Up Bright and Early. We were up early on Friday morning, May 12, to catch the flight from Guayaquil to Galapagos. I have forgotten the exact time of the flight, but our tour group (41 guests) had a special early breakfast in the hotel restaurant at 6:30 so we could board the buses at 7:15. Normally the hotel breakfast starts at 7.
We quickly loaded onto the buses outside the front door of the hotel..As I had mentioned in an earlier post, I felt safe in this area near the hotel, but I could not help noticing there was an armed officer keeping watch over everything.
The bus ride was quick, but it provided time for the UnCruise ground staff to hand out boarding passes and other required paperwork such as the Transit Control Card.. They had also prepaid our National Park entrance fee. It was a huge advantage to have all of those things taken care of in advance and avoid yet more lines at the airport. Unfortunately it still took considerable time for us to make it through the line to check our bags.
We had been concerned about LATAM checking the weight of our carry on bags, since there seemed to be a discrepancy between what UnCruise was quoting as the maximum weight for carry on (8 kg or 17 lbs) vs what was on the LATAM webpage (10 kg or 22 lbs). The Frog's camera gear was pushing the limit. Just the case weighs 10 pounds. Fortunately it was not an issue. They did not weigh the carry on bags or check them for size.
The Frog did have a bit of a hassle with Ecuadorian security (TSA equivalent) because of some of his medical items. I think it was mostly because they did not speak English and he did not speak Spanish. However everything worked out in the end.
Flight to Baltra. We finally made it onto the plane for the two hour flight to Seymour Airport on Baltra Island in the Galapagos. It must have been uneventful, because I don't remember much about it. One noteworthy difference from any other flight I had ever been on was immediately before takeoff. The stewardesses opened each of the overhead bins and sprayed them with insecticide. It is one of several protocols designed to prevent living things from being accidentally transported to Galapagos.
As we got close we could see some of the numerous islands that make up the Galapagos Archipelago. Most sources don't try to count all of the little islets and rocks, but at least one source indicates the archipelago is made up of 13 larger islands, 6 smaller islands, 42 islets and 107 rocks. I have no pics from the plane since I was in a middle seat, but it was a beautiful clear day with a few puffy white clouds.
As we approached the airport I was especially excited to see what I thought was the island Daphne Major just to the west. Daphne Major is a very small island (about 1/8 square mile), really just the top of an extinct volcano.
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| Daphne Major as seen from approach to Seymour Airport. This is not my pic, but this is pretty much what I think I saw. For scale, note the boat (ship?) in the upper left. Yes this is Daphne Major. The much smaller Daphne Minor is nearby. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Daphne_Major_-_L.jpg |
Daphne Major was the site of research spanning several decades by Peter and Rosemary Grant, evolutionary biologists from Princeton. Their research is described in the Pulitzer Prize winning book The Beak of the Finch. I read numerous books in preparation for this trip, but this one made a particular impression on me. The Grants and their many generations of grad students were able to show that natural selection can happen very quickly, even within a couple of years!
Seymour Airport. We landed on the single runway at Seymour Airport. Interestingly its call letters are GPS. We turned around at the end of the runway and taxied back down the runway (no need to worry about other planes!) to a spot on the tarmac. There are no jet ways here, so it was down a staircase followed by a long walk to the terminal.
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| This is at the other airport in Galapagos, but the type of plane and the setup of stairs were identical. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:LATAM_Ecuador_A319_in_San_Crist%C3%B3bal,_Galapagos_Islands.jpg |
Seymour has such a different feel from most airports since there are no cars, no parking lots, no hotels, virtually nothing except the terminal on a flat plain devoid of trees.
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| Seymour Airport. It may have been a tad greener when we were there, but not by much. Baltra Island is very empty. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Seymour_Airport,_Isla_Baltra,_Galapagos_Islands.jpg |
Baltra Island, the location of Seymour Airport, is quite small. Its total area is about 8 square miles. For comparison, DFW Airport is about 27 square miles.
Despite its small size and barren appearance, Baltra Island is actually quite an interesting place, both due to its history and to the relatively new, ecologically friendly terminal.
History of Seymour Airport. Since the beginning of the 1900's, the United States had wanted to use part of the Galapagos Islands, first as a stopover for refueling ships and later as an airbase. The government of Ecuador had always refused permission. However, a meeting between Ecuadorian officials and FDR in the summer of 1938 while he was on a multi-week "fishing trip" to Panama and Galapagos seemed to change things. It set the stage for the creation of a U.S. military airbase on the Galapagos Islands after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Essentially all of the Galapagos Islands have steep terrain since they are the tops of volcanoes, Baltra is the exception. It was was once a seabed that was raised above the water when a volcano on neighboring Santa Cruz Island erupted, filling space below the seabed with magma. Since it is one of the very few flat locations on the islands, it was chosen as the location for the airport.
