Got there a little later than we wanted, but still made my 7:30am start time. 63/64 degrees at start. I wore my arm warmers.

We met at the Trek headquarters in Waterloo, WI for breakfast in the cafeteria and then a short introduction to Trek Travel. There were about 60 people in the room, but only three couples had taken a Trek Travel trip. We took one in Provence, France in 2023.

Elizabeth Bay is on the west side of Isabela Island. It is an area of mangroves that has lots of wildlife. Tours here are a panga ride, you don’t get off or get in the water.

We have our first stop on Isabela Island at Puerto Villamil today. In the morning we hike to the rim of the 10km (6 mi) wide crater of the Sierra Negra volcano, which has the largest basaltic caldera in the Galápagos.

Today we visit Bartolomé_Island and Sullivan Bay on the east side of Santiago Island.

We sailed north to Genovesa Island overnight, putting the anchor down at 6:15 am. We are in the front of the boat, so we didn’t hear the engine very much, but the anchor going down was loud.

We met in the lobby at 4:20 am for a 4:30 am departure to the airport. The hotel had bag breakfasts for us that we could take through security and eat before we boarded the plane. We had a 7:45 am flight to Guayaquil, a city near the coast. The plane would refuel and a few more passengers would board for the hour and a half flight out to the Galapagos Islands. The plane flies out and back to Guayaquil without refueling in the Galapagos.

Today we start later at 6am heading for the feeders in Mashpi Amagusa. We’ll be in the cloud forest again.

Another early 5:30 am departure to Paz de las Aves. We had a tour with two other birders and their guide and our guide. Both Angel and Rodrigo Paz, the founders who turned their family farm towards eco-tourism starting 20 years ago also acted as guides. I highly recommend visiting.

We had a boxed breakfast in the hour and a half car ride to the lek.

Donna was sick overnight, throwing up several times. She’s had this reaction before when she has eaten something fried in oil that was used to fry shellfish, and shrimp was on the menu last night.

We were supposed to go to Zuro Loma Antpittas in the West Slope Cloud Forest and Old Nono Mindo Road, but we skipped them since we started too late.