 North Seymour, Blue Footed Boobie |
Our day starts with an early morning wake-up call at 5am when we place our luggage outside the room for transfer to the ship. This is our "ship" luggage, strictly regulated to no more than 1 30lb piece per person. The remainder of the clothes we brought will be left at the JW Marriott to await our return in a week.
The hotel opens their restaurant early on this departure day, offering breakfast from 5am until our departure at 7:15. After breakfast we "check-in" for our flight by obtaining our boarding passes along with the entrance papers for the Galapagos National Park in the hotel's library. Our smiling tour guides and coach drivers await outside the hotel as we begin the short trip to the Quito airport.. We wait around 30-45 minutes for our Celebrity charter service to the islands to board. Our flight is aboard a new Embracer 190 operated by the national airline of Ecuador, TAME. After a short 35 to 40 minute flight, we touchdown in Guayaquil to load additional fuel and a few passengers. From Guayaquil, on Ecuador's west coast, it's about 2 hours to Baltra, the airport of the Galapagos Islands. Unlike US airlines, we are offered not 1 but 2 free in-flight services. On the first very brief (35 minutes) flight from Quito to Guayaquil we're offered a full beverage service. Then on the longer flight from Guayaquil the very pleasant flight staff provides a fruit plate, a small sandwich and again a full beverage service.
Arriving at Baltra, we are treated to a beautiful aerial view of our new "home away from home" for the next week, the Celebrity Xpedition - anchored in a small bay near the airport. Quickly passing through the National Park check-point at the airport where we're questioned about fruits, seeds and other forbidden items in the islands, we board buses for the short ride to the jetty. Here we're given our first glimpse of the friendly wildlife as several sea lions lounge on the benches along the jetty. Donning our life jackets for the first of many times, we're quickly away on the zodiac headed to the Xpedition. Onboard, we're greeted by the friendly staff, given a quick overview of the afternoons activities and escorted to our stateroom.
With just over 40 staterooms, the check-in process is much different on the Xpedition. There are no big counters, no long lines and very little waiting. Instead, the ship's personal join you on an individual basis in the lounge, collect your documentation and passport and provide a personal escort to your stateroom. Here the room amenities are pointed out - provided binoculars, the in-room refrigerator, the small safe, the always-present life jackets and the provided soaps, shampoos, conditioners and other toiletries. The luggage, which we hadn't touched or even seen since being placed outside our hotel room, was being brought aboard on the last two zodiac shuttles. Quickly the bags were delivered to each stateroom. Unpacking, we found ample storage, both drawers and plenty of hanging space. With the 30lb flight limit on luggage, it's doubtful anyone could pack more than can easily be unpacked into the stateroom storage.
Furnishings in the stateroom are simple, but very functional and new. There's an angled desk in one corner that has the TV, phone as well as the small refrigerator. In the other corner there's a small angled love-seat type couch and a small round table that sits under the square picture window. The twin beds (that can be pushed together into a more standard sized bed) are in the other corner. Two large closets are located on each side of the bathroom door. Inside the bathroom is a corner storage cabinet, a countertop with built-in sink and a large shower stall with glass door. The layout is very functional and provides more floor space, and certainly more storage space than some other larger cruise ship staterooms.
Lunch is being served buffet style in Darwin's Restaurant as we motor toward North Seymour Island, our first stop and onshore excursion this afternoon. There's no waiting around on this trip, you're immediately immersed in the wildlife and experiences of the Galapagos Islands. For each excursion, there is generally a medium (or low) and high intensity offering. There are no limits to how many guests can be accommodated on any particular excursion type. Each zodiac takes no more than 16 guests, and sometimes as few as 4 plus the naturalist and of course the zodiac pilot. Generally the high intensity activities departed first, then the zodiacs returned for the medium intensity participants.
Our group of travel friends select the high intensity excursion on North Seymor - a "dry" landing and an approximate 2 hour walk. The medium intensity offered about half the walking time/distance plus a zodiac "cruise" along the coast. At this point my impression is that anyone with good mobility would enjoy the high intensity activities. In all we walked just over a mile, but at a slow, almost strolling pace. We stopped often to listen to explanations by our naturalist Freddy, and for photos of the nearby sea lions, blue footed boobies and frigates. About half of this walk was along sandy coast line - the other half was inland, over rocky trails strewn with lava boulders. There was very little elevation change. The ship offers walking sticks to anyone that would like the additional assistance. Over the course of the week, many of the medium intensity excursions included a zodiac "cruise" along with a shore landing and some walking. The naturalists and zodiac pilots were very willing to allow a guest to return to the ship immediately after the "cruise", skipping the landing and walk - providing a low intensity experience for those that may have mobility issues.
With daylight fading on North Seymor, we returned to the ship for the Welcome Aboard toast by the captain, followed by the daily briefing on tomorrow's excursions and dinner at Darwin's. After our early morning flight and the excitement of finally being in the islands it appeared that nearly all guests were headed to their staterooms between 10pm and 11pm. This apparently will be the trend - there's just too much to do each day to stay up too late. One interesting note on time - even though the Islands are officially one hour early than Quito, or in Mountain Time - aboard the Xpedition you do not change time. This time-shift offers us more daylight later in the day and prevents the jet-lag arriving and departing Quito.
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