Passengers of the June 6th sailing of the Xpedition please click here for a special note.

Welcome to bucket list* trip #2. Actually this is number 3 in the bucket list for me as my list included playing golf in Arizona which I did in late April. This trip has been on my radar for years. I guess it's to make up for not paying attention in Biology class in high school and college. We booked this trip in November when I read that the Galapagos Islands Eco tours would be limited one day. More and more restrictions are being applied since the islands have been deemed a World Heritage Site in 1978. The island ecosystem is very fragile and the Ecuadorian government is starting to tighten tourism. They still want the money that tourism brings but they are cracking down on their own people who are finding that moving from the mainland to the islands is very lucrative.

* Our 'new' Bucket List started at my retirement date at the beginning of this year.

We picked the least harmful means of visiting the islands on one of the 'greenest' ships to sail there. Our choice was the Celebrity Xpedition. Although it is the biggest ship to cruise the islands, it pales in comparison to regular cruise ships. At only 295 feet, it holds 92 passengers with a crew of 60, one of the highest passenger/crew ratios in cruising. The 1.5 passenger crew ratio is far superior to the 2.5 on the best ocean liners. The other reason we picked this cruise is that every single thing on the cruise is included. Except for the internet access (of course), even the tips are included. There are 29 excursions planned for the 7 days at sea and all those are included. I really hate the nickel and dime approach that other cruises in the area were using, so we went all out in choosing Celebrity. After reading the reviews, I am sure we chose the right way to visit.

As noted before, the only thing not included in the cruise price is the internet access. There are 4 workstations on board that can access the internet. The price is basically 50 cents a minute in chunks of 10 minutes. Needless to say, there will not be any 'live' updating of our trip, so you don't have to tune in every day as in the past. I will bring my netbook along for the trip but only to use as a note taker and to back my cameras' memory cards. I will be posting pictures and stories starting on June 16th.

For those who are not familiar with the Galapagos Islands (click here for Wiki) they are part of Ecuador and are on the equator about 1,000 kms to the west of South America. Our cruise is a 7 night cruise which start Sunday June 6th and ends on June 13th. Our actual trip is from June 4th to June 15th as we are staying in Quito for 2 nights before and 2 nights after. We fly from Quito to Baltras on Sunday to join the ship. Quito, the capital of Ecuador, is situated in the mountains at 9,250 feet. This makes it the second highest capital city in the world after La Paz Bolivia. Although it sits on the equator, the weather is spring like all year long. We expect it to be around 21º C while the Islands themselves will be a bit warmer.

If you are wondering how to get to Quito is from here, we are using our AirMiles again. The flight is Montréal-Miami and then direct Miami Quito. We leave at 12:50pm on Friday and arrive in Quito at 9:40pm. There is a one hour time difference. The flight times are 3:35 to Miami and 4:05 to Quito. On the way back, we are not so lucky as our stopover time in Miami is 8 and 1/2 hours which makes us leave Quito at 6:35am and arrive in Montreal at midnight. We will make an attempt to get on the 1:25pm flight from Miami but with the luggage, it probably won't be possible.

More on the cruise. The Galapagos Islands do not really have any ports that can accommodate a ship even as small as ours. Therefore all landings on the islands will be done by Zodiac boats. About have of our landings are classified as wet landings so they recommend two types of shoes based on the landing. The excursions are also rated mild, moderate or strenuous. One is even called survival of the fittest which I guess is fitting since these islands are where Charles Darwin came up with his theory of evolution and natural selection. On our ship, there will also be many biologist who will gives lectures prior to some of our excursions. There will also be 2 astronomy sessions on board. When I chose the timing of this cruise back in 2009, I made sure that there would be no moon at night so that the stars could be better observed. That should be interesting but there is no way to take pictures of the stars from even a slightly moving ship.

Here is a link to all the info on our ship. We are on the Marina Deck in cabin 314 and as you can see below, it's not very big. A typical cabin on a large ship will be from 10 to 60 square feet bigger.

Deluxe Stateroom:
160 square feet. Rooms 301-314 & 316.
Features convertible double or single beds, sea-view porthole, sitting area, TV, direct dial telephone and private bathroom.

The 'ship' is not very big either. Below is an approximate scale drawing compared to one of Celebrity's larger ships.

So if you have cruised before on a larger ship, you can see that this will be a more 'intimate' experience.

The Trip Log link on the left is where you will find daily information on the trip and of course the pictures link should be the interesting one.

Enjoy, but remember, the pages will probably be only updated after June 15th.