?> {"id":1366,"date":"2009-10-12T21:22:14","date_gmt":"2009-10-13T01:22:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.twofatbellies.com\/?p=1366"},"modified":"2009-10-12T21:22:14","modified_gmt":"2009-10-13T01:22:14","slug":"galapagos-day-1-%e2%80%93-baltra-and-north-seymour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.twofatbellies.com\/2009\/10\/galapagos-day-1-%e2%80%93-baltra-and-north-seymour\/","title":{"rendered":"Galapagos Day 1 \u2013 Baltra and North Seymour"},"content":{"rendered":"
After a quick buffet breakfast in our Guayaquil hotel, the Hilton Colon, we headed to the airport with our tour group to board a flight to the Galapagos Islands. There were around 90 of us altogether on this trip. The islands are located about 600 miles west from the coast of Ecuador so the flight time was less than two hours. After we landed at the airport in Baltra, an old U.S. Air Force base, we took buses to the nearby docks where we loaded onto zodiacs that would take us to our ship, the National Geographic Endeavour<\/a>. Our first inkling that we were in for something special was that the dock was covered in sleeping sea lions. There were sea lions laying on benches and sea lions all over the ground.<\/p>\n \n