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Going Galapagos . . .
  • Paul and Nancy. We travel
  • Paul and Nancy. We travel

Going Galapagos . . .

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  • Trip start
    November 24, 2021
    Paul and Nancy. We travelGoing Galapagos . . .Paul and Nancy. We travel

    And so it begins . . .

    November 24, 2021 in Canada ⋅ 🌧 7 °C

    Well this feels a bit surreal . . . 2 years, 1 month, 1 week and 1 day since we last sat in an airport, all checked in waiting to board a flight.

    Off we go, masks on and Vaccine Passports in hand. First leg a flight to Toronto, then a flight to Bogotá Columbia and finally Quito Ecuador for a few days before flying to the Galapagos Islands and joining our ship.

    Might have to have a glass of Wobbly Pop on board to celebrate our release from Covid jail.    Read more

  • Paul and Nancy. We travelGoing Galapagos . . .Paul and Nancy. We travel

    On the ground in Quito

    November 25, 2021 in Ecuador ⋅ 🌧 12 °C

    After three flights and a full day of travels we are on the ground in Quito. Long day, all the flights were packed full.

    Always nice to arrive at an airport at 7:00am and see your bags be the first two delivered to the carousel (!) and then be greeted by reps from Celebrity to get us to our hotel without any taxi hassles . . . Rush hour traffic here is “challenging”

    Getting used to the thin air (Quito is 10,000ft ASL and you can certainly feel it) and in addition to being a little pooped out from yesterday’s flights, and the weather being a “tad damp” we are having an easy day.

    Off tomorrow morning to explore the city and then we meet up with the rest of cruise folks tomorrow night for a dinner and our pre Galapagos mandatory PCR testing.    Read more

  • Paul and Nancy. We travelGoing Galapagos . . .Paul and Nancy. We travel
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    A day in Quito . . . 1

    November 26, 2021 in Ecuador ⋅ 🌧 11 °C

    So we had a day to ourselves to dabble in Quito. We did two things we always like to do in a new city. Visit a local market to see what people are buying for dinner and finding a scenic high spot to see the lay of the land.

    First stop, Mercado Inaquito to check out the food. It was about 11am and the rush was over . . . Ecuadorians big meal is lunch so the shopping was mostly done.food prices are very low . . . The crab lunch bowl was $3.50 (Ecuador uses the $US as currency. Excellent local produce, fish, lamb, beef chicken. We were the only tourists around so when we toured the “food court” side of the market we were treated like Celebs and offered lots of samples!    Read more

  • Paul and Nancy. We travelGoing Galapagos . . .Paul and Nancy. We travel
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    A day in Quito . . . 2

    November 26, 2021 in Ecuador ⋅ 🌧 11 °C

    Very colourful sights all over the market and lots of preschoolers playing up a storm.

    We then went up to El Panecillo up in the hills over looking Quito. Huge statue. Excellent views of Quito . . . The city goes up and over steep hills and mountains and just keeps on going. 2 million officially but locals say ++ more in reality

    Cabs are very inexpensive. A 40 minute trip that would have been $50 in Vancouver was $6

    Streets here are ridiculously steep . . . If you want super strong leg muscles, move to Quito! If you want a secure job, open up a Break & Shock Absorbers repair shop. Did I mention the streets are super steep and made of COBBLEstones?

    We officially join our ship cruise tonight with an intro meeting, get our PCR tests and the schedule for touring the city tomorrow and then flying to the Galapagos on Sunday morning

    Just went through an epic huge thunderstorm that hit shortly after we got back to our hotel. One helluva good storm show out our window!

    By the way, just in case you are curious, I am travelling with my own professional photographer Nancy✅✅    Read more

  • Paul and Nancy. We travelGoing Galapagos . . .Paul and Nancy. We travel
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    All around Quito

    November 27, 2021 in Ecuador ⋅ 🌧 12 °C

    We joined up with the rest of our 71 other fellow cruisers and hoped on buses for a day all around Quito. Highlight for me was about an hour north of the city at Latitude 0” 00” 00 . . .aka the Equator. 2450 metres ASL at 752 millibars of air pressure . . . we could feel it in the breathing walking around the small hills that make up the display area.

    Had a nice dinner out at nearby restaurant with our fellow shipmates and got back to the hotel to get our suitcases out for pickup so they can be inspected overnight by the Galapagos authorities for any banned stuff. We will see them next on board ship.

    Tomorrow we fly on a charted plane for the two hour flight to the Galapagos Islands where the real fun begins,    Read more

  • Paul and Nancy. We travelGoing Galapagos . . .Paul and Nancy. We travel
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    Shakey, shakey. Wakey wakey!

    November 28, 2021 in Ecuador ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C

    We certainly felt this. Lasted a minute or two. Kind of a gentle rumble/vibration

    No damage here apparently.

    Enroute to the airport we started to understand why Quito gets a lot of earthquakes. The city is surrounded by multiple active volcanoes, in the 15000-19000 ft height range. Spectacular sights.

    Must make it interesting for pilots flying in and out the airport down in the valley at 7000ft ASL

    Additionally, Quito gets tectonic earthquakes, caused when different earth plates move and collide.

    A very seismically active city/region

    I would be remiss if I did not point out the Quito airport has some advanced passenger comfort features!

    For all passengers!    Read more

  • Paul and Nancy. We travelGoing Galapagos . . .Paul and Nancy. We travel

    Cute critters day . . .

    November 29, 2021 in Ecuador ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    Busy day, 3hr tour with one of the ship’s Naturalists and then snorkelling in morning and then kayaking and snorkelling in the afternoon. It is end of the birthing season for sea lions and the pups are everywhere. They wait onshore while the mothers go off to feed and hang around shallow tidal pools where they are safe from sharks.

