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.

We arrived in the late evening last night and stay at Hacienda Jimenita. We start the morning early at 5:30 am to head up in the Andes mountains to the Antisana Condor Observatory.

For the past week, there are many folks on the ship who are getting sick. Steve woke up this morning not feeling well. The morning started with a speaker that came on board to talk about authoritarianism in Hungary, starting with the Orban coup in 2006. The EU has now responded by cutting funding to Hungary, but it’s too late at this time in her feeling.

The morning starts with a talk about the disembarkation procedures that will happen in two days. They send you to the airport depending on when your flight is, we have an early 6:20 am flight. That results in luggage out at 2:45 am and get on the bus at 3:15 am with a brown bag breakfast.