The Galapagos Islands - Day 1

This is on almost everyone's bucket list.  Lately, I've seen more marketing on Galapagos cruises than anything I've seen.  Is it worth that much hype?  We'll see.

After a partly-failed cruise in Antartica (due to COVID-19), Hurtigruten offered the passengers either a small cash refund or a generous credit towards a future expedition cruise.  When I received an email for a sale on Hurtigruten's cruises to the Galapagos I checked and see if I could apply that credit.  A cruise like this would regularly cost about $10,000 and more, when added in a single supplement.  It did and I was able to book a cruise for a very substantial discount.

I was scheduled to fly to Quito on July 4, 2022.  As the date gets closer there were political protests in Ecuador.  I thought the cruise might be cancelled.  In fact, I think many passengers cancelled because there were only 27 passengers for a 90-passenger capacity ship.  The ship, Santa Cruz II (SC II), is owned and operated by the Metropolitan Touring Company, a local Ecuadorian company.  Metropolitan runs the cruise under the Hurtigruten name.

Santa Cruz II

This was advertised as a 9-day cruise but we were on the ship for only 6 nights.  It takes half a day to travel from Quito to Guayaquil to Baltra on the first day and we left early on the last day.  So technically we only had 5 1/2 days of activities among the islands.

The Galapagos Islands Map
By Daniel Feher   freeworldmaps.net 

Day 1:  Friday

We landed at the Baltra Airport at about 1pm.  On the map above, Baltra Island is a small island that is just north of Santa Cruz Island.  We were taken to the dock where we boarded Zodiac boats to go on board the Santa Cruz II.  

Boarding the LATAM flight in Quito

Arriving at the Seymour Airport in Baltra

Going through Airport Processing upon arrival

Boarding the Zodiacs to go the SC II

We were shown our cabins once we got on board the ship.  Originally, I was assigned to Cabin 102 but with so few people on board, I was given Cabin 111.  The cabin, which normally sleeps 2, is quite sizable. The bathroom and shower is big enough to comfortably move around.

Nice size bed

Cabin, looking in

Bathroom

Shower

 We were given a quick briefing and were told we'll have a landing later that afternoon.  There are two types of landing:  wet and dry.  Wet landing means you will get your feet and lower legs wet.  You can either get in the water bare-footed or wear wettable wear.  Dry landing means you won't get wet at all.  They usually give us a heads whether it's a wet or dry landing.

To keep track of the passengers the ship have a board where you check in or out.  You move a magnetic button to the right (lighter shade) when you check out.  When you come back, you move it back to the left.

Check-in check-out Board

The ship has some nice amenities:  Washer and dryer, jacuzzi, library, outdoor deck, and bar.  It was difficult to find your way around the ship the first couple of days.

Back of the ship.  Trying out flippers for snorkeling

Outdoor deck, next to the bar

Coffee machine in the Library

Library, for meetings and to relax

Washer and Dryer

At about 4pm we were ready for our first landing on Mosquera Islet, a small island between Baltra and North Seymour.  The island is a long and narrow sandbank surrounded by lava reefs.  They divided our big group into small groups of 5-8 people.  Each group is accompanied by a Naturalist Guide, and sometimes an assistant.  Each Zodiac boat is driven by a full-time sailor.  We all have to wear life-jackets when we get on the Zodiacs.  Getting on and off is carefully and safely done, as a few of us are well into our 70s'.  There were probably about 8 Naturalist Guides for all of us, an unusual high ratio.  All our Naturalist Guides are four-year university graduates and have gone through rigorous training.  We were told that among Ecuadorian kids, a popular career aspirations is to be a Naturalist Guide in the Galapagos.

Posing with the sea lion

A protected red crab

A happy sea lion, abundant on this islet

After we returned to the SC II, we had a quick briefing at 7pm next to the bar.  Why the bar?  Perhaps some passengers like to get a before-dinner drink and relax outside on the deck after a tough day.  The briefing usually talks about the next day's expedition plus some kind of ecological talk about the Galapagos Islands.  It is conducted by the Expedition Team, which includes all the Naturalists.  It is led by a gentleman named Esteban, who does on the assignments.  Some of the Naturalist name I remember are Franklin, Gustavo, Fatima, Vanessa (2), Veronica.  There is another Naturalist guide who mostly accompany the 4-6 German speaking passengers.

Dinner is in the dining room down at the lower level.  We were served restaurant-quality 3-course dinners with complimentary wine or beer.  There are choices of meat or fish or vegetarian.  We usually pick our next meal from a menu shown on a tablet by the server.  Breakfast is buffet-style.  We usually sit at the same table but you are allowed to move around to sit with other passengers.  I usually sit with another Chinese couple, who happened to be from Gilbert, AZ.