Nathan's Insights

Saturday 14 December 2024
Highlights: Giant tortoises, the Santa Cruz Island landscape, exploring the Reina Silvia Voyager

We were up before 4 am to prepare for our early morning flight to the Galapagos Islands. A breakfast pack was waiting for us as we boarded our transport for the airport.

Our flight today was from Quito to Galapagos Island (Balta Airport) via a stop at Guayaquil. We were flying on Avianca flight AV1632. The G Adventures representative helped us through the steps to get to the Galapagos Islands. This started with needing an arrival card (costing USD 20), getting our bags scanned for items that could hurt the environment of the Galapagos, checking in for our flight, and eventually going through airport security.

We did have an issue when we arrived at Guayaquil airport. We were supposed to stay on the plane but after 5 minutes everyone was ordered off the plane and a replacement plane was set up to take us to our final destination. There was a lot of confusion over this situation.

We eventually landed at Seymour Airport on Baltra Island. It was very humid. We had to pay USD 200 for the National Park entrance fee on arrival in cash. Our bags showed up and the group met our CEO Omar Medina. We then caught a public bus to a ferry port. The ferry then took us to Santa Cruz from here we got on our private bus for our activity on this island. Our main bags were transported separately to Reina Silvia Voyager.

We drove to Rancho El Chato for lunch and to see the giant tortoises. The drive to Rancho El Chato allowed us to take in the countryside, which was lush and green, with Balta Island which was semi-desert-like.

At Rancho El Chato we explored a lava tunnel before getting lunch. Omar explained the history of how these islands were created from volcanoes. 

After lunch, we went out and met the giant tortoises. They are massive. We got a history of these tortoises how they got to these islands and how they mutated. Stunning creatures.

We then drove to Puerto Ayora, the main city of this island and did a little coastal exploring before getting a zodiac boat to the Reina Silvia Voyager.

Getting to the Reina Silvia Voyager was an experience. Hopefully, I get better at boarding and leaving the zodiac. Our room was massive and the catamaran was impressive. 

We had our first briefing for tomorrow’s activities and enjoyed a nice dinner together as we got used to the movements of the catamaran as it rocked back and forth.