Finally! We Make It to the Galapagos Islands

April 1: Day 9. We are up at 0130 hrs. to get our bags out at 0200 for a 0215 departure. It’s hard to imagine that we are moving again after about 3½ hours of sleep.

Our plane on the San Cristobal runway

Breakfast is served in a brown paper bag that we eat on the bus as we ride to the airport. Once again we have a long way to drag our luggage from the parking lot to the airport lobby, but at least it’s not at altitude. The Lima airport is always busy and there are long lines at both the ticket counter and the security checkpoint.

Ready for the Galapagos Islands!

Our group gets to our gate about an hour before our 0705 departure to Quito.

Arriving in Quito, we pass through immigration and are waved through customs which surprises us, given that this is a different country. In any event, we board our next plane that will fly us to Guayaquil where we will catch a flight that will take us to the Galapagos island of San Cristobal 600 miles off the Ecuadorian coast.

Beautiful island landscape

 It will be another busy day dealing with airports and airlines.

Our flights go smoothly and we arrive at the San Cristobal airport early afternoon. San Cristobal is the easternmost and second most populated (~6000) island of the archipelago.

Boarding a panga

Geologically it is the oldest of all the islands and is comprised of three or four fused extinct volcanoes. Aside from being home to the archipelago’s only major airport, the island is home to the port town of Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, the second largest town in the islands (pop. ~5400) and the government capital of the Galapagos Province which includes the entire archipelago.

We made it aboard!

The airport has a single runway with a cul-de-sac turnaround at one end for taxiing to and from the terminal. Inside the terminal we wait in line while Marcos passes out our entrance passes to the park. The entire archipelago makes up the Galapagos National Park and Marine Reserve. After processing our passes, we board a bus that takes us to the island’s port.

Donning life preservers, we board inflatable zodiac boats (also called pangas by the locals) that take us to our ship— the Silver Sea Silver Origin.

Kicker Rock

We will spend the next 7 nights aboard this expeditionary-style yacht cruising the islands. We are greeted aboard with a champagne welcome and orientation briefing followed by a lifeboat drill and lunch. We spend the afternoon unpacking our luggage and getting ready for the Captain’s welcome reception and dinner. We join David and Linda in the Observation Lounge for a Kicker Rock sunset sail away and pre-dinner drinks.

Kicker Rock at sunset

Kicker Rock (also known as Leon Dormido) is the remains of a volcanic tuff cone which forms when hot magma meets cold seawater and the resulting explosion forms a rocky monolith. Over time erosion has split the rock in two. The rock is an extremely popular snorkeling and scuba diving site and is one of the most photographed landmarks in the Galapagos. We enjoy our sunset views of the rock as we circumnavigate it before going to dinner. After dinner, we attend a destination briefing on the activities we will experience tomorrow on Genovesa Island then retire for the night.