This morning I woke up, ready to face my next location.... Galápagos!!! Surprisingly my shower worked just fine... Although it did take a lot longer for the hot water to make its way through the pipes.
After breakfast, we checked out of the hotel and waited in the foyer for our guide who was to help us navigate Quito airport today.
It was a half decent trip to the airport, made that little bit longer by the fact that it was peak hour traffic. But we always seemed to be moving that little bit closer to the airport, without actually stopping so that was good!!!
When we arrived at the airport there were a few extra steps that we needed to take.... it wasn't just your regular checkin. As we were going to the Galápagos Islands they have specific requirements that you need to follow before you can even check in. For starters we had a much tighter luggage restriction.... We were only allowed 20kg, which I may or may not have met. Ok, I was 21kg, however they still accepted my bag on the plane. That was the main thing!!! Our bags were X-rayed prior to checking in, as no form of fresh produce, including fruit, veg, or meat products were allowed to enter the Galapagos.
We then went to check in for the flight. We were met at the checkin counter by a representative from the boat, who proceeded to put an additional couple of tags on our bags.... Maybe that's why my bag weighed 21kg.
All checked in, we received our welcome pack, boarding passes and immigration forms for the Galápagos Legend, the boat that we will be spending the next 5 days aboard.
At the boarding gate, we excitedly read our information that we were given about the Galápagos Islands, the boat, and staked out where our cabins were located.
It came time to board the plane, we lined up and handed our tickets over. We were then herded onto buses and driven a couple of minutes to a plane that was waiting on the tarmac.
Safely on board, I was happy to find that I was sitting in a window seat, and I also had an empty seat next to me. It was actually one of those flights that were a two for one. We flew to Guayquil airport first. Quite a few passengers got off, however those of us continuing on to Galápagos just stayed on the plane. Most of us made the most of the down time by going to the toilet.
The guy who had been sitting on the aisle seat in the same row as me disembarked in Guayquil. I thought to myself 'here we go, I'm going to get a couple of people next to me'. But no, a larger guy got on, taking the aisle seat. Score, again I had a spare seat next to me.
I was all settled in my seat, and then I heard those dreaded words spoken from the air hostess....'excuse me miss are you sitting on your own'? I answered yes, they then asked me if I would be willing to move seats. I asked where the other seat was going to be located, sure enough it was right down the back if the plane in an isle seat, so I said that I would prefer not to. I had all of my stuff sorted at my current seat, why would I move to the back of the plane, to a seat with people right next to me and not on a window..... Hmmmmm. The only way I would do that is for a business class seat, and I didn't see them offering me that!
Anyway the plane trip was a couple of hours, and I enjoyed every minute of sitting in my allocated seat without anyone sitting next to me. We came in to land, and it looked like we were about to land in the most amazing blue and turquoise water. However, out of nowhere the airport runway appeared and we were safely on the ground. The airport was small, and only had one runway that extended from one side of the island to the other. There was a large paved circle at the end of the runway, that allowed the plane to do a u turn and taxi back to the actual airport down the same runway it had just landed on. We disembarked and made our way to the large shed that was the immigration and customs building. We queued for quite some time, and finally we were processed, and had our bags searched by customs again.... Just making sure there was no contraband coming in.
We were met by our ship crew and placed on to awaiting buses. We made our way to the pier and were fitted with life jackets. Whilst we were waiting we saw a group of sea lions just basking in the sun on the stairs of the pier. They looked so content!!
We were then separated into groups and placed on to zodiacs (big blow up boats). The seas were fairly calm, and we weaved our way out of the bay, dodging boats as we went. We saw plenty of sea lions who had claimed an abandoned ship in the bay. There were about 15 of them that had jumped up on to the boat from the sea, and made themselves at home!!
We were heading towards this large boat... And then we made a right hand turn away from it. Hey, where are we going?? I was just waiting for us to be dropped off at some old fishing trawler. But then, hidden by the peninsula, was this big white ship. This is our baby. We pulled up along side the big boat, and were helped off the zodiac by the ship crew. After taking our life jackets off, we then proceeded to the reception desk where we were handed our cabin room keys!
