Of course this posting is a little late but we just got off the ship and the next few postings ! wrote while we were there.

We are off to the Quito airport at 6:30 to catch a plan to Guayaquil where we make a quick stop and on to San Cristobal Island in the Galapagos to catch our boat. Sounds simple right?

Well not here in Ecuador; we did leave on time at 6:30 from our hotel, which of course was a 5:00 wake up call. Our plane was to leave from gate B3 but of course that was changed to A3 and then it was 30 minutes late. The idea was to make a quick stop in Guayaquil to unload some passengers and pick others who were on the way to the Galapagos. The flight from Quito to Guayaquil is 50 minutes no problem we are there in good time but for some reason we had to off load and take another completely different plane to complete our journey so of course this took a hour. The flight from Guayaquil to San Cristobal is 1 hours 50 minutes so when we arrive we about 2 hours late for the boat boarding but here is the catch; even though Galapagos is part of Ecuador you must go through customs again upon arrival, which of course takes some time because they go through a rigorous inspection to insure that no foreign plants or animal products are brought to the Islands.  So now we are really late!

No problem, the crew was very accommodating and we got settle in very quickly ready for evening briefing and a visit to the information center.

Here is a rhetorical question: why do the Internet pictures of your stateroom make it look so spacious and gorgeous and when you get there you have to go outside the room to turn around? The beds are made for pygmies, or at the very least for people that are under 5’6”. Ok I got that off my chest and we worked it out…I will be fine now.

Thank goodness for Berniece and here calm sense of balance!

Great dinner and early to bed.