One of the reasons we chose CNH Tours was that they included a brief period of time in Quito both before and after the Galápagos. Mansión del Angel is a fabulous boutique hotel in the heart of Quito, just a short walk from the Old City. Every room was different (and we stayed in 3 rooms with the coming and going and visited two others) with huge, comfortable four poster beds, luscious white chocolate and rose scented bath products, bathrobes for two and lovely sitting rooms. Tea is available everyday at 5:00pm and an intimate dining area is available breakfast through dinner with some expensive, but high quality selections. We did find most rooms, especially those facing the street, to be a bit noisy, but we were so tired each night that the noise didn’t really bother us much. Feel free to request a room facing the garden though for less street noise -the staff is highly accommodating.
Heather, with CNH Tours, was very flexible as we toyed with the itinerary. Although the official 13d/12nt tour begins on a Sunday, we didn’t want to waste the weekend, so we flew in on Friday evening and headed out on a tour of the Valley of the Volcanoes (more on this amazing trip in a later post) bright and early Saturday morning, choosing to rejoin the official tour until Monday night back at the hotel.
On Tuesday morning we found ourselves in the dining room for a quick continental breakfast and our first introduction to the group with whom we would spend the next 8 days. Everyone else had spent the previous day together on the Quito tour, but we had so much time with everyone over the next week, I definitely would not have given up our Andes experience just to bond with the group a day early.
Before we go on here, a quick word about the weather… don’t trust any weather reports from the States! Weather reports indicated rain and thunderstorms all day, every day for our Andes touring and 70s F with rain for the Galápagos. It maybe rained for 20 minutes in the Andes and we only had one morning of grey skies and rain (maybe an hour on Fernandina) while cruising the islands. And it was hot! Definitely 80s for our whole time. Unless it’s an El Niño year, it’s going to be hot and dry -pack for it (again, more on this in another post). Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.
Navigating through the Quito airport was pleasant uneventful, and after a brief boarding delay we were on our way to Baltra. Unless you book with a larger cruise ship, like the Celebrity Xpedition that has enough passengers to charter a direct flight, you’ll end up spending some time on the tarmac in Guayaquil. Although it wasn’t ideal, I wouldn’t change my time in Quito and the Andes in exchange for a shorter flight to the islands. On the way home, several people chose to grab flights to the west coast from Guayaquil, which I think is a good option. Tired and ready to be home described most of us.
Upon arrival in Baltra, with the equatorial sun beating down highlighting the flat, unrelieved scrubland surrounding the airport, it really hit that the adventure had begun. This was even more apparent as we stood on a small dock looking out at two seemingly very small ships. “Where’s our ship?” one of the group asked. “That’s it,” our guide replied, pointing to the smaller of the two. Yes, that was in fact the Samba…our home for the next 8 days. “Where are the rooms,” I asked.
Darwin (yes, that really was his name) introduced himself as our naturalist for the trip and herded us onto the pangas for the first of many, many rides to the Samba. (If you can book a trip with Darwin, you’ll be glad you did. The man’s knowledge is surpassed only by his enthusiasm for enjoying the wildlife.)
After a brief orientation to the ship and our (very small) accommodations, we reconvened for a discussion of the day’s events. North Seymour and the adjacent Isla Mosquera, was to be our first stop, and what a stop it was to kick off the trip! The water was pretty rough off of North Seymour, so we didn’t snorkel there too long, but that gave us more time on…
Mosquera is the island for sea lions. A small, manageable atoll, it was perfect for experiencing the curiosity of those amazing creatures. The most important rule to remember in the Galápagos is to keep 2 meters from the animals. Fortunately, or unfortunately sometimes, the animals don’t have to follow the rules.
As long as you ignore them, the sea lions would come straight up and sniff your knee, shove their nose on your camera lens, or even kiss your cheek checking you out. It was incredible! No amount of research and intellectual knowledge prepared us for how intense the interactions were with animals of all kinds.
We closed the day watching the sun set behind the Samba and Daphne Major from the beach of Mosquera. What a fabulous introduction to the Galápagos!
Our first night on the Samba was a bit of a rough one. I hadn’t slept on such a small boat before and was wholly unprepared for the noise of the engine. Our itinerary took us from Isla Mosquera to Genovesa over about 9-10 hours, most of which was overnight. Not the best sleep I’ve ever had, but most of the sleeping issues were washed away each day by the stunning scenery and prodigious wildlife.
Join us for the continuation of our trip on the birding paradise of Genovesa… coming up next…
More from our Galápagos series…
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