The primary purpose of this secret U.S. base was to protect the South American coastline and especially the Panama Canal from Japanese submarines. Despite its remote location and the lack of fresh water on the island, the base was not small. It consisted of over 200 buildings and was home to 2400 servicemen. It had the longest airstrip in South America. Of course none of that exists today except for the airstrip. After the base was decommissioned in the 1940's, the buildings were offered to residents of Galapagos, who used the material to build structures on other islands. The airfield reopened to commercial aviation in 1963. Even though the original buildings from the base are gone, we could still see some concrete slabs along the short trip from the terminal to the cruise dock.
Seymour Galapagos Ecological Airport. As we made our way from the plane to the terminal I was a bit worried about the sun since I had not put on sunscreen. However, we were soon under the covered walkway leading to the terminal. It was warm but the wind was really blowing so it did not feel hot. .
The terminal itself was different than any terminal I had been in before. It had all of the usual terminal things but it was not air-conditioned. In fact it was actually all "open" with louvered vents for outside walls. There was a significant breeze through much of the building. This new terminal, which opened in 2012, claims to be the world's first green airport and hence the reason the airport is now referred to as the Seymour Galapagos Ecological Airport.
What makes Seymour Airport ecological?
- The new terminal was constructed from recycled steel tubes from oil drilling operations in the Amazon.
- In addition, approximately 75% of the materials from the old terminal were reused by the new building.
- To maintain comfortable conditions throughout the year without air conditioning; the terminal has a bioclimatic design. I am not sure what that is, but it was quite comfortable inside.
- The orientation of the new terminal, and the optimization of natural light and natural ventilation also minimize the energy requirements.
- A large part of the energy required to operate the airport is produced from renewable wind and solar energy. I noticed the turbines were not spinning while we were there despite the wind, but there was lots of sunshine.
- Finally, since there is no
fresh water on the island, it uses seawater desalination for water. I
am not sure when this was implemented, but at times in the past water
was brought from other islands by barge.
On to the cruise dock. The
checked bags soon arrived from the plane. However we needed to wait
until security, including a K-9 officer, briefly looked them over. Then everyone in our group piled our checked bags together where they were picked up and
thrown on the back of a truck for transport to the dock.
As I mentioned above, there are no cars or taxis at the airport. All arriving passengers must board one of two buses. One
bus goes to the nearby cruise ship dock (our destination--see the green
dot on the aerial photo above) for a skiff ride to the cruise ship. The other bus
goes to a ferry terminal on the south side of the island for a ride
across the channel to Santa Cruz Island.
With our carry on bags in tow, we hopped on the bus for the very short ride to the cruise dock. We were close enough that we could see the ship sitting in the bay for most of the short drive. However the ride took just a bit longer in time than it might have since the road was in such bad shape in places.
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| Waiting for the pangas at the cruise dock. Several boats, although not the La Pinta, are in the background. |
The cruise dock is just an open-sided covered shelter with a ramp down to the water where passengers board what I would call a skiff or a zodiac. Here they are called pangas.
Once the pangas arrived, we donned life jackets and made our way down the ramp to the boats with our carry on luggage. I am glad we had had experience getting on and off such craft in Alaska. I think it would have been scary doing this for the first time here.
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| Taken from the lounge of the La Pinta as Paul and James on the left and Gwen on the right approached the ship for the first time. Notice the pile of carry-on bags in the center. |
Yacht La Pinta. Finally we made it aboard our home for the next week, the ship (or what the operators refer to as a yacht) the La Pinta. It can accommodate a maximum of 48 guests in its 24 cabins. For our cruise there were 41 guests and 31 or 32 crew members.
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| The La Pinta anchored off the coast of North Seymour Island later Friday afternoon while we were on our hike. Covered area at the stern is where we often ate lunch. The large windows on the same deck towards the bow is the lounge. The long line of rectangular windows are the cabins. The round portholes on the first (main) deck is the dining room. We could embark and disembark on either side or at the stern. |
For some reason I didn't take pictures inside the ship, but Metropolitan Touring (the owner/operator of the ship) has some great pictures.
Our cabin, 307, was very nice with lots of room.
We had chosen single beds in hopes of more storage under the beds for luggage. Unfortunately the arrangement of the room prevented much access under the bed closest to the window. We still made it work, with lots of space in the corners and the large closet. The bathroom was also good size, with a large shower.
It had already been a big day, but we were just getting started. After lunch, we were off to North Seymour Island, one of my favorite stops on this cruise. That is the topic of the next post.
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