Virtual Galápagos

Tuesday, 31 July

Our 2013 non-Phaeton adventures are just 19 days away.  Where will we go?  The unveiling of our plans will be posted soon.

In the meantime, the prospect of tons of new video footage to process was all the incentive Mui needed to finish the editing work on last year’s wonderful trip to the Galápagos.

If you’d like to take a virtual trip to the Galápagos and walk in our footsteps, click here to go to the online album we created on Vimeo.  You will get to visit Santiago, Rábida, Isabela, Bartolomé, Santa Cruz, North Seymour, San Cristóbal, and Kicker Rock; not to mention explore Quito and its environs with us.  You will get to enjoy close encounters with fearless wildlife on land and sea, and in the air; and get to do some snorkeling, too.

If you’re interested in the story of our trip, click here to go to the first of many posts from our Itinerary B Xpedition trip with Celebrity.  All of the posts are in the July 2012 archive in the sidebar.

Adios Galápagos; ¡Hola! Quito

Sunday, 15 July (Part II)
Temps in Quito: 73F (23C) / 48F (9C)

As the bird action tapered off (post here), a barge showed up alongside the Xpedition, and with the help of a couple of the crew, a boom was laid.  Though it was awfully small, we think it was a fuel bunker.  It sure was good to see measures were taken to protect the water from an accidental spill.

the pelicans don’t seem to mind the barge.

I just pointed and clicked as we were called to board the zodiacs;
turned out to be one of my favorite shots of the trip.

Shortly after the barge arrived, the call went out to board the zodiacs for the shuttle service to shore.  Being last to leave the ship wasn’t going to change the eventual outcome — our cruise was over — so we didn’t wait around for the last zodiac to disembark this time.

The sad truth is that the cruise is over and it’s time to fly back to the mainland.

Passengers are taken to this pier, while …

… the luggage is taken ashore at a more primitive landing spot and loaded on a truck.
At least …

… we have better transportation, but be prepared to stand as they really pack ‘em in!

Perhaps someday we will make a happy return to the islands.

We didn’t make the first bus, so we had a short wait until the second bus showed up for the 15-minute ride that dropped us off at the souvenir stands outside the terminal. One last opportunity to shop!

I seem to recall Mui at this very same spot, doing this very same thing just a week ago.

You want a hat?   You got plenty to choose from.

Once the entire passenger complement was assembled, the naturalists escorted us to passport control, where our documents were given a cursory check and the agent collected the stubs of our Galápagos entry forms.  Since we’d been given our boarding passes while still aboard the Xpedition, there were no other check-in formalities to deal with.

On the other side of the security checkpoint, the Celebrity staffer who was accompanying us on the charter flight directed us to the VIP lounge where a sign on the door indicated it was reserved for Celebrity and Lindblad/National Geographic passengers.  The two operators must use the lounge on alternating days, however, as we were the only ones in the lounge for the hour-long wait for the plane to arrive from Quito.  The humidity and lack of A/C made the lounge a little stifling, but sitting by the windows at least allowed cooling breezes to waft over us as we chatted with our shipmates about the wonders of the Galápagos.

Amongst the first to go through security, we have our pick of the seats in
the inner room of the two-room VIP Lounge.

With the incoming Xpedition passengers deplaned, soon it will be time for us
to board the charter flight to Quito.

Boarding commenced at 12:15p.  We exited through the door in the room in which we were seated, followed the yellow-striped path across the tarmac, and walked up the roll-away stairs to board the plane. 

I had commented to Mui on the flight down that the smart thing for Celebrity to do would be to assign everyone the same seats on both the inbound and outbound charter flights.  Of course I’d want that, wouldn’t I?  After all, we had comfy exit row seats out of Quito.  Well, apparently Celebrity was of like mind, and we were in fact assigned the same seats — 10E and F :-)  The passengers settled into their seats quickly, and with everyone strapped in, AeroGal Flight 943 was wheels up at 12:45p.

Adios Islas Galápagos!

No sooner were we at cruising altitude that the flight attendants sprang into action, distributing first warm washcloths and then linens monogrammed with the Xpedition logo to cover the seatback tables.  Lunch service followed on the heels of the drink service.

