*Back-blogging from December 26th...
We woke up early, showered, and were off to Charlotte airport where we cleared security with ease and were soon bound for Miami. We had a tight connection in Miami which was made even tighter by plane delays on Charlottte’s end and a really strong (and bumpy) headwind. But, after walked a good 1-1.5 miles through the Miami airport and clearing security…again…we were bound for Quito! This was a LAN flight and was MUCH nicer. In four hours time we found ourselves in Ecuador facing an interminable line at immigration that took us an hour and a half to survive – it was rough because we had landed in Quito – a city up about 9,200 feet. We were already dehydrated from the plane ride, add altitude to that and no access to liquids when we stepped off the plane and one can begin to imagine how miserable we were for that first hour and a half. As soon as we made it through we were ecstatic to see that our bags had arrived (dive gear, check!), and we were immediately greeted by our pre-arranged hotel pickup. The decisive moment of the night was when I spotted a little shop that sold beverages. I handed all my stuff to the hotel rep, told Daniel and Gary to hold the van, and ran and bought SIX Gatorades. We were all soooo happy – Gary called it sweet nectar, and we all felt significantly better after guzzling one and then sipping on the second.
Flying into Quito reminded me of our flight into Cuzco, only the city lacked the same terracotta uniformity that I noticed in Cuzco. As our van drove us in it reminded me a great deal of Lima, but not quite as big. Since it was after dark much of the city was already boarded up for the night and we could tell it Once we checked into our hotel we ordered dinner at the hotel restaurant (which was really delicious) and from there we cashed in our welcome drinks and headed to bed. It was after nine, we knew the next day would really be a big one, and we were all exhausted.
The next morning we grabbed breakfast, packed up, and headed back to the airport – bound for San Cristobal! At the airport there is a special wing for Galapagos bound passengers – we had to first have our bags x-rayed for potential species or specimen threats. They sealed all big suitcases with a special tag certified by them and we were given customs forms to fill out and present in the Galapagos. After that we had to check out bags, buy our “Ingala” card for 10 US dollars each which we would have to fill out and present in the Galapagos. Then we cleared security and entered a room that was full of 200-300 tourists who were all Galapagos bound and waiting for their flight – which wasn’t exactly announced, you just had to sense that it was close to time and that the line forming was the one you should be in.
This flight was also quite nice. We flew to Guayaquil but did not disembark and then we were officially off to San Cristobal! Before we landed they actually came through and sprayed everything in the overhead compartment with “World Health Organization approved pesticide” in case we were carrying anything that could be dangerous to the endemic species of the Galapagos. Definitely have never had that happen before! It was pretty crazy! And then we were there! The islands appeared as we flew down and out of the clouds and suddenly we were on land again. We were greeted by signs that welcomed us to the Galapagos and a saying that “To us, the Galapagos means peace, ***, and evolution, we hope it means the same to you.” The airport was small – an open air space, but definitely not as small as the one in Yap or Lizard Island, Australia. We waited in line and each paid 100 US dollars to officially enter Galapagos National Park! We were in! Our passports currently contain exit papers, an Ingala card, and a Galapagos Park entry card – they are looking really thick!
And our luggage made it!!! We were immediately greeted by Aggressor crew who ushered us onto a bus and took us directly to the port. As we walked out towards the dock we were all so excited – there were sea lions everywhere!!! The two women from the other family and I were all grins – I looked at them and said – “okay! It has already been worth the trek!” and they whole-heartedly agreed. There were sea lions under most of the benches, in the water, on the rocks lazing in the sun reminding us of Chance, one in the water barking, they really were all over! We boarded a little skiff with our handluggage and were off to our ship! We had the traditional “fill in” about how everything works on the boat, daily schedule, procedures, etc. Then we ate lunch and set out to unpack, set up dive gear, provide the obligatory paperwork/dive cards/passports, etc. and we were ready to start diving! While we were doing all of that Daniel grabbed the camera because 20 meters away on the rocks of the island there were blue footed boobies hanging out!
As you can imagine the first time you don a two piece 7mm wetsuit with socks, boots, gloves, and hood, and all of the weight required to make it sink (over 10 kilos) it takes a while to get yourself sorted out. Our first check dive really was exactly that – a check dive in which we swam around a sandy bottom looking for turtles and sea lions and got acclimated. It was not the prettiest dive and we were definitely slowly working through adjustments to our gear, but!...seeing a sea lion that was bigger than us come zipping around was all it took for me to be hooked! We saw several turtles, several sting rays, and when we surfaced we found ourselves eye level with the shore less than ten meters away from a sea lion beach. Several of the sea lions were getting in and we got to see more of them swimming around us – Daniel even saw a baby do a corkscrew swim straight at him before it changed directions. I saw an adolescent rolling in the surf on a rock who was showing off his ability to do rolls. We also saw a sea turtle whose shell was bigger than my torso. Just as we were finishing our dive I looked to the right an saw an eagle ray! YAY! I have always wanted to see one and he just came cruising by with less than five feet between us! I couldn’t help but to think that this might be how many of our dives go – they may seem fairly fruitless for the majority of the time but in ten minutes we saw awesome things!
Dinner was quite yummy and I really enjoyed not feeling sea sick! The patch works so well for me! We ended our day with a conversation with the other family on the boat and went to sleep as the boat gently rocked us. We made it! We are in the Galapagos so far they seem like magic!
