My current coordinates are 45'N, 79'24''W. I am barreling toward the equator at 538 miles per hour, bound for Quito, Ecuador. Hooray! I made it on the plane this time - with eardrums intact. I am headed to Ecuador for 11 days. We arrive at 10PM and then board another plane in the morning to... begin drumrole... THE GALAPAGOS …

Galapagos! I can say with absolute certainty that this is one of the most extraordinary experiences I have ever had in my life. We transferred to the ship from the open-air Baltra airport. Upon boarding we discovered that we were two of only 6 passengers, creating a crew:traveler ratio of nearly 2:1. We me our guide, Gustavo, and had a quick …

After a night spent motoring north, I awoke to the eeriest landscape I have ever seen. We sailed into Black Turtle Cove, where the ominous island of Chinese Hat rose out of the ocean in perfect symmetry. We went snorkeling along the shore of Isla Santiago, where Candelabra Cacti stood lone and erect amidst the volcanic rock and red Carpet Weed. As …

At 6AM, I opened our cabin door to find myself in the middle of Bahia Darwin, an enormous crescent bay, formed from a collapsed caldera, as wide as three football fields and shaped like a perfect half-moon. The 75 foot sheer, vertical cliff sides provide ample nesting and shelter areas for sea birds and sea lions. The island is 1.9 million years …

We made it back to the northern shore of Isla Bartolome, where the Grand Odyssey anchored near Sullivan Bay! Isla Bartolome is quite small, a volcanic peak bare of vegetation with the exception of Grey Mat Plants. The soil is a dark rusty red, made of large grains of eroded basalt and volcanic ash. A wooden boardwalk led up the mountain, taking us …

This morning we bid farewell to the Grand Odyssey, leaving our new friends on board. We disembarked on Santa Cruz, boarding a small bus for the highlands. We drove up out of the cloud cover, past fincas and small homesteads into dense forest. We finally pulled into the Charles Darwin Research Center, a sanctuary for the famed Galapagos Tortoise! A …

Our alarm failed to sound this morning, making for a frantic dash back to the airport. We took a 25-minute flight east into the Amazon Basin, landing in Coca. Coca is a small port town on the banks of the Napo River. We boarded a 45 foot long motorized canoe, and began to speed up the Rio Napo. The Amazon forest encroached onto the silty banks, at …