Getting to San Cristobal and Boarding the "Yacht"

From the Itinerary: In the morning, transfer to the airport of Quito, where you should go through the special procedures to travel to the Galapagos Islands: namely getting your transit card and baggage check SICGAL. You will arrive at 1:06 pm (local time) at San Cristobal airport. After paying the entrance fees, you pick-up your luggage and enter the arrival hall where the bilingual naturalist guide will welcome you and the other passengers of the cruise, before taking you to the dock where you will board the Monserrat. Start of the itinerary with lunch and visit of Tijeretas Hill and the Interpretation Center.

Happy April Fools day.

Off to the domestic side of Quito Airport where we went through the special Galapagos processing. For us this was paying $20/per person and getting the special transit card.

airside there are still some nice souvenir stores before carrying on to the lounge. The lounge was quite nice and had a nice variety of Ecuadorian options including plantain fritters.

Our flight went through Guayaquil where we stopped for about 30 minutes, then on to the Galapagos.

We had lunch on the way which was a vege sandwich. Here are our first photos of San Cristobal Island from the air:

We thought this was our boat, but it wasn't. We did shadow it for the next day on our cruise.

At arrivals

we were through quite quickly since we had no checked luggage.

Those who did had to wait for the dogs to sniff through and release the luggage for collection. There was a family of 10, including 4 children, from New Jersey and another lady from Pennsylvania who were also coming on our cruise.... they all had checked luggage.

We met Pedro, our bi-lingual guide and while we waited the 20 minutes for people to get their luggage and to get out of the humid heat (it felt in the high 80s), we walked over to the little park. I was a bit non-plussed that we weren't offered a shady/cool place to sit down, but anyway.

We had a 5 minute bus ride to the pier

and saw sea lions and crabs while we waited for the zodiac boats to the "yacht". Again, no offer of a shady spot to wait....

At some point I'll do a video of our "yacht". For now, here are some shots of our approach

and of our cabin - small, but functional.

Lunch was spaghetti with meat sauce with a small side salad. I asked for an extra portion of the salad and felt like I was Oliver Twist when he asked for "more". Evidently seconds are not encouraged.

We have 20 people on this "yacht" and meal times are 4 tables of 5 people. It is "cozy".

The afternoon we went back to the main island to see the view at  Tijeretas Hill and the Interpretation Center. The sea lions liked our boat and zodiacs:)

The Interpretation Center ...

had some lovely gardens around it. We saw Darwin Finches (i don't know which if the 16 types these are)

Lava Lizards - female and male

and a male/female pair of yellow warblers

Also several spiders, one of which was eating a moth

The view at the top of the hill included Darwin Bay

Kicker Island

5 finger rock

and Frigate Birds

We had about 20 minutes to walk through the downtown which was enough time to get some snacks and postcards before ending at the pier and seeing the amazing sunset. I've never seen such a large sun.

Once back at the boat there was a welcome cocktail and finally an introduction to the crew. In addition to the 20 guests, there are 11 crew. The welcome drink was a mixture of naranjilla, cachasa and lemon. No photo now, but there will be in a few days.

Dinner was chicken with mushroom sauce, sweet potato mash and cauliflower with some sort of pear dessert. It was dipped in something florescent green.

5 myths about this trip which are stated in its literature:

1. You'll be on a yacht

2. There is no internet - we even have it in the cabin

3. the boat holds 16 customers, max...

4. lunch is a buffet

5. the crew wears masks all the time

Bedtime was early and at about 10pm we motored over to our next island of Espanola.

A view of the town at night from the boat.