We woke up early, showered, and were off to Charlotte airport where we cleared security with ease and were soon bound for Miami. We had a tight connection in Miami which was made even tighter by plane delays on Charlottte’s end and a really strong (and bumpy) headwind. But, after walked a good 1-1.5 miles through the Miami airport and clearing security…again…we were bound for Quito! This was a LAN flight and was MUCH nicer. In four hours time we found ourselves in Ecuador facing an interminable line at immigration that took us an hour and a half to survive – it was rough because we had landed in Quito – a city up about 9,200 feet. We were already dehydrated from the plane ride, add altitude to that and no access to liquids when we stepped off the plane and one can begin to imagine how miserable we were for that first hour and a half. As soon as we made it through we were ecstatic to see that our bags had arrived (dive gear, check!), and we were immediately greeted by our pre-arranged hotel pickup. The decisive moment of the night was when I spotted a little shop that sold beverages. I handed all my stuff to the hotel rep, told Daniel and Gary to hold the van, and ran and bought SIX Gatorades. We were all soooo happy – Gary called it sweet nectar, and we all felt significantly better after guzzling one and then sipping on the second.
Flying into Quito reminded me of our flight into Cuzco, only the city lacked the same terracotta uniformity that I noticed in Cuzco. As our van drove us in it reminded me a great deal of Lima, but not quite as big. Since it was after dark much of the city was already boarded up for the night and we could tell it Once we checked into our hotel we ordered dinner at the hotel restaurant (which was really delicious) and from there we cashed in our welcome drinks and headed to bed. It was after nine, we knew the next day would really be a big one, and we were all exhausted.
The next morning we grabbed breakfast, packed up, and headed back to the airport – bound for San Cristobal! At the airport there is a special wing for Galapagos bound passengers – we had to first have our bags x-rayed for potential species or specimen threats. They sealed all big suitcases with a special tag certified by them and we were given customs forms to fill out and present in the Galapagos. After that we had to check out bags, buy our “Ingala” card for 10 US dollars each which we would have to fill out and present in the Galapagos. Then we cleared security and entered a room that was full of 200-300 tourists who were all Galapagos bound and waiting for their flight – which wasn’t exactly announced, you just had to sense that it was close to time and that the line forming was the one you should be in.
This flight was also quite nice. We flew to Guayaquil but did not disembark and then we were officially off to San Cristobal! Before we landed they actually came through and sprayed everything in the overhead compartment with “World Health Organization approved pesticide” in case we were carrying anything that could be dangerous to the endemic species of the Galapagos. Definitely have never had that happen before! It was pretty crazy! And then we were there! The islands appeared as we flew down and out of the clouds and suddenly we were on land again. We were greeted by signs that welcomed us to the Galapagos and a saying that “To us, the Galapagos means peace, ***, and evolution, we hope it means the same to you.” The airport was small – an open air space, but definitely not as small as the one in Yap or Lizard Island, Australia. We waited in line and each paid 100 US dollars to officially enter Galapagos National Park! We were in! Our passports currently contain exit papers, an Ingala card, and a Galapagos Park entry card – they are looking really thick!
And our luggage made it!!! We were immediately greeted by Aggressor crew who ushered us onto a bus and took us directly to the port. As we walked out towards the dock we were all so excited – there were sea lions everywhere!!! The two women from the other family and I were all grins – I looked at them and said – “okay! It has already been worth the trek!” and they whole-heartedly agreed. There were sea lions under most of the benches, in the water, on the rocks lazing in the sun reminding us of Chance, one in the water barking, they really were all over! We boarded a little skiff with our handluggage and were off to our ship! We had the traditional “fill in” about how everything works on the boat, daily schedule, procedures, etc. Then we ate lunch and set out to unpack, set up dive gear, provide the obligatory paperwork/dive cards/passports, etc. and we were ready to start diving! While we were doing all of that Daniel grabbed the camera because 20 meters away on the rocks of the island there were blue footed boobies hanging out!
As you can imagine the first time you don a two piece 7mm wetsuit with socks, boots, gloves, and hood, and all of the weight required to make it sink (over 10 kilos) it takes a while to get yourself sorted out. Our first check dive really was exactly that – a check dive in which we swam around a sandy bottom looking for turtles and sea lions and got acclimated. It was not the prettiest dive and we were definitely slowly working through adjustments to our gear, but!...seeing a sea lion that was bigger than us come zipping around was all it took for me to be hooked! We saw several turtles, several sting rays, and when we surfaced we found ourselves eye level with the shore less than ten meters away from a sea lion beach. Several of the sea lions were getting in and we got to see more of them swimming around us – Daniel even saw a baby do a corkscrew swim straight at him before it changed directions. I saw an adolescent rolling in the surf on a rock who was showing off his ability to do rolls. We also saw a sea turtle whose shell was bigger than my torso. Just as we were finishing our dive I looked to the right an saw an eagle ray! YAY! I have always wanted to see one and he just came cruising by with less than five feet between us! I couldn’t help but to think that this might be how many of our dives go – they may seem fairly fruitless for the majority of the time but in ten minutes we saw awesome things!
Dinner was quite yummy and I really enjoyed not feeling sea sick! The patch works so well for me! We ended our day with a conversation with the other family on the boat and went to sleep as the boat gently rocked us. We made it! We are in the Galapagos so far they seem like magic!
No comments:
Post a Comment