Lindblad scouts Alizé Carrère and Dagny Ivarsdottir search Iceland for new guest experiences. Here, they take to the sky to find unforgettable hiking routes.
Geologist, NOAA scientist, and NASA astronaut, Dr. Kathryn Sullivan shares stories from her famed career that has taken her from the far reaches of outer space to the bottom of the world’s oceans.
Current location, coordinates, and conditions: South Pacific Ocean, 18.80422° S, 174.51449° E; mostly cloudy skies, intermittent rain, and winds out of the southeast at 20-25mph with seas at 8ft. An extra hour of sleep was in the program for today as we set our clocks back an hour last night, which welcomed the morning announcement and breakfast gathering a little later, too. Just before breakfast, a large full rainbow greeted those up early while enjoying the first sips of coffee from the decks above the bow. National Geographic Orion crossed over another 15 degrees of longitude, making yet another time change as we headed west towards the Vanuatu Islands. The day was filled with presentations from our very own field staff of Elise Lockton, Mike Desiderio, and our on-board National Geographic expert, Ricky Qi! It was a day spent relaxing around the ship, taking in our surroundings, and enjoying the legendary and hospitable attention of the National Geographic Orion crew!
We have moved to the north part of Santa Cruz Island and this area is considered to have some of the nicest white sand beaches and climates of this island. We visited Cerro Dragon and had the opportunity to encounter the Galapagos land iguanas, the namesake of this hill. After the visit on land, we dedicated the rest of the day to water activities, and we encountered a variety of sea creatures during our outings. We followed this up with a circumnavigation around Daphne Major Islet to admire its geology and fauna. Wine tasting was happening at the same time, during a beautiful sunset on the observation deck. This was the best way to end this wonderful day of adventure.
Naiseuseu, on the island of Beqa, has become a favorite place for us in Fiji. It was a joy to be there again for community visits, and the meke (song and dance) at Lawaki Beach House. After a full morning, we spent the afternoon at sea en route to Vanuatu.
Truth be told, the last day aboard any National Geographic/Lindblad ship feels incredible and is always special, but personally, I don’t think I have ever had a more magical last day aboard National Geographic Sea Lion . The early morning started off spectacularly, as a dozen killer whales were spotted cruising near our ship. A handful of juveniles would surface with their rostrums rising above the surface of the water. Seeing this many killer whales once would have been amazing on its own, but we managed to also see killer whales on the first day of the trip, creating a perfect bookend finish. After recap, our captain started sailing us to our anchorage for the night when at least a dozen blows were seen at a distance. Most assumed it was humpback whales, but as we neared, we realized we still hadn’t seen a dorsal fin, and the spouts seemed a little stouter than usual for humpbacks. It wasn’t until a whale surfaced close enough to the ship that we realized the white splotches and knuckles were that of a gray whale! We did not expect to see them in this cove, and it just added to the awe and wonder of our amazing expedition.
This morning National Geographic Endeavour II anchored at Santa Cruz Island. We started the day visiting the Charles Darwin Foundation and the Giant Tortoise Breeding Center. During this visit we had the opportunity to see babies as well as different morph types of giant tortoises. Afterwards, we headed to the highlands of Santa Cruz to visit a local hydroponic farm. Here we saw how the lettuce we consume on board grows with this environmentally friendly technique. In the afternoon we enjoyed a delicious lunch at the highlands, and we had the opportunity to see the giant tortoises along their migration route. It was beautiful and a great learning experience!