Galapagos Islands - April, 2024

            We were up again this morning before dawn, had coffee at 6:00AM when they opened, then ate breakfast and got ready for the day's first excursion.  We selected Option 1, Long, easy walk, but skipped the optional swim/snorkel so that we could get back to the ship in time for my wife to go on the Advanced deep-water snorkel at 10:30.

Long walk at Punta Cormorant:

            We were back on-board by 10 with plenty of time to make the 10:30 snorkel, which took place around Champion Island:

            Wifey got back from snorkeling about 12:30 and we made our way down to the Seaside restaurant, where today's theme was Italian

            After lunch, we had about an hour before we needed to report back to the Discovery Lounge for our afternoon excursion.  We selected Option 4, Tender ride and beach walk.

Post Office Bay:

            Hundreds of years ago, sailors would leave mail in the barrel at Post Office Bay and if another sailor happened to be headed in the right direction, they would take the mail from the barrel and deliver it.  In continuing with the tradition, tourists now leave post-cards in the barrel and when groups visit, they sort through the post-cards and take any that are from somewhere close to their home and then hand-deliver them after the trip.

            We were back onboard the Flora at about 6:00, which meant we had less than an hour to get back to the Discovery Lounge for tomorrow's excursion briefing.  Notice a pattern here?  This is a very active trip with not a lot of downtime.

             We attended the briefing, selected our excursions, then went to eat in the Seaside restaurant with our new friends that we had dinner with back in Quito after the city tour.  There was great food and great conversation and when we finished up at 9:00, we all decided to go up to the "Stargazing" area on Deck 8 forward:

            By 9:45, we all decided we were worn out from the day's activities, and headed to our cabins.

Final step count for Day 5: