2/27 Morning –
Richard is under the weather this morning with gastric intestinal issues that don’t bear repeating. After assurances that all he needed was rest, we left on our morning excursion to Urbina Bay – where there is a possibility of maybe snorkeling. (That’s directly from the daily program, btw.) However, Jorge’s 7:45 announcement told us that the water had “high levels of murky” so we would not be snorkeling. Hadn’t really planned on it anyway, so the high levels of murky sealed the deal!
Team Zodiac minus one boarded the 2nd zodiac – the ride was probably the most interesting part of the day! It was a wet landing on the beach and the wave action was pretty intense. We all had to scramble out of the zodiac in a hurry, drop to the sand, then run up the steep slo9pe of the beach. Pretty exhilarating! After drying off our feet, we started inland in search of giant land turtles and land iguanas. Everywhere we turned, it seemed, there was a land iguana in our path! Rogilio our guide, named them all – Caterina (the movie star), #70 (who actually had the number 70 painted on him) and many others lounging about in the sun and shade.
The walk was easy, a giant turtle was spotted eating branches/leaves in the scrub and a huge iguana that looked like Dino the Dinosaur was spied in the distance through the trees. All was well until Michelle had the bright idea to introduce me to the iguanas. I was happily riding along, being contentedly ignored until that moment. Let me tell you, her stock dropped dramatically right then and there! Here I thought she was such a sweet girl…..
So – here we go….Iguana bait! Every darn prehistoric creature they could find, I was there. Michelle even had the bright idea to hook a piece of fishing line to me so I could be dangled over animals and crevices and all sorts of other death defying situations. Now does that not sound like bait? I’m beginning not to like this girl - I can’t see what Ed and Cathy see in her!
Fortunately, they didn’t find many more creatures to torture me with – and everyone headed back to the beach to swim or go back to the ship. Only a few brave soles (Pedro and Eleana, Elizabeth, Barry and Eduoard) ventured into the water. Team Zodiac wisely chose to go back to the ship.
As the zodiac approached, you could see we were in or a ride. The first one had extra people (some of our group went with them – don’t go there! – people just don’t listen or pay attention!). So when it came time for us to load up, there were less people, which was probably a good thing because the waves were getting bigger and bigger and timing was everything. We all scrambled and belly flopped (known as doing the sea lion) our way into the zodiac and then the guides started screaming go, go, go! Ricardo, our drive, turned us around and here comes this monster wave! We all thought we were goners! But he gunned it and got us up and over it, and out of there. Then he proceeded to haul ass back to the ship – even passing the first zodiac with all of us helpfully egging him on! Officially scary, officially fun!
Back on board, cookies and cappuccino, then a nice chat in the Discovery lounge with Barb, Maggie #2, Ellen, Michelle and others. Afterward a great Ecuadorian buffet – fish, meats, salads and of course cerviche. The food is really quite good. Richard recovering, but still in the room, so the afternoon excursion is not going to happen for him. At 4 pm, Team Zodiac still minus 1 headed out, this time to Espinoza Point.
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