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| Seymour Galapagos Airport |
On Thursday (Thanksgiving Day!) we had a 4:30 a.m. wakeup call as our luggage needed to be outside the room by 5:00. We had time for breakfast before boarding our bus to the airport at 6:00. Our flight ended up leaving a little late, then had to stop at Guayaquil Airport for about 45 minutes before heading on to the Seymour Galapagos Ecological Airport on Baltra Island.
Our journey to the Western Route of the Galapagos Islands took place upon the Santa Cruz II, a ship owned and operated by our tour group, HX Expeditions. The dock was located a short drive from the airport, and we had to travel by panga (we would know these as zodiacs) from the dock to the ship. It was always required that we wear a life vest when on one of the pangas, and these were different from the life vests in our cabin which were to be used only in case of an emergency.
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| boarding the Santa Cruz II |
Once on board we were able to check out our cabin, and then went to lunch in the ships's only dining room. The Santa Cruz holds 90 passengers, but we had only 83. This included a group of 12 young ladies from a local university. After lunch we had to participate in the mandatory emergency drill.
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| our stateroom |
The afternoon brought us our first hike, which took place on Santa Cruz Island. We were divided in groups of around 12, and our group was the Sea Lions. The pangas brought us from the ship to the island, where we had a dry landing. We saw the interesting landscape of Dragon Hill, located on the north shore of the island. After that we walked inland on a trail that gave us a beautiful view of the bay and the western islands of the archipelago. Out first true glimpse of a Galapagos island felt like a National Geographic moment. The terrain and wildlife were everything we thought and hoped they would be.
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| Santa Cruz Island |
Before dinner we were offered a briefing of the next day's activities, and this was the case each evening on the ship. That night the dinner buffet included turkey for those on board who were missing their Thanksgiving meal back home.
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