Thursday, December 27, 2018; Ecuador, Here We Come!

Thursday, December 27, 2018- Ecuador, Here We Come!

We are off on another adventure.  This time, we are traveling with a group of family and friends, including Janet’s siblings, and Ben’s fishing buddies Mark C and Mark B.  Janet’s brother Jack is bringing his wife Sharon, while Janet’s sister Terri is traveling by herself because her husband is tending to an aging cat at home.  Mark C is traveling with his wife Jan, while Mark B is bringing his wife Erin, and three children Konrad, Riley and Drake.  We are bringing our children John, Price and Ciara.  Ciara’s boyfriend Tom is also joining us on this adventure.  That makes a group of 16.   

Our destination for this adventure is the Galapagos Islands off the coast of Ecuador.  We are booked on an 8 day Galapagos Island cruise on the EcoGalaxy Catamaran, Galaxy II.  We booked the EcoGalaxy as a private 16 passenger charter, which means that we will be the sole passengers for this cruise. The EcoGalaxy is 101’ long with a 34-1/2’ beam.  She carries a crew of 8 plus one bilingual naturalist guide. The boat cruises at 9-10 knots.     

Before we arrive to the Galapagos Islands, we must rendezvous in Quito, Ecuador, where we are scheduled to tour Quito and see the equatorial monument on Friday, December 28, 2018.  

We then board a flight from Quito to the Galapagos Seymour Airport on Baltra Island.  We then take a short ferry over to Santa Cruz Island, where the EcoGalaxy is based.   The Galapagos Islands are an Ecuadorian National Park, and strict rules have been imposed on visitors to protect the delicate environment.  

Visitors to the Galapagos National Park must be accompanied by a credentialed naturalist guide with no more than 16 visitors per naturalist guide.  There are also well defined landing sites throughout the islands and set itineraries to prevent overcrowding at any of the sites.  

We will be doing a western island itinerary, which visits the newest islands in the volcanic chain.   We will start on Santa Cruz, where we will board the EcoGalaxy.  We will then visit 5 landing sites on Isabela Island, the largest of the Galapagos archipelago, one site on Fernandina Island, the youngest of the archipelago, two sites on Santiago Island, one site on Isla Rábida, one site on Isla Bartolomé, and 4 sites on Santa Cruz over the course of 8 days and 7 nights. 

Western Galapagos 8 Day Itinerary

The first challenge of this adventure is to get all 16 of us to the same place at the same time.  Most will be starting their journey through Seattle-Tacoma Airport.  Tom will be flying out of Chicago, while Terri will fly out of Philadelphia and John will fly out of Newark, NJ.  Janet, Ben, Ciara and Price began their journey on Wednesday, December 26, 2018, taking an overnight American Airlines flight from Seattle to Miami, arriving in Miami at 6:30AM. 

Jack and Sharon also began their journey on Wednesday, December 26, 2018 taking a morning Aeromexico flight from Seattle to Puerto Vallarta.  Their next flight was delayed by 3 hours, but fortunately, they had a 4 hour layover in Puerto Vallarta before their next flight to Mexico City was scheduled to leave.  

We received an amusing text message from them saying their flight was delayed and that they were at Puerto Viagra! (Auto-correct humor). They then boarded an overnight flight from Mexico City to Quito, Ecuador.  They arrived safely at the NH Collection Quito Hotel pretty much on schedule early morning Thursday, December 27, 2018.   

The next wave of travelers left their homes on Thursday, December 27, 2018.  Tom actually boarded his flight just after midnight, and flew COPA from Chicago to Panama City, where he changed planes for his final flight leg to Quito.  He arrived without drama. John boarded his American Airlines flight out of Newark, NJ on time and met up with the rest of the Hu family in Miami at 9:30AM.     

Terri encountered a major hitch in her journey when American Airlines canceled her flight from Philadelphia to Miami at the last minute.  A band of serious weather closed down Dallas Fort Worth Airport, where the flight that Terri was booked on was to originate.  The best American Airlines could promise was to rebook her on the next day’s flights.  However, there was a 10:45AM flight from Philadelphia to Miami that was overbooked by 6 passengers.  

Terri’s husband drove her to the airport where she went on standby, and amazingly, she got onto the flight.  She was high priority on the standby list because she had paid the highest fare (paid for first class). They wouldn’t rebook her Miami to Quito flight as she scooted onto the plane, so she texted us while the plane was still on the tarmac, and Ben went to the American Airlines Rebooking counter in Miami and had them put Terri back on the Miami to Quito flight.  She made it to Miami with just enough time to get her boarding pass and get in line. She fortunately did not have any checked bags.  

Fish Rosettes at Miami International (MIA) Airport

Interesting Skylight at MIA

Major American Airlines Hub

It’s a good thing our travel agent for this trip, Max, at IdealSouthAmerica.com, recommended arriving in Quito 2 days before the actual cruise.  Apparently this sort of thing happens with enough frequency that it has become standard practice to build in an extra day into the itinerary just in case.   

Our flight from Miami to Quito was a new 737-Max8, the kind of plane that notoriously crashed shortly after take-off on a Lion Air flight in Indonesia in October, killing everyone onboard.  A faulty air speed sensor combined with a twitchy autopilot was ultimately found to be at fault, and pilots all around the world were made aware of the problem.  Still, it makes you a little nervous.  

The flight turned out to be fairly comfortable in our premium economy seats.  Terri did manage to regain her first class seat, teasing us with pictures of her elegant dessert.  The flight was a mercifully short 4 hours.

Terri’s first class dessert

New 737 Max 8 seat design optimized for BYO iPad.

We arrived in Quito at 7PM.  It was surprisingly dark outside by 6:30PM.  We breezed through Ecuadorian customs and immigration, although Ben was delayed because the agent asked if this was his first time in Ecuador.  Truthfully, it was not because we had made a port of call in Manta, Ecuador in March 2018 as part of our 60 day South America circumnavigation cruise.  However, from the cruise ship, we did not have to go through customs or immigrations.  They just turned us loose onto the streets of Manta.  The Immigrations agent spent some time searching through all the pages of Ben’s passport to find an Ecuador stamp.  She finally gave up and stamped a new one into his passport.  

All of our luggage arrived, which was nice.  We were greeted just outside customs and immigration by Anna Maria, our guide for Royal Galapagos tours.  It sure is nice to be greeted by someone at these foreign airports.  The Quito airport is very modern and very nice.  Another airport to put LAX to shame.

Reception at Quito Airport

After unloading out bags at the NH Collection Quito Hotel, we walked around the corner to a nice restaurant called the Lo Nuestro, which featured a very Parisian decor and ambiance combined with local Ecuadorian cuisine.  We started with crispy plantain chips with a delicious and a just spicy enough orange salsa.  We also had some black sea bass ceviche for appetizer.  We then had several different local entrees including a potato cheese soup, fried pork, guava marinated chicken and BBQ steak and eggs on polenta.  All were delicious.  A 10% service charge was included in the bill, and they accepted our Visa card without issue.   

The hotel room is nice, spacious and modern.  Perhaps not quite as nice as the hotels Princess put us up in for our Machu Picchu and Iguazu Falls excursions, but certainly nice enough (think slightly shabby Hyatt Regency or Westin).  

Mark B’s and Mark C’s parties boarded Delta Airlines flights out of Seattle early morning Thursday, December 27, 2018, meeting up in Atlanta where their final flights to Quito originated. They arrived after Midnight on December 28, 2018 because it is a 45 minute drive from the international airport to downtown Quito where the hotels are.