Our adventures in the awe-inspiring Galapagos Islands!
We organized our trip in the awe-inspiring Galapagos Islands about six years ago pre-Covid. We were more than happy to finally be able to get to venture down to this part of the world. Ecuador is a country we haven’t been to and we were able to enjoy a few days there. We will be doing Quito Mini-Guide soon! The focus for this article is on the Galapagos Islands’ Inner Loop with Celebrity Cruises on the Celebrity Flora.
The Celebrity Flora sailed from Baltra Island after a landing at the Seymour Airport. We were whisked off on tenders to the ship. The first afternoon was a relaxing one. It allowed us to get our bearings on the cruise ship and to get assigned our gear. A wet suit, snorkel and fins and to make sure that we knew the process for booking our daily excursions and going to the daily briefings for excursions each day. We will have a separate article on Celebrity Flora soon – it was spectacular and deserves its own. More on our adventures in the awe-inspiring Galapagos Islands follows!
The Galapagos Islands cruise with Celebrity Flora is very active and not a typical ‘cruise’ vacation. The days are jam-packed with active excursions and there are frequent opportunities to walk, snorkel, swim, kayak, etc. We made sure to unpack our carefully planned wardrobe for the week; and stowed our medical kit, and we were ready to go!
Baltra
This island the location of Seymour Airport, and is where we flew in from Quito. The airport is a military one, so it is quite efficiently run. It is not part of the Galapagos National Park. We were transferred by buses to the port to get on our tender for Celebrity Flora.
Santiago and Rabida Islands – Day 1
Santiago Link : highlights: we saw a variety of birds, marine iguanas, sea lions, sally lightfoot crabs, and the Galapagos fur seal
Rabida Link: highlights: sea lions, brown pelicans, Galapagos hawks, flamingos, yellow crowned night herons; a red beach; and, blue footed boobies
We had two options available to us for the morning at Santiago Puerto Egas. This particular landing would be a wet one. We selected the long walk and optional swim/snorkel for that first morning. For the afternoon excursion at Rabida we had four options available to us so we selected the option to do a long walk and then to go kayaking.
These excursions were a great introduction to how much time and effort goes into planning and delivering the excursion services onboard the Celebrity Flora. The morning started at 8 AM and we went until approximately 11:30 AM with the first excursion. You return to the cruise ship and you have lunch and then you get prepared for an afternoon excursion. The afternoon excursion on Rabida, the long walk and then kayaking went until approximately 5:30 PM that day. Then, you have all the evening activities that you have to get ready and prepared for! A very solid day with beautiful photo opportunities, fun activities and opportunities to engage with your new shipmates.
Santa Cruz – Day 2
Link : Highlights: land iguanas, small salt water lagoons a bit inland, flamingos and other shore birds
Our second day of excursions was on Santa Cruz Island. The there were two options available to us for the morning excursion at Dragon’s Hill, which would be a dry landing. Again, we selected the long walk rather than the short walk trying to keep ourselves moving! The afternoon excursion on Santa Cruz Island was a wet landing. There were three options available. This time we took the opportunity to enjoy some beach time and walk along the beach and also do a little bit of snorkelling. Santa Cruz Island itself was very interesting. Lots of beautiful photo opportunities .
Santiago – Day 3
Santiago Link: highlights: black lava walk and amazing flora, along with some very frisky Galapagos penguins!
Bartolome : highlights: pinnacle rock; climb to viewpoint, more Galapagos penguins, hawks, herons
Our third day was on Santiago and Bartolome Islands in the morning. Our excursion this time at Santiago was Sullivan Bay, which was a dry landing. We had three options available to us and the option we selected was short lava Rockwalk and short tender ride. This was a hoot. In the afternoon at Bartolome Island, we had a dry landing and enjoyed a long steep walk to the top. Bartolome Island is the picture that you will be familiar with for the Galapagos. It’s on all our different search results when you do a Google search for Galapagos.
Santa Cruz – Day 4
Santa Cruz : highlights: nesting site of sea turtles – tons of them! flamingos and other aquatic, migratory birds, and both marine iguanas and land iguanas
North Seymour: highlights: large colonies of blue footed boobies, and nests, frigate birds and nests; dry landing on some rocks; marine iguanas, sea lions, rock crabs, and sea lions
On our fourth day, we went to Santa Cruz again in the morning and to North Seymour Island in the afternoon. In the morning we visited Las Bachas Beach, which was a wet landing. We selected a beach walk and swim/snorkel. We ended up walking further along the beach as it was so beautiful. In the afternoon we visited North Seymour, which was a dry landing and had three options available to us and the one we selected in this particular case was a long walk on a very rocky trail at North Seymour is absolutely fantastic, because you get to see nests for both the blue-footed boobies and the frigates.
San Cristobal – Day 5
Link: highlights: frigate birds, sea lions, amazing views and land iguanas everywhere!
On our fifth day, we visited San Cristobal Island. The morning was a dry landing at Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, and we had two options available to us. We selected a long, fast pace, fitness oriented walk, which was on variable terrain with some rocks, sand, pave sections, hills, and stairs. This takes you to the top of a landing area on San Cristobal, which is one of the populated areas of the Galapagos – albeit a very small population. The view from the top is spectacular.
We had a couple options available to us and we opted to go to the interpretation centre and then have some free time in the town. The interpretation centre is a great opportunity to better understand the perspective of the Ecuadorean government and its people on how they feel about how the Galapagos have been used and abused over the course of the last many centuries. At the end of the displays it was wonderful to see that they are overcoming some of their unique challenges and how, as well as how they are ensuring that the people that come to visit the Galapagos are not abusing the Galapagos Islands.
Santa Cruz – Day 6
On our on our sixth and final excursion day there was a full day excursion on Santa Cruz Island for all on the Flora. We went to the giant tortoises breeding center, and the highlands. This was a fascinating and enjoyable day of activity, very well executed by Flora and its partners on the island. We started with the Charles Darwin Research Station and the giant tortoise breeding center, and then made our way through the town to do some shopping. That brief hour along with the approximate one hour the day before on San Cristobal were the only times you have access to shopping in the Galapagos so you should take advantage of it if that’s something you’re interested in.
Following our time in Santa Cruz in the town, we went to do some tree planting. This is a Scalesia Tree planting activity and it’s approximately a 15 minute bus ride from town that takes you into the Highlands where we were met with rubber boots and the two trees that each of us would plant. You can read more about this project Celebrity Cruises is involved with here.
We then went to Rancho El Manzanillo and enjoyed a yummy and tasty lunch buffet along with a dancing performance from locals. We then hopped back in our bus, and after following behind the resident tortoises on the road, we made our way back to town and then back to the ship via tender. This was a full day from 8 AM to approximately 4:30 PM.
Summary
All the islands visited, and the excursions on those islands were superlative.
In addition to this review of our experiences on the Inner Loop cruise, we will be doing upcoming posts on our experience on the Celebrity Flora; our time in Quito, Ecuador; and, we are also doing an ebook on the Galapagos Experience! Watch for it in the next few weeks !!
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