So, the little black cloud over our luggage continues. At 5:45 the phone rings – hello, this is Hugo with Celebrity, do you not have any bags to check this morning? Oh dear lord – here we go! Cathy explains they should be in the luggage check because we sent them down late last night. So – off they go downstairs – a little bit earlier than expected to check out the bags before breakfast. They get to the bar where the boarding passes and luggage is being sorted, walk up to the table and see their bags sitting off to the side. Geez! After identifying them and getting them put with the other bags begin loaded on the truck, Cathy and Ed can now relax and eat their breakfast in peace!
At breakfast, they met Maggi and Richard, and after regaling them with this luggage tale, Richard, who also has the luggage tags, goes off to search for their bags. Lo and behold – they were in storage too and would have missed the ship had he not gone looking! Someone had knocked on their door and asked them about the bags earlier, they told the bus boy the same story and thought it was handled. Cathy and Ed at least had a note on their boarding passes to ask about the luggage – Maggi and Richard didn’t – it could have been very ugly aboard the expedition for 7 days with the clothes on their backs!
Baggage all claimed and settled. We all checked out of the hotel and boarded our buses to the airport. A charter flight awaited us – but we still had to go through security and wait in the boarding area with the regular passengers. We all just milled about for a while – no one was really in charge – so we all just kind of fended for ourselves. Finally, our flight was called and off we went! We boarded a brand new Embraer 190 – and we mean brand new. We don’t think the thing was in service for more than a week – if that. It smelled new – looked new – just gorgeous! Everything was branded Celebrity too! A big plaque on the bulk head with the Celebrity logo, head rest covers, cups, white linen cloth for the tray table with a Celebrity badge on it, you name it – it had Celebrity on it! We took off at 8:30 and flew to Guayaquil for refueling (don’t ask us why – we thought it very odd – but what do we know!).
On the way to Guayaquil we looked out over acres and acres of flooded land. There had been torrential rain the past few weeks and over 250,000 people had to be evacuated from their homes. It looked just awful – an oasis of flooded fields with towns popping up in the middle of what looked like a lake. Took pictures and really thought it was so awful (later found out, that while the flooding was indeed terrible, what we were seeing was in good part rice and shrimp farms! The main farming/production in the Guayaquil area is rice and shrimp! So the flooding turned out to be controlled for the farms, but it still looked worse when we flew down, compared to when we flew back the next week – but more on that later!).
After refueling, we took off again at 9:50. Fruit plate with lots of pineapple and cantaloupe and a mini sandwich, or a sandwich and a mini fruit plate were our food options. Plus wine and beer and drinks – but at 10 am that’s a bit early even for us! Arrived in Galapagos around 11:45. Stairs were rolled up – and off we hopped, into the heat and sun of the little teeny Galapagos airport.
We all headed down the tarmac to the passport and immigrations area. Stood in line for about ½ hour while everyone on our flight (and a flight before us) was checked, stamped and double checked. The passport folks had a whole list of everyone who was arriving on flights – not just Celebrity passengers – and each individual person was literally checked off as they arrived. It’s amazing the control they are keeping over the islands to keep them safe from over development and over population.
By 12:05 we were on the bus and heading to our ship! Richard and Maggi were ahead of us in the line, so they were already on another bus. As we headed out for the 5 minute ride to the dock, we marveled at the landscape – the colors so crisp and vibrant. Wide open fields of scrub and small cactus, low vegetation, and nothing else – not a building, a shack, nothing. Only the road we are using to travel to the little harbor area.
We meet one of our Naturalists, Manuel, at the dock which is simple concrete structure with Sea lions lounging all over (and Sea Lion Surprise all over the dock and ramp as well! Lovely! Our first experience with nature – watch where you are stepping!). The sea lions are cute – but stinky – let’s head for the zodiac please! Manuel gives us our first zodiac lesson – always put your life jacket on first, keep your hands free, use the Galapagos hand shake which means grab onto the naturalists arm when you board, and move to the back of the zodiac. Our first zodiac ride! Yippee! We are finally here! The wind and sun felt great on our faces as we made our way calmly out to the Xpedition. How fun! This will be a great trip!
Once on board, we all sat in our zodiac groups (Maggi and Richard were already aboard in another group) and Manuel gave us the spiel. He told us that it has been very dry for the last year. The rainy season is typically from December through May, but it has only just begun to rain 3 weeks ago. Before that, it was very dry and gray, but now, it is green and the animals are more active. Selfishly we are glad that the rain has come so we can see the islands and the animals better, and unselfishly, we’re glad because the rains are very much needed. We just hope it doesn’t rain too much on our little weeklong parade through the Galapagos.
Once the pursers were ready, we were all escorted to our cabins. #305 for Ed and Cathy, #308 for Maggi and Richard. Cabins are small, but seem roomy even if they are a little Spartan. Best part about them is the refrigerator that is filled with water! Cathy is in heaven! Free water! Almost better than the free beer and wine….well, ok, almost! Everyone gets settled in, bags come, unpack, head up to the Discovery lounge for our first briefing.
Every evening we will have a briefing on the next day’s activity. Today, the first briefing, by Jorge our Cruise Director, will explain the ship, etc., and what we will do on our first excursion at 4 pm that afternoon. We are not changing our clocks – so we are keeping continental time – not island time, which is one hour behind us. This way, we will have more light for our excursions (smart!) and it typically isn’t really an issue since we are only going to be in 2 towns in 7 days. Our naturalists are introduced: Jorge (#2) from Galapagos, Ivan (Galapagos), Manuel (Guayaquil), Rogelio (Galapagos), Jessica (Guayaquil) and Giovanna (Quito).
Each Naturalist will take a group of no more than 16 people on each excursion. Galapagos National park rules limit the size of each group to 16 – so as not to over run the park. Each evening we will sign up for our chosen activity on a list passed around after the briefing. Then each day when we leave for the excursion, Jorge will be at the zodiac loading station checking off the names of the passengers heading ashore. When we return, it is our duty to check ourselves back in on the list at the foot of the stairs. Totally low tech – totally manageable – very friendly and family like. As we are soon to find out, that’s the way the whole ship, and cruise, is run. It’s really a great environment!
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