots and wandered ...

Friday, September 29, 2017 found us at anchor off Rábida, the smallest island on our itinerary. It is known for its red sand beaches. We started with a nature walk. There were starfish washed up on shore: Starfish Pretty morning glories: Morning Glory Quite a few lava lizards: Lava Lizard Lava Lizard And we got our best look at the Galápagos Flycatcher: Galápagos Flycatcher Galápagos Flycatcher Galápagos Flycatcher Galápagos Flycatcher Galápagos Flycatcher We made our way to the top of a hill where we took a group portrait: Leysa, John, Pete, Barb, Jill, Sarah, Suzanne, Ross, Fabricio, Francois, Cedric On the way back down we passed by a salt lake with birds, including this White-cheeked Pintail Duck: White-cheeked Pintail Duck As usual, the mockingbirds kept pace. This one was rather cheeky: Galápagos Mockingbird On the beach we saw a beautiful family of Oystercatchers: Oystercatchers ...