I first took a five-day four-night tour of the Galapagos Islands on the
"Coral 2" boat (11 passengers (capacity of 22), 11 crew members) http://www.ecuadorexplorer.com/columbus/html/luxury.html,
visiting Baltra- Bartolome, Isabela, Fernandina, Puerto Egas- Rábida, and Santa Cruz
(Charles Darwin Station). Normally, I avoid "tourist" destinations, but
there is no practical low-cost way to quickly visit the Galapagos other than as a
tourist. (map following is courtesy of http://www.travelvantage.com/images/map_gala.gif)
The following maps are from National
Geographic
My outstanding tour guide in the Galapagos was Jhover Alvarez.
Contact Jhover if you are interested in the best tours or have
specialized travel needs. He speaks English, Spanish, German...
November 2000
Jhover Alvarez opens a Web site for the Galapagos Islands -- www.galapagosoptions.com
The most exciting experience here was the swimming and leaping of
hundreds of dolphins... following our boat traveling at approximately 35 miles per hour.
We didn't have cameras ready, and no one was willing to miss a second of this 20
minute spectacle to go below to retrieve a camera. Dozens of these beautiful beasts
kissed the bow of the boat and leaped many feet into the air within inches of our grasps
leaning over the rails... all the while a dozen of us cheering and singing with joy at the
top of our lungs... the dolphins responding with yet higher and higher leaps,
communicating with us through well aimed splashes and posturing. We reasoned that
these friends might be reincarnated visitors from the past. I found a link from Steve
Bloom Images at http://www.stevebloom.com/pages/fgallery.htm
to some really good "leaping dolphin" photos... please visit Steve's site, and
please observe his copyright notice. Here are a couple of Steve's thumbnails
published with permission, and linked to his original source photos at his site.
Here is an interesting "Virtual Galapagos" resource link at "terraquest."
Here are some self-describing-by-name photos from the Galapagos
Islands...
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