Day 75 Galapagos Day 1 - a virtual booking came real

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It was a 3:30am rise to take the pre-booked car to the Quito Airport for my flight to Baltra Island, where the main airport of the Galapagos Islands, Seymour Airport, is.

It was a little confusing a week ago, trying to ascertain whether my return flight to the mainland was booked as I asked, from San Cristobal, not Baltra, where I am heading today. The ticket used the same airport code, "GPS", for both flights. Online search did not yield any results as the Airline website had been down..why?!

I booked this entire trip via an Ecuadorean online agency, supposedly a specialist for Galapagos, and I had never met them or seen a piece of physical document, ALL in the virtual space. After reaching Quito, I phoned the lady responsible, she assured me that everything was in order, but even she couldn't understand why the airline website did not work.....What was there to do, except to hope that all that wasn't some sort of a sham joke, with money fully paid for !  But she did assure, and I verified with the hotel, that the airport in Quito is the to be the new airport, that much I am sure of, when I boarded the taxi.

Such is the nature of adventures......

It was still dark when I arrived at the airport, located the airline desk, nobody was there....Oops, but, a few other locals were also joining my queue as well, that's reassuring !  After half an hour of waiting, then I realized, this is the ticketing desk, not check-in.  I was pointed to the Quarantine Desk a few steps away. I filled in a form, virtually declaring that other than myself, I am not bringing anything organically alive over etc etc... and had my bag inspected and sealed.  That's some serious quarantine procedure for a domestic flight.

Then I was pointed to the proper check-in desk, but it is not the same airline! yes, it is, they assured.  Any they accepted my ticket, checked my bag, and actually issued a boarding pass.  That simple. So, I told myself, "it is actually REAL".  The airline that issued my ticket had apparently been taken over by a new bigger airline a short while ago !  One would imagine, a simple message on the old website would have sorted out all this confusion.

AND they assured me, that the return flight shalt depart from San Cristobal, an island 2 hours away from Baltra Island, my arrival island....exactly as I wanted.  But why did they, use the same airport code "GPS" (Baltra), on the ticket, not SCY which is on their computer.  Struth....give me a break.!!!!!

Anyhow, let's hope that the boat is real as well, that would make a perfect day.

The flight made a stopover at Guayaquil, picked up some passengers, amongst them, a group of exciting local students, presumably on their dream school excursion.  Some were playing their, possibly newly acquired camera, pointing at everything they saw in the plane....I can recall my first ever outing when I was probably 8, my first ever trip away from home for a day, no more than 10 Km away, and I did not sleep the night before...likewise, I was looking forward to seeing the archipelago where Darwin got the inspirations and data for his Evolution Theory.

We arrived at Seymour Airport ( GPS ) on Baltra Island just after 10 a.m.

After checking our passports, we, foreigners, were corralled into a queue to pay a $100 National Park fee, but there were no information, booklets etc. provided, nor even a smiling face. It is purely money in exchange for a piece of paper and a stamp in the passport, which by the way, we should keep for inspection until after returning to the mainland.

Then another very thorough search of all our luggage by quarantine officials, more questions and declarations.

Oh, isn't that the sign says "Encantada"....here it is, I never doubted it, had I ?  The guy holding the sign went through the list and ticked against my name.  From the same flight, a couple of French couples were also joining the group, a couple happened to be sitting next to me on the aeroplane, but due to language difficulties, we did not talk much until now, small World !

The booking arrangements were all made in the Virtual World, paid with real money sight unseen, now it all came to Reality.....it is amazing to see how connected are we these days !

Soon we boarded a bus for a short trip to the wharf, and here she was, a small RED boat in the middle of the harbour, waiting for us. We then boarded via a zodiac.

During the next hour or so, whilst waiting for the final group to arrive, we could already see a few sea lions playing by, and one actually came onto the rear port, having a bit of sun bathing and checking us out.  That's a good omen for things to come.

The sky was clear, the water clear blue....and plenty of sea creatures around, what more can one ask for on day 1.

After the final arrivals got on, and we were all assigned two to a cabin, mine right next to the bridge, the only cabin on top, with a young man from Germany, my upper bunker roomate.  Tidy, clean but cramped space, not unexpected given the size of the boat, comfortable enough as there were plenty of room on the decks.


Soon we were all set, the boat anchor lifted, and we were sailing along the northern coast of Santa Cruz Island, while we had our first lunch. There were totally twelve of us...French, German Swiss, US, Kiwis and of course Aussies, plus the Ecuadorean crew, so it was a jumble of languages being used, however, if all else failed, English worked.

The sea was calm...but it would prove to be deceiving later.

After 3 or 4 hours of admiring at the serenity of the coastal waters of Santa Cruz Is, we arrived at Cerro Dragon at the northwestern corner of Santa Cruz Is., and went onshore led by our Naturalist Guide, Juan, for our first walk. 

We treaded on Pahoehoe Lava ( Easy-to-walk Lava ) formed thousands of years ago, before hoping onto a small beach under Juan's guidance.

There were little read crabs ( "Sally Lightfoot Crabs") everywhere we looked, and black marine iguanas lazing in the late afternoon glow.

As we were led inland by Juan, there were a few Flamingos lazing around in a small lagoon, but certainly not a large herd by any measure.

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Then we ran into a few land iguanas, more brightly coloured then their marine cousins,

An Iguana lair

And a particularly nosy Mocking bird , wondering what this platoon of camera waving humans are up to..

It was a day of plain sailing, everything dropped into its place, when we got back on the the boat for a waiting sunset...all good....

and we had a formal warm welcome by the crew just before dinner, led by Juan, our Naturalist Guide, whose knowledge, was an absolutely must, for the entire voyage.

Then it all started.....soon after we lifted anchor, motoring southwards towards the south eastern corner of the biggest island in the archipelago, Isabella Is.  First it was the amplifying sways, then more rocking, then came  the queasy feeling in the stomach....Oops, it's time to bring out those sea-sickness tablets left over from the bus trips in Mexico...a double dose, I reckon.

Soon no one was on deck......

The sleep was like a dream with one's back on a 3D seesaw. I was falling in and out of sleep, sometimes with my head pointing downwards, sometimes, body pushed against the wall.

Next Post:  Day 76, 77 - Galapagos - South Isabella Island

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