This time we get napkins with iguanas embroidered in one corner.
For airline food, the meal on the Aerogal Charter was quite good.

I spent half the flight watching an episode of Criminal Minds on the entertainment system, and the other half drafting and updating blog posts with notes I had jotted down in my writing pad.  Before I knew it, Quito was in sight and we were being asked to stow our electronics.

¡Hola! Quito … we’re back!
An aerial glimpse gives us a good perspective of the city’s long, narrow layout
within the confines of a valley rimmed with mountains.

Landing in Quito at 2:40p, we were welcomed by the same Celebrity guides who had taken us around the city before our departure to the Galápagos.  Assuring us that our bags would follow us to the hotel, we were directed to the busses waiting curbside in front of the arrivals terminal.  Twenty minutes later, we were at the JW Marriott where we were welcomed with washcloths to refresh ourselves and delicious fruit juices to quench our thirst.

Welcome back to the JW Marriott, Quito!  Our room this time is in the wing on the right.
[scanned from the hotel’s postcard]

After picking up keys from a nearby table, and getting the bag we’d left behind from the bellman, we headed off to our room.  Before we left Quito, Mui had asked the front desk to make a note in our folio that we would like a room with a mountain view when we returned from our cruise.  We were not disappointed.  Though the furnishings and layout of the room was the same as the one we’d stayed in pre-cruise, the view definitely was not.

Room 708 gives us a head-on view of the Pinchincha Volcano.

Zooming in to the cityscape across the street from the hotel, I catch a glimpse
of the grounds of the Eloy Alfaro Military College.

I begged off from the Celebrity shopping tour to relax in the room, enjoy the view, go through the couple hundred photos I took of the blue-footed boobies this morning, and unpack a few things from our bags when they were delivered as promised.  Mui had a few gifts he wanted to pick up, so he joined those who had money burning in their pockets.  The tour went to two different places, one a local market and the other one a high-end shop, but he didn’t find anything he liked and returned empty-handed.

Dinner was included in our Celebrity package and was at La Hacienda, the hotel’s steakhouse restaurant.  We’d been told to go down anytime between set hours, so we were not expecting a series of 8-top tables when we walked in.  Not that we minded eating with our shipmates, but with people arriving at different times throughout dinner, it wasn’t the ideal setting.  Luckily, most of the people at our table had just barely ordered, so it wasn’t too awkward.

Foyer of La Hacienda

The set menu offered an appetizer (soup or salad), four entrée options — beef, chicken, fish, and vegetarian (pasta) — and dessert.  A note at the bottom of the menu card indicated that two soft drinks were included.  Soft drinks?  Well, you see it’s Sunday and, by law, no alcoholic beverages may be sold.  (Rodrigo, our guide for the pre-cruise city tour, did say that you can have a drink in your room, but you are not allowed to consume anything alcoholic in public.)

Our selections from the Islas Galápagos menu.
The Baked sea bass was one of the best entrées of our entire trip.

We didn’t dally long after dinner.  A great many of the people had early — like 5:00a early — flights out in the morning; a few people were taking the red-eye out tonight.  We’re on that same red-eye, but since Celebrity is paying for the room, we’re taking the flight tomorrow night instead … thus giving ourselves a full day to explore a bit more of Quito.  We’ve asked for and have been granted a late check-out at 6:00p.  Later would have been better since the Celebrity airport shuttle doesn’t leave until 8:30p, but this is better than nothing.

Not sure what we will do tomorrow.  We have lots of ideas, but no concrete plans, yet.  I’ll think about it in the morning …

Baltra: Guess Who Came to Breakfast?

Sunday, 15 July (Part I)
Temps: 82F (28C) / 72F (22C)

This morning, anchored offshore from Baltra Island, we found ourselves back where we had started our voyage just a week before.

The arrow points to Baltra Island where we started our voyage a week ago,
and where we bring it to a close today.
[MAP COURTESY OF THE GALAPAGOSISLANDS.COM WEBSITE]

One last opportunity to watch the sun rise over the Galápagos waters … one last breakfast on deck 4 aft … that’s how our last morning aboard the Xpedition began.

