Cruise the Galapagos Islands.

Morning activity 1: a panga ride around Champion Islet, skirting the cliffs along its edge, looking for birds. We had seen a Blue-footed Booby the previous day on South Plaza Island. Beto, our naturalist/guide, said we would see more, along with other birds. "Booby" comes from the word bobo, which means clown… and the reason their feet are blue is not because of skin pigment. It's something in the skin that reflects the sun and makes their legs and feet appear blue.

Let's see, what else did we see… Masked Booby, Swallow-tailed gulls, another Red-beaked Tropic Bird, Perigrine Falcon feeding on a Yellow Warbler, Floreana Mocking Bird (of only 60 in existence... and we saw one), the ubiquitous Frigatebird, and, of course, lots of colorful crabs and sea lions on the rocks.

Back at the boat, we were treated to a cooking demonstration of Ceviche by the on-board chef. It consisted of red peppers, cilantro, tuna, and other ingredients… which became part of our lunch.

Floreana… another island in Galapagos, one of two islands (San Cristobal being the other) with a fresh water source. Because of this, it was popular with whalers and pirates a few hundred years ago. There's also a cool story about the Wittmer family who set up residence on the island in the 1920's. Beto shared some interesting stories and vintage video footage about the family. It was to the island that occupied our afternoon.

We took a makeshift bus called a chiva up a gravel road to the 'highlands', where we visited another giant tortoise preserve and a farmer. He owned 300 acres of land on the small island… had pigs, cows, and horses, grew corn, lemons, pineapples, and potatoes. His family first settled on the land in 1939.

It would be our last night on the boat. While we were asleep, the captain would take the craft to the coast of Santa Cruz Island.