Day 9: Baltra to Quito

This is part of a series about our vacation to the Galápagos Islands and mainland Ecuador. To see the first article in the series, click here.

August 14, 2010

National Geographic Endeavour

It is a sad day indeed. This morning we must leave first our cabins, then the Endeavour that has been our home over the past week.  It seems like a much longer time considering all we have done, but also far too short.  We must also say goodbye to many friends we have made.  I’m sure this will be hardest on Celeste because there are several girls around her age that have been talking, laughing, and playing cards together in our free time the past several days.  I hope that Kenna and I don’t seem too boring to Celeste for the rest of the trip.

We were due to depart the ship at 8:00, but they kept us on board longer (and showed us videos) until they got word that the plane we would board had left Guayaquil, which turned out to be about an hour late. We finally took our last Zodiac ride to the shore, and bus to the airport. There were about 20 minutes available for souvenir shopping, which mostly consisted of (more) calendars and a deck of the popular playing cards with local animal life pictured on each card. Once through security, we were admitted to a VIP lounge to wait in comfort for boarding.

Everyone was on the flight to Guayaquil. The dozen or so of us continuing on to Quito were seated in the front of the plane, which made it easy for us to say good-bye to our departing friends.

We were met in Quito by a Lindblad representative who helped get our bags loaded onto the bus that took us to the Hilton. We spent a couple of hours relaxing and getting organized, and then met others from the ship who are returning via Quito for dinner in the hotel restaurant. After a very good dinner (although not up to Endeavour standards), we said our good-byes as each of the family groups will be going in different directions tomorrow.  Our direction will be Otavalo, a town a couple of hours north with a well known indigenous market.