Dia trece: the Galapagos Islands!

5:00 am is pretty early but it means we are going to be heading to sea level where I can breathe again. We quietly dragged our luggage downstairs where the night clerk was waiting for us. He had arranged a "taxi" for us. He went out the front door and as I watched, he knocked on the window of a king cab Chevy truck. The driver was awakened. He had apparently been there a while. We were a little leery of the idea of this cab since there were no markings on it indicating it was a cab. The hotel clerk assured us it was fine and as it turned out, he was right. Still it seemed odd getting into a vehicle with a total stranger. But as has been our total experience here in Ecuador, all was well.

Getting inside the airport we looked for the person carrying a sign that read "Klein Tours". We had arrived well before we needed to, yet as we stood looking around for any sign of what to do or a person who might help us, we saw no one. 6:00 came and went and still no sign. I stood with the luggage while Leslie went off looking for someone. She finally discovered Klein Tours staff up at the ticket counter. So there was no sign? If we had just stood waiting for that sign, we would never have made the flight! So we got in the special line for us to check in and waited and waited until one of the Klein people got to us only to look at our luggage and tell us we had to go back out and in through another door to have security check out baggage. Ay! So out of the ticketing line, out the front door, around to the security line, threw our luggage onto the conveyor belt and finally got the tag allowing us to go back to the ticketing line. This time it went smoothly. We got a sticker with the name of our ship on it to wear so I guess we can't get lost. Next stop, through the security line. This too took a while. When we finally reached the spot where in the US you would be asked to remove your shoes, your belt, your computer and cell phone and all the change and keys and and other remotely metal objects from your person as well as any liquids, well you know what I mean. Here, no one cared. We placed our carry ons on the conveyor and walked through the metal detector. Nothing went off! I was approached by a guard to take off my cap. I complied. I went to get my backpack. As i picked it up another guard said in Spanish I understood, that I should take my bag to be inspected at a table he pointed to. But by the time I figured out what he had actually said, I had picked up my pack and walked on into the lounge area. No one said anything or stopped me. It was so disorganized no one looked to make sure I had complied. We both had metal including a pocket full of change that never set off the metal detectors. Hmmmm!

Our flight was never posted on the departing flights board despite their only being about 6 flights indicated at all. All of a sudden it was just announced in Spanish only that flight number 32 was boarding. If Leslie hadn't spoken Spanish we might have missed our flight. While we were waiting for our flight, Leslie went over to the only food service in the area. She got in line and watched as all the non-Spanish speaking, mostly gringos, tried to order from the Spanish only staff. They were also shorting their order by not giving them the plantain chips they were supposed to get. They even tried to short change Leslie as well as not including our plantain chips. When she started in speaking pretty fluent Spanish, her service suddenly improved, and she got the correct change. We were shuttled over to the plane in buses. Our flight was uneventful from Quito to Guayaquil where we waited about 40 minutes for a few more passengers to board and then off we flew to Baltra in the Galapagos Islands.

As we banked over the island of Baltra where the airport is located we got our first glimpse of the landscape of these islands. They appear on first glance to be pretty desolate. Desert like with cactus, volcanic rock, few if any trees, little water. We descended the ladder from the plane and headed for a series of low lying, pretty run down buildings where security and customs took their turn with us and we also handed over $200 ($100 each) for the cost to get into the Galapagos National Park which encompasses 93% of the islands' real estate. Our 5 day trip will visit several of the islands. We mounted tour buses that took us the couple of miles to the bay where several tour boats sat at anchor. In the distance, sitting like a jewel in the deep blue water sat our home for the next 5 days, the Galapagos Legend. She is an older design but absolutely beautiful and really well maintained at least where we tourists can see her.

Our bus came to a halt and it's contents spilled out onto a dock where each person was handed a life jacket and directed to get in another line waiting to step into an inflatable dinghy. These dinghies were the hard bottom type so they were pretty easy to step into and out of with the help of the young men at the bow where we boarded. Our turn came and our 20 foot dinghy filled up with about 15 persons, turned and headed to the Legend at a pretty good clip being pushed by a 50 horse outboard.

We embarked through a gangway on the port side, claimed our carry ons and headed up a flight of stairs to the reception desk on Earth Deck, which also turned out to be the deck for our stateroom, a junior suite on the starboard side. We were supposed to head to lunch after we got our key but we really wanted to see that our room was what we hoped it would be. It was!

Two big windows gave us a fabulous view out to sea or onto the islands we were anchored near. Plenty of closet space, a desk, a TV, our own bathroom. It was well appointed and roomy for our needs.

After a quick looksy, we headed to lunch. We enjoyed meeting our table mates, a family with an British dad and a German mom. The other couple were 20 somethings from India but living in Australia and traveling around the world for a year. Lunch was a buffet with so so food, too much food! We ate and chatted up our new friends. During lunch we were presented with a menu from which we were to order what we wanted for dinner. The afternoon was filled with getting our room put away, attending a briefing on what we should and shouldn't do on and off the islands given by one of our guide/naturalists and finally, attending an emergency drill.

Following the drill we were to get our snorkeling gear and prepare for the first shore party, this one to Bartolomeo Island with a climb up 400 stairs for a great view from the top of a cinder cone and then an hour of snorkeling. About the time we headed to the briefing I began feeling, well, not good. By the time the drill was over, so was I. I headed for our room and Leslie went to get her snorkeling gear. She and I were disappointed to find out that they had no masks with corrective lenses. Leslie even owns such a mask but we didn't bring it since we had so much else to bring for the workshop and we figured they'd have them available on the boat. So she is going to try it with the plain glass, but I have serious doubts since she has tried this before and found it frustrating. The last time we snorkeled I didn't need glasses so this may be frustrating for me as well.

Either way, today was a no go for me. With my little health crisis, I didn't need to be far from a bathroom and there are none available on shore! Yikes!

So Leslie headed off on the excursion without me. I insisted. So the photos of Bartolomeo Island are all courtesy of her. After a lovely nap, the best rest I have had since arriving here in Ecuador, I awoke to Leslie's knock and her return from her adventure. I listened to her story and then we headed forward to the Welcome Cocktail Party and a briefing on tomorrow's adventures.

Our dining partners are really delightful people. The young Indian couple are ER doctors. Feeling a bit better, I ventured down to the dinner which we had ordered at lunch. I ate the shrimp and the broccoli soup and not much else. Had a nice conversation with our dining partners and then went back to our cabin to settle in and head for bed.