Sunday - the last day of the Galapagos Cruise

We had to put the suitcases outside the cabin door Saturday evening, and then we didn't see them, until we arrived at the JW Marriott hotel in Quito Sunday after noon. The suit cases were delivered to our room at the hotel just after arrival. 
We had to be out of our cabin at 8AM. Went down to Darwins restaurant for breakfast, and at 9am we got our boarding pass for the Celebrity Charter flight to Quito. Then the pangas were ready to transport us at our last Galapagos panga ride into the Baltra pier.  From the pier we continued by by bus the short distance to the airport. Went through security and waited an hour, before for the charter plane departed for Quito. We did have a nice lunch on the  'Celebrity Xpedition' plane on our Balta to Quito flight.

At about 3PM we landed in Quito where we went straight to the buses, that brought us to hotel JW Marriott, a trip of approximately 1 hour. In the evening there was a dinner for all Celebrity guests at the Marriott hotel.


After the Galapagos cruise we stayed 5 days in Quito, from where we have planned some excursions in Ecuador. At the end we did have a 24 hour flight from Quito via Houston, Texas, continued via New York to Copenhagen.

Read the review on the pre- and post-cruise stay in Quito at  quito-2013.blogspot.com

The Highlands and the Giant Tortoises

Landing: Dry
Video from Santa Cruz Highlands
Animals: Galapagos Tortoise

After lunch we again went for a panga trip into Santa Cruz. A 30 minutes bus ride brougt us up to the highlands, to meet the giant tortoises in their natural environment.
It's interesting to see the difference between vegitationen from the younger islands to the west (approximately 1 million years old) to Santa Cruz at the eastern part of Galapagos which is 5 to 6 million years older.  Here was lush vegitation and large trees. We drove about 20 km into the country with agriculture, banana plants and coffee plantations. 
In this highly fertile areas the giant tortoises (elephant turtles) lives.
We stopped at a hacienda and went for a walk through the terrain and there

were lots of big tortoises  - interesting to see these approximately 100 to 200 kg heavy animals. After a few hours in the highland we drove back to Santa Cruz and the ship.
In the evening there were the guides and the captain's farewell reception followed by  dinner (we got Galapagos lobster) - and after dinner a glass 'farewell wine' in the discovery lounge. Then down into our cabin to pack suitcases which were placed outside the door before we went to bed.

The Highlands of Santa Cruz offer an exuberant vegetation. Large populations of Giant Tortoises are found here. Wild Tortoises roam free crashing through the mist covered guayabillo, pega pega, and grasses of the humid zone.

Galapagos tortoise is the world's largest land-dwelling turtle. The largest turtles come from the island of Santa Cruz and has a shield with a length of up to 1.3 meters. On the other islands the turtles are a bit less.The big turtles can weigh more than 200 kg .The shield vary not only in size but also in shape. On some islands, turtles shield semicircular, while the other almost in the shape of a saddle , it's completely flat in the middle and curves sharply upward in front.
 
The shell shape is closely related to the places, the turtle lives.  
If there is plenty of grass that turtles can easily grab the turtles are dome-shelled. But if there is no grass or other low vegetation , the turtle neck stretch up high to grab cactus and shrub leaves. Therefore, these turtles shield shaped like a saddle where the shield front arches upward. It provides plenty of room for the turtle can stretch the neck up high for food. Another example of an animal adapts according to the diet.

Arrival to Galapagos, Baltra Island

We did stay two nights at JW Marriott in Quito prior to the Galapagos cruise.
Read the Quito pre- and post-cruise review here.

Sunday morning we were ready at 7:30 to go to Quito airport, but there was an 'unexpected' marathon in Quito that morning. Much of the city was blocked off, so the buses could not get in to the hotel - we were over an hour late. Luckily it was a AeroGal plane chartered specifically for this Xelebrity cruise, so the plane had to wait. At 11 pm we arrived at the airport and went straight for the charter flights from Quito to Baltra in the Galapagos, - a 2 hours flight.
See the short video: Celebrity Xpedition Flight from Quito to Baltra

Arrived at Baltra Airport and went through immigration. After a short bus ride from the airport to the pier and a short panga ride in a Zodiac rugbber-raft (picture), we were aboard the Celebrity Xpedition (picture below).
Short video: Transfer Baltra Airport to Pier.

The luggage was delivered directly to your cabin, which gave us the opportunity to get lunch and explore the Celebrity Xpedition, a 296-foot megayacht, which will be our home on the tour around the Galapagos Islands.

We have cabin 419 on deck 4 - there are 4 decks with a total of 46 cabins. The cabins at deck 3 and 4 are about 15 m2 and we have to do without a balcony on this cruise, however limited in how much time will want to spend in your cabin during the day time.


Baltra Island or Isla Baltra is a small island of the Galapagos Islands. Visitors to the Galapagos Archipelago often visit here first, as this is where the main airport, Seymour Airport, is situated. Until 1986, Baltra was the only airport serving the Galapagos. Now one of two airports, most flights operating in and out of Galapagos still fly into Baltra