Our luggage had already been picked up, so there was little for us to do but collect our carry-on bags and join our boatmates, who, like us, had been asked to vacate their cabins by 8:00a.  While the stewards were busy spiffing up things for the next group of passengers expected later in the day, other crewmembers were loading the zodiacs with the piles of luggage that would precede us to the airport.  In fact, we would not see our bags again until we arrived at the hotel in Quito.

Not everything was a sad reminder of our departure.  The Galápagos had a spectacle in store for us as a special send off gift — a feeding frenzy!

The sky was filled with blue-footed boobies and brown pelicans checking out the waters around the ship and dive bombing for their breakfast.  They were diving so close to the hull that I was afraid one of them might miss its target and skewer itself on deck beak first, or maybe even on one of the sea lions cavorting in the water, looking for their share of a fishy breakfast.  There was even the occasional frigatebird gliding in the sky, waiting for an opportunity to steal from the boobies and the pelicans.

The boobies were so fast that I never managed to catch one going in; just got a bunch of the white trails they left in their wake as they dived deep for their breakfast.  Mui had better luck — this was the moment he’d been waiting for and he took advantage of it.

A one-minute video of the diving boobies.

A pelican comes in for a landing just as a blue-footed booby takes off from the water;
one of the many near-misses we observed.

Not to be left out of the breakfast party, a couple of sharks show up, too.
But we don’t see them feeding on anything.

My favorite part of the hour we spent watching the action was when the blue-footed boobies parade-flew at eye level.  I was too lazy to take out my 70-200mm lens from my carry-on, but the 17-55mm lens proved that it was up to the task.

When I wasn’t photographing the boobies, I was watching them scrutinizing the water for any sign of a fish to take home to their waiting mates and chicks.  Their heads pointed down, their eagle-eyes searching constantly — they were on the hunt!

This one is so intent on looking for fish that it has forgotten to bring up the landing gear :-)

What a great way to end our visit to the islands.  I came away with hundreds of photos of the boobies in flight — a bonus takeaway for me.

“The End” — at least for now!

Santa Cruz: Charles Darwin Research Station

Saturday, 14 July (Part II)

Before going off on the morning landing that took him to see free-roaming giant tortoises in the highlands of Santa Cruz (post here), Mui had made arrangements with Carlos, the restaurant manager, to have a tray of bland food prepared for me.  So, instead of joining him in the Darwin Restaurant and enjoying the Ecuadorian buffet my friend MBZ had told me not to miss, I had a lunch of toast, white rice, and a glass of apple juice in bed :-(

By the time the afternoon landing came around at 3:00p, I was still not up to getting off the ship.  So, as Mui headed to shore with instructions once again to take pictures for me, I stayed aboard and was rocked to sleep.  And I mean rocked — though we were anchored in a protected bay, the movement of the ship was quite noticeable.  Luckily, I didn’t end up adding a bout of mal de mer to my misery!

The arrow points to the afternoon landing site in Puerto Ayora.
[MAP COURTESY OF THE GALAPAGOSISLANDS.COM WEBSITE]

Landing once again at the municipal pier, a 5-minute bus ride took Mui’s group to the Charles Darwin Research Station/Fausto Llerena Tortoise Center to learn about the tortoise breeding program.  The Galápagos Conservancy website describes the program, which is run jointly by the National Park Service and the Charles Darwin Foundation:

… began in 1965 to save the giant tortoise population on Pinzón.  It was quickly expanded to include other populations, in particular that of Española where only 14 individuals remained.  As of 2008, more than 4,000 young tortoises from eight different populations have been repatriated to their island of origin, with nearly 1,500 going back to Española.

Welcome to the Charles Darwin Research Station.

Though Lonesome George, the last of the Pinta Island tortoises, died just weeks before our trip to the archipelago, and Mui did not get to see this icon of the Galápagos Islands, the visit to the research station gave him a chance to see tortoises of all ages and sizes, as well as the two different carapaces that differentiate some of the species.

Lonesome George was estimated to be about 100 years old at the time of his death.
Though some giant tortoises have lived much longer in captivity, 100 is average for
a free-roaming tortoise.