    And there are sharks! We met up with one in the afternoon snorkel session.

    The marine iguanas are everywhere and often share the same tidal pool areas as the sea lion pups

    And of course everyone’s Galapagos favourite, the obligatory Blue Footed Booby✅✅    Read more

  • Paul and Nancy. We travelGoing Galapagos . . .Paul and Nancy. We travel

    A quick post . . . More critters

    November 30, 2021 in Ecuador ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    This is a bountiful year for fish in the area and numerous birds are busy nesting and waiting for the rainy season to start in a few weeks which also will supply lots of bugs to eat. The Naturalists are particularly happy to see so many Galápagos penguins in the area.

    All sorts of nests being built on cliff sides and in the back of ocean side caves, when mixed species sharing the same cave with side by side nests. The penguins are quite fun to watch shooting up out of the ocean and then jumping and climbing into the back part of the caves above the tide line.    Read more

  • Paul and Nancy. We travelGoing Galapagos . . .Paul and Nancy. We travel

    Busy, busy days

    December 1, 2021 in France ⋅ 🌧 4 °C

    So we are on the go from early until late. To give you an idea of what is available to do, this is a typical list of daily activities

    And for anyone following along on the Find Penguins map, the GPS is turned off on the ship’s WiFi to conserve bandwidth.

    You never know where Find Penguins randomly assigns your location.    Read more

  • Paul and Nancy. We travelGoing Galapagos . . .Paul and Nancy. We travel

    In Darwin’s footsteps . . .

    December 1, 2021 in Ecuador ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    We have stopped in the bay where Darwin’s ship the Beagle anchored and where he first explored the islands on land up to Darwin’s Lake. It actually felt a bit odd walking in his footsteps considering the impact on history he had.

    Our ship was purpose built for the Galapagos expedition market. Six Zodiac tenders that are stored internally and deployed each day to get us around to various beaches and landings for either a “feet wet” or “feet dry” landing. The tenders have hydraulic ramps in the bow that make getting on/off much easier.

    Where the big X is on the side of the ship are large doors that open up and there is a hoisting system that deploys/recovers the tenders from a dedicated internal Tender Deck area

    On our first day we all were fitted out for our wetsuits & snorkelling kit that is stored in organized racks in the Wet Deck area. For the daily activities, we sign up the night before and then are assigned a tender number. Getting on and off the tender is a very safe and well orchestrated drill.

    All very well organized. We have sea legs now✅✅    Read more

  • Paul and Nancy. We travelGoing Galapagos . . .Paul and Nancy. We travel

    Underwater critters day

    December 3, 2021 in Ecuador ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    Had two excellent “drift” snorkels the last two days. They tender us out to a shoreline, drop us off and for 30-45 minutes we all drift along in the current.

    Lots of sea life. We see White Tipped Reef Sharks every day. The two here were “sleeping” on the bottom and were about 5ft long. As long as you don’t bother them too much, they will leave you alone✅✅

    Weather remains excellent. We have crossed and re-crossed the equator 3 times and the sun is very intense. We have to be very careful with sunscreen and wearing appropriate hats and long sleeves etc.    Read more

  • Paul and Nancy. We travelGoing Galapagos . . .Paul and Nancy. We travel

    Going local . . .

    December 4, 2021, South Pacific Ocean ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    We are essentially on the equator for this trip, having moved around to various islands, crossing the line 3 times. The sun is very intense and you can get burned very easily. People have a wide variety of hats to deal with sun, a couple of which have “gone to the winds” when we are sailing along at 20 knots in the tender and get blown off heads

    Sunscreen works but for snorkelling the stuff irritates my eyes when wearing my mask. I noticed the Tender drivers who are out all day have designed their own special “hat system” . . . Baseball hat pulled on tight, neck gaiter pulled up and over the back of the cap to keep it on in high winds/speeds and covering the face and up tight up their sunglasses. So I figured if it was good for them, it would work for me!

    Really works the business✅✅✅    Read more

  • Paul and Nancy. We travelGoing Galapagos . . .Paul and Nancy. We travel
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    Lunch in Jurassic Park

    December 4, 2021 in Ecuador ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    So on our last day we abandoned the ocean to drive inland and up about 1500ASL into the Cloud Rain Forest and visit the Charles Darwin Centre and then to a private ranch for lunch, a folklore show and walking with the Galapagos tortoises.

    The tortoises are just so unique. The freely roam the property and are like hundreds of large moving rocks. Nancy noticed the view from our lunch table had a very Jurassic Park feel with about two dozen in view, slowly munching away on the grass. Looking at one is like looking back a few billion years in time.

    And excellent day and we returned to our floating home to get packed up for departure back to Quito tomorrow

    It will take some time to process our Galapagos experience. It was a jammed packed week and this place is just so different, so special    Read more

  • Paul and Nancy. We travelGoing Galapagos . . .Paul and Nancy. We travel

    And so it ends

    December 7, 2021 in Canada ⋅ ⛅ 11 °C

    We had a day to ourselves in Quito, visited the Botanical Gardens had a nice lunch by the pool and a swim and packed up. We are both still digesting the Galapagos. It is totally unique and it feels like stepping back in time. An experience of experiences and will take some time to

    We left Quito at Oh Dark Thirty all vaxxed, PCR’d and ArriveCan approved and certified it will be a long day & 3 flights to get home but we are on our way. We have been hearing stories of various degrees of arrival confusion at Canadian airports so we are hoping we don’t get caught up in any bureaucratic maze when we get to our port of entry in Montreal

    Fur kiddies reunion awaits , . .    Read more

  • Trip end
    December 7, 2021