Galapagos Day 1 - Are we having fun yet?

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Yay! It´s finally here. Our cruise in the Galapagos. Or so we thought...

We arrived at the airport in Quito at 7:20 am to pick up our plane tickets from the travel agent. We had arranged to meet her there when we visited the office the week before. We found her smiling at the entrance. She handed us the tickets. Then, the surprise. She pulled out an itinerary and said, "I´m sorry to have to tell you this. The boat is broken. There is no cruise." Was this just a bad dream? A joke?

Nope. Neither. The Sarah Dayuma, our ship, was no more. It had almost sunk, or broken down, or make up your own reason (everyone seemed to have their own story). The point is, it wasn´t working. We were told we would be staying in a hotel on the islands, given an itinerary with the first 3 days of land-based activities (our tour was 8 days), and told that everything would be fine. Everything (hotel, meals, tours) had already been arranged. They hoped to have the boat ready for Thursday, so we could at least have a partial cruise, but they were not sure when it would be ready.

We were shocked. This quickly turned to confusion and anger when we learned when the boat had broken down. 4 days prior. It had been broken for 4 days and we were only learning about it less than an hour before our flight. Our initial reaction was to cancel. Going to the Galapagos is expensive. One can´t see as much from doing day trips from the small towns in the Galapagos, because you spend so much time getting to and from the destination. This is why cruises are so popular. Plus, why do we need a tour to stay in a hotel? We can do that on our own.

We asked why we weren´t told this earlier. "Because we were trying to book you on another boat" was the reply that we got. We asked what would happen if we decided not to go. Our agent said, "We would have to refund the money because we did not fulfill the contract for a cruise. Only, the plane tickets cannot be refunded because they were reserved before the accident." Well that creates a problem when the tickets cost US$800. By this time it was about 25 minutes till our plane left. We were told "Make a decision, your plane is leaving without you." Not wanting to lose $800, we quickly ran to the counter. As we put our carry-ons in the X-ray machine our names were announced over the intercom system saying, "Last call". We made the plane just in time.

We had a stop-over in Guayaquil for an hour. We spoke to an airline representative there. They said that we could not get a refund on the ticket because we were using it, but the day before, it would have been no problem. This did not make us too happy. Had we known about the problems with our ship prior, we could have had a full refund. Now we were more upset because our travel agent had misinformed us (intentionally or otherwise).

When we arrived in the Galapagos, we met our tour manager and part of our group, two Germans and a Bolivian. He told the five of us we'd be driving to our hotel. We drove to the hotel indicated on our partial itinerary, but were told that it was full. We drove to a hostal where there was only room for one person, so we dropped off the Bolivian. Then we drove on to an hospedaje where there was only one double available. The Germans got dropped off. We returned to the hostal (second place) and were told they did have a triple room available, but we might have to share. More misinformation. Our travel agent had told us that the hotels had been arranged and were nice. We obviously did not have a reservation and were staying in a hostel not a hotel.

Ryan got off to a bad start with the tour manager. Ryan wanted more information than anyone seemed to have. One of our biggest problems is that we had no idea what our itinerary was for the week. The revised itinerary we had received at the airport that morning only listed activities for the first three days. This was part of the reason we wanted to cancel. Lack of information. The tour manager told us not to worry, that he was working on putting together a good itinerary. We wanted to know what would happen if the boat was not ready by Thursday (Plan A). Plan B was to find everyone a place on another boat (unlikely as July is high-season). Plan C was to continue on land-based tours for the remainder of the trip.

Another question we asked was why we flew into San Cristobal instead of Baltra. The itinerary we were sold over a month ago had us flying to Baltra and starting our cruise from Santa Cruz. Mind you, when the travel agent sent us the itinerary, she told us it was the "corrected itinerary" for our travel dates. The tour manager told us we flew into San Cristobal because the airport at Baltra had been closed for repairs for the last two months (including the period between our booking and arriving in the Galapagos). This seemed very strange. We had been in regular email communication with the travel agent. She never mentioned that one of the airports was closed and might not reopen in time for our trip. Again, the lack of correct information was frustrating. The tour manager agreed that we could call the office in Quito and try to get some of our questions answered.

Eventually, we went to lunch where we met some of our group. There was Mike and Caroline (the two Germans), Carlos (aka Bolivia), and Frederique (the caricature Frenchman). Frederique, along with a Canadian family of five, who we would meet later, had already been on the tour for 4 days. They had spent the first part of the trip doing day trips from Santa Cruz and were enjoying the trip so far. Obviously, they were a bit disappointed not to be on a cruise. However, they were enjoying what they were seeing.

After lunch, we were dropped off at our accomodations and told we'd be picked up later for the afternoon's activity. The tour manager picked us up later and told us we'd need snorkel gear. We (the two of us, Carlos, and Frederique) arrived at the dive shop (our day trips on San Cristobal were run through the dive shop/day tour operator) to find the rest of our group was missing. The tour manager then went to pick up the Germans. They arrived ten minutes later and we asked them if they were ready for snorkeling. "Snorkeling? No one told us what we would be doing. Our swimsuits and snorkel gear are in the hotel." So they had to go back and get changed. In the meantime, the Canadian family started to arrive. Only three of them were coming with us (the parents and their youngest daughter). The other two were going out on a dive boat. We made our way toward the pier. At the pier we boarded a water taxi that took us out to our boat for the day. Here we waited through two unsuccessful battery changes. Then switched boats. Over an hour and a half after our arrival at the dive shop, we finally headed out to Cerro Brujo (on San Cristobal).

There, we disembarked on the beach. A bit of wildlife sighting. The field guide we bought in Quito came in handy as our guide for the afternoon went running down the beach as we began asking him about the wildlife. He had complained on the boat ride over that he was also a dive guide and wanted to go out on the dive boat so he could hit on a cute gringa. Next some snorkeling. The group took off without us. Our guide didn't even bother to ask if we'd snorkeled before. If you don't know, Ana doesn't swim and she'd only been snorkeling once before about nine years ago (in Cancun). That time, the guide was a very buoyant (ie fat) Mexican man that gave her a life jacket and swam with her the entire time. Also, her college roommate/travel companion was a certified lifeguard. This time she had to settle for snorkeling lessons from Ryan. The claustrophobic feeling of the mask plus the cold water made this first attempt short.

However, we tried to enjoy ourselves since we WERE in the Galapagos. We DID get to see some interesting wildlife that first day.

WILDLIFE SIGHTINGS: Frigatebirds (in flight), Brown pelicans, Blue-footed boobies (in flight), Black Sea turtle, Sea lions (on the beach), Elliot's Storm petrels (in flight), Darwin's finch, Laughing gull, fish

That evening, we called the manager of the Quito office. She had just returned from a ten-day jungle excursion and was unaware of any problems with the cruises. She told us that she would talk to our travel agent and find out what went wrong. In the meantime, we were instructed to go on the tour the next day. She would get back to us the next evening.

One last thing to note, the other half of our group (the Canadians and the Frenchman) had been told on Thursday (when they arrived) that the boat would be ready on Monday (the day we arrived).

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Photos

Sea Lions Sleeping
They are actually the same species as the sea lions in California.

Comments

[Pete the Vet]

Hostels in San Cristobal?
Any names of hostels in Sna Cristobal? I just read about the Sarah Dayuma on the Thorn Tree... now crossed off my list of boats!