When Andy invited me to the Galapagos Islands, I knew I was in for the experience of a lifetime. Little did I know how many unique and indescribable experiences I would have. This is my account of my 16 day trip to one of the most amazing places on Earth…
I am so excited to start my adventure to one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen, San Cristobal, in the Galapagos Islands. We took an overnight flight from New York to Guayaquil, Ecuador and connected to San Cristobal.Andy booked 1st Class for us and we we’re the only people in the huge front cabin on the first leg of the trip. Literally, there were 48 seats and just the 2 of us. We had champagne to start the flight off right, dinner, reclined our seats and slept most of the way. 6 hours later we were landing in Ecuador.
I grabbed some amazing coffee and we walked around the airport. They had the largest Koi pond with some of the largest, most ornamental Koi I have ever seen. We got breakfast, played backgammon on the ipad and finally boarded the flight to the Galapagos. It was a short hour and a half flight, filled with anticipation and excitement.
We landed and as soon as we walked off the plane I could feel the heat and humidity. It was a green, luscious paradise…and that was just the airport. We got our bags and jumped into the back of Marco’s (one of the local fisherman) truck. He drove a few minutes to our hotel, The Miconia, and we got situated. We met them back at the dock at 2:30 to go fishing! I cannot even begin to tell you about the Sea Lions, there were hundreds, if not thousands of them everywhere! They climb up the stairs from the water and rested on the walkways, under benches, in planters…anywhere they feel like. I will talk more about the sea lions later…
We jumped on the boat, Vertigo, with a cute couple from Atlanta and headed out to catch dinner. Pete Santini and Marco were our boat captains and Andy was the fish captain. Within 30 minutes we had lures in the water and Andy was casting into bait balls as we trolled around. Within minutes we had a yellowfin tuna on the hook and Ryan was reeling him in.
Then it was my turn…I was strapped into the belt and reeling in my first yellowfin (he was small, only 20 lbs). I had him in the boat in a few minutes, snapped a quick picture and then, something happened that I wasn’t expecting. Andy grabbed his knife, cut a huge filet of the tuna and we had sashimi for lunch. Not surprising, Marco had soy sauce and wasabi on the boat. Talk about fresh!
Results for the 1st day out – Total of 5 fish, 3 yellow fin and 2 bonita.
We watched a beautiful sunset on the boat ride back. Everyone went back to their rooms to get ready for dinner, which was sensational. Santini cooked up the tuna that we had caught with plantains and queso. We walked around and saw a lot of Andy’s friends, had some Cuba Libre’s and they told me some of the most hilarious fishing stories I have ever heard. I was exhausted by that point and retired to my room. I passed out after a magical day, which is only my 1st of 16 days…Love my life!
Tomorrow we are off to see the Tortoises, the volcano, coffee plantation and snorkeling…