While there are 11 surviving species of tortoises, the Conservancy website explains that:

Although there is a great amount of variation in size and shape among Galapagos tortoises, two main morphological forms exist—the domed carapace (similar to their ancestral form) and the saddle-backed carapace.  The domed tortoises tend to be much larger in size and do not have the upward thrust to the front of their carapace; they live on the larger, higher islands with humid highlands where forage is generally abundant and easily available.  Saddle-backed shells evolved on the arid islands in response to the lack of available food during drought.  The front of the carapace angles upward, allowing the tortoise to extend its head higher to reach the higher vegetation, such as cactus pads.

Tortoises belong to an ancient group of reptiles that appeared about 250 million years ago.
It’s believed that they arrived in the archipelago about 1,000,000 years ago.

Mui did take photos as requested, but I thought a short video showing these animals in motion — slow though they might be — would be more interesting.

Check out the giant tortoises that are part of the breeding program.
The video even comes with a “The End” shot!

Leaving the research station, Mui headed to Galápagos Jewelry to pick up the one I thing I wanted as a souvenir — blue-footed booby earrings.  We’d initially planned to get them from the jeweler that came aboard the ship today, but she didn’t have a pair.  As it turns out, it was a better deal to purchase them in town — not only did Mui avoid paying the 12% tax added to shipboard purchases, but he was able to charge them without the usual credit card surcharge.  (Word to the wise, Mui found the selection at the store close to the Darwin Research Station more varied than at the shop near the pier.)

I get a blue-footed booby pendant and earrings, and a bonus set of tortoises, too.

His shopping completed, Mui walked back into town, stopping occasionally to take pictures of things that caught his eye.

There’s a nice promenade leading into Puerto Ayora.

No escaping the marine iguanas; even in the middle of the street.

This land iguana was begging for selective color processing.

Colorful boats tied up not far from the fish market, where …

.. A sea lion and some penguins are waiting for scraps to be thrown their way.

Check out the action at the fish market.
What’s amazing is that they weren’t trying to steal from the counter.

And on that note, Mui made his way to the municipal pier for the zodiac ride back to the ship.

Glimpse of the municipal pier.

When Mui entered the cabin this time, he found me sitting up in bed, reading my book.  Though still a little weak in the knees, I was feeling much better.  In fact, I felt good enough to join him and the rest of our boatmates for the Best Pictures of the Cruise slideshow recap of our voyage, and the Captain’s Farewell Cocktail.  I was greeted with a lot of “missed you’s” and more than a few commiserations from fellow-passengers who’d been in the same boat as me earlier in the day … forgive the pun!

Collage of a few of the images from the Xpedition photo disk gifted to each cabin.

(Speaking of the slideshow and the disk of photos we received … the slideshow is a PowerPoint presentation; the music is not embedded.  Also, the photos on the disk are low-rez, and not all are in focus; some of the naturalists are better photographers than others.  Just a word to the wise for future Xpedition passengers to not rely on the photo disk alone for your memories of this great trip.)

Captain Fausto Pacheco wishes us all happy trails to wherever we’re headed next.

We joined the Passmans for one last dinner in the Darwin Restaurant.  It was a bitter-sweet evening of good conversation and re-hashing of memories of our shared experiences here in the Galápagos Islands.

My pitiful “special” meal and Mui’s selections from the Day 7 menu.
Yes, Mui did have two desserts; his excuse … the second one was on my behalf ;-)

We remembered to get a photo taken with the Passmans.
from left to right: Michael, Patty, Megan, and Dan.
Here’s to meeting up somewhere else in our travels!
(By the way, I’m wearing a surprise gift from Mui; check out my Blue-Footed booby tee.)

By the time dinner was over, I was worn out, but there was one more thing we wanted to do before returning to the cabin — make a donation to the Galápagos Conservancy.  Not only is this a worthwhile endeavor to support, the gift is tax deductible for US citizens.  On top of that, we receive an equivalent amount as onboard credit to use on a future Celebrity cruise.  I understand it takes several weeks before we will receive the OBC certificate, but that’s OK; we don’t have any leisure cruise plans in the near future.

We’d done most of our packing already and just needed to put a few more things in our bags before setting them outside our door as requested.  That’s the sign that we’re being kicked off the ship tomorrow!  Quito … here we come!