David - M/Y Floreana - The boat is a small, green painted vessel that has a crew of 6 and capacity for 16 passengers. We missed capacity by one. When I first saw the crew I thought of pirates. They turned out to be a fun group that worked hard to make our trip memorable. Our National Park guide has a degree in natural resources and is a master diver. Fabian has spent most of his life on the Galapagos and is extremely knowledgeable of the land, animals and plants that are above and below water level. The boat itself is not a state of the art boat. That said I would not have traded it for the nicest ship in the islands. It fit the Galapagos.
To conclude, Mine and Gil's Galapagos experience will be one I will never forget. We also got first hand knowledge of how the different types of volcanic islands influence what plants and animals live there. We also found out that there are only 4 island that have human habitation and that there is a concerted effort to eradicate invasive and introduced species from the islands. We learned how the introduced/invasive species impact the original resident organisms. I can't speak for Gil because I am not in his head but I learned so much on the trip that I could not learn watching videos and reading books. If you get the chance; go. Finally: I got to see penguins at the Equator!!!!!!!!!!! Nuff said.
