The Mikels' Chronicals: Boobies Galore and some other things

Today was the big day. The day we had been waiting for for several years…The Galapagos Islands. The morning began at 7 am with obtaining our tickets for the flight to the Baltra. Baltra is one of the small islands of the Galapagos and was once used as a airport during World War II and has been converted to a commercial airport for flights to the Galapagos. Once we had checked out of the hotel and received our boarding passes, we hopped on chartered buses to the Quito airport. Our tour guide on the bus filled us in on a few last minute Quito facts. On Sunday in Quito, the city shuts down one side of many of the main roads to be used by the citizens for recreational activities such as running and biking. We had noticed on Saturday that there was absolutely no one outside partaking in any sort of exercising, but today was totally different. There were many people outside walking, running and biking. There was zero traffic on the roads, so this must be the day that Ecuadorians get outside and burn some calories.

Once we arrived at the Quito airport, we were rushed through airport security. Security is much more lax in Ecuador. We were able to bring any size of liquid on our plane and were not required to take our shoes or jackets off. It made us a little nervous going on our plane, but it was also nice being able to get through security so quickly. Once we got on the plane, we thought we may have to sit apart since our seats were separated by a seat in between us. We were pleasantly surprised to find out that we had our own row to ourselves. All couple by themselves had a row to themselves on this flight. Celebrity contracts a plane through Aerogal, so the individuals on the trip had the whole plane to themselves and there were many empty seats. The plane was very nice with each seat with it’s own video screen and foot rests. We had not been on a plane with such a nice set up before. The flight from Quito to Baltra was 2 hours. During the flight, we were provided with a warm towel to clean up before the flight began and then a breakfast consisting of a egg casserole, fruit and bread. The trip was going wonderful with Britt and I both watching movies on our personal video screens until we hit some horrendous turbulence. The plane began to shake like crazy with all the luggage above us and the items in the back jostling around. Britt immediately grabbed my hand and squeezed it. The turbulence lasted for about 30 minutes. We weren’t sure we were going to make it to the Galapagos since it appeared the wings were going to break off as the plane bounced around in the sky. Obviously, we are here to write this so we made it ok.

As soon as we stepped out of the plane, we were hit with a blast of hot humid air. It felt great to finally feel temperatures warm enough to wear short sleeves and shorts. The airport consisted of a completely open building with only a roof. It is very similar to the airport on the Big Island of Hawaii. Once through customs, we were bused to the pier to hop on zodiacs to the Celebrity Xpedition. At the pier, we were greeted with our first taste of Galapagos wildlife. Pelicans were all over diving into the water catching fish. We heard the barking of sea lions and saw hundreds of sally light footed crabs on the rocks. This is going to be an amazing trip.

Once on the ship, we were greeted with a cold towel and water and sat down in the Discovery lounge for a short briefing by the cruise director. We were informed that the ship is at full capacity – 98 total vacationers and from all over the world.

We were showed to our room, which is your typical cruise cabin. Ted and I each had a twin bed pushed so we each can sleep on our own beds at night. We followed up our room visit with our next stop, the buffet. An array of assorted foods greeted us and we weren’t afraid to dig right in because we have to get our moneys’ worth, right??

After unpacking our luggage, the first hike of the trip was a 2 hour hike around North Seymour island. Ted snapped photos while I videotaped the scenery which consisted of: frigate birds, blue footed boobies, red footed boobies, sea lions, baby frigate birds, marine and land iguanas, and more and more frigate birds. It’s currently mating season for the frigate birds so the males would inflate their red pouch to attract the females. We found out the mother and father care for their baby frigate for 2 years. Their life span is approximately 60 years which is pretty incredible. You will notice in some of Ted’s photos just how close we were to the animals and were not afraid of us humans.

Back on the ship we showered and prepped for dinner. We were seated with a family of four from Kansas City. Marlan, the father, is not afraid of his feminine side as I had noticed he had worn pink every day of the trip thus far. I had named them the pink family before we had even met.

Dinner marked the end of our first day on the cruise and we know it is already going to fly by.

Last Minute Thought:
- The ship is small and intimate. Fortunately, this means we get to meet a lot of great people from around the World. Unfortunately, it means that we have to remember people’s names since we will likely eat and converse with them several times over the week. After a day of not remembering many names, we have begun writing down everyone’s name on a sheet of paper to help us remember.

Also, we are having issues with uploading pictures. We will try to fix if they do not show up.