I immediately realised once on the ship, the gentle continuous rocking motion. I just hope I don't feel motion sickness on this boat!!! I've had a few issues with motion sickness when I have snorkelled the last couple of times... I just hope that it wasn't a sign of things to come on this boat.
I got myself sorted in my cabin, which mind you is in the bowels of the ship. My room is the size of a shoe box. Thank goodness there is only me in here. I had a look at the map of the boat again, and according to that I have one of the biggest cabins on the boat. Which just makes me think.... If my cabin is one of the biggest, I would hate to see the others!! Well I did get to see the others as I went round and checked out everyone else's cabins from our Globus group, and yes I would have to say that I do have the biggest room. Weird, considering I'm the only one in my cabin, everyone else is sharing. The other good thing about where I am, is the fact that I don't have any neighbours. Out of the 5 rooms located at the back of the boat, I'm the only one occupying a room down here!!! Bonus!!!
So I sorted out my stuff, and then made my way to the restaurant for lunch. Soon after lunch we were heading out for our first excursion.... To San Cristobal island to visit the interpretation centre and complete a walk. Before that though we were given a briefing on what to expect whilst on the boat, how to embark and disembark the boat properly and the most important thing, we were placed in our groups for our time whilst in the Galápagos. Each of the groups had names.... A = albatross etc. We just knew that group B would be boobies, and I predicted that the Globus group would be in the boobie group. So they started by reading out the names for albatross group....none of us were in that group. Then it came to the boobies group.... Sure enough, our names were read straight off the cuff. I knew it!! Our guide was the beautiful Fatama.
So it came time for our group to disembark for our afternoon activity... our mode of transport... The zodiac. We balanced our way onto the boat, and it slowly made it's way back to the island of San Cristobal. Here we were driven 5 mins to the interpretation centre.
We were able to walk around and read all of the information boards regarding the history of Galápagos. It just made us realise how barren and cursed these islands were for humans. Thank goodness, as the lack of human interference has created such an amazing and unique place for us to visit!!
After we finished at the interpretation centre, we then were lead by Fatama on a walk along a path. Here we had our first taste of the rocky terrain and the dry arid island of the Galápagos Islands. We met our first birds.... The finches, and continued on our way along the path until we came to the beach. It was just so amazing to step off the path, and on to a beautiful white sandy beach, lined with sea lions. Wow, now this was amazing!!! The sea lions were so gorgeous, and they cut the most amazing silhouette in the setting sun. We spent quite a bit of time there taking photos and learning more about these stunning creatures. Everyone was saddened by the obvious display of survival of the fitness. A baby sea lion who had been either abandoned or orphaned, so skinny and starving, was moving from one sea lion to another looking for milk. However as sea lions do not adopt other sea lions pups, this baby's fate had been sealed. So sad!!!
We were all taking photos of the sea lions. It was such an amazing experience!!! We were just about to finish up on the beach, and I was just taking the last of my photos, when all of a sudden the sea lion that I was photographing started to move towards me. Ok, is this like a bear attack.... do I just stay here or do I move. Out of everyone standing there taking it's photo, of course it picked me to chase after and attack. I thought about standing still for a couple of seconds, until I realised that it had its eyes set on me, I turned and ran away screaming. I was so panicked, that I ended up running straight into one of the other guys in my group. I again had the living suitcase scared out of me!!!
Thank goodness it was time to leave the beach.... I don't think my heart would be able to take much more of this!!!
We walked the short distance back to the bus, and were driven back to the pier. Life jackets on, we were loaded back on to the zodiacs, and ferried back to our big boat.
I had enough time to dump off my stuff in my room, before I headed straight to the dining room for dinner.
After dinner we had a welcome cocktail, and a lecture on what the planned activities were for tomorrow. We all headed back to our cabins, eager to get a good night sleep for our big day of activities tomorrow!!!