North Seymour Island - Last Day in the Galapagos

Our instructions for the morning were to board the pangas by 6 am to tour North Seymour Island, returning to the Galaxy Yacht for an 8 am breakfast. Because our watches and telephones were still on Central Time (like Quito) and not mountain time (in Galápagos) we awoke at 4:30 rather than our intended 5:30. We finished packing and went downstairs to the lounge and when we saw that no one else was there, we realized that it was 4:50 and not 5:50. To make it worse, we woke Mark and Cindy thinking that they may have overslept.

A curious sea lion with Willo and Mary

In any case, we probably couldn’t have slept much later because the ship lifted anchor and started to sail toward North Seymour by 5 am anyway. We heard sea lions barking throughout the night with several of them jumping onto the lower deck of the Galaxy. Since we were already awake and dressed, we put our luggage outside the cabin for the crew to pack, did our morning German lessons and got ready for our hike on North Seymour Island.

Sea lion sleeping on the beach

We went back down at 5:45, put our life vests on and hopped on the pangas for a dry landing on North Seymour Island. This is not far from the airport but gets almost no tourist traffic. While the landing was dry, the rocks where we disembarked were very slick. The Galaxy’s First Mate put a towel down on the slick lava helping us get onto shore.

Frigatebirds

As we walked along the beach, we noticed the abundance of weathered coral and light stones from the reddish-brown ash. The sea lions were everywhere, so we had to be careful not to step on one. We saw one young lucky sea lion who had survived a shark bite. The wound was obvious but healing. There were frigate birds everywhere we looked. Males and females sat on nests, and other males showed the bright red neck feathers of the breeding plumage. Blue-footed boobies were also in abundance on the island. Like the sea lions, the boobies showed no fear of us, and we had to make an effort to not touch them as we walked on the island’s paths. There were a few small marine iguanas and we saw one land iguana.

Blue-footed booby

We walked for a little over a kilometer on the rough and rocky trails around the small island before returning to the boat landing where we make our way on the slick hardened lava to board the pangas for the short ride back to the Galaxy.

Back on the Galaxy, we had a good breakfast of western omelets, small pancakes, sausages and fresh fruit. Marcelo made another excellent juice, perhaps guava, for breakfast. We made a last-minute sweep through the cabin then took the panga to Baltra to get the flight to Quito. The landing at Baltra was quite busy, so we had to wait for a bus but once on the aboard we were at the small airport in under 10 minutes. The Galaxy crew loaded everyone’s bags on the bus for us at the dock then unloaded them at the airport.

Everyone made it through security and the national park inspection with no problems. At the airport, we purchased a few postcards knowing that we would have to mail them from Atlanta since mail service has been discontinued throughout Ecuador. We purchased chicken empanadas from a vendor at the Baltra airport and enjoyed them while we waited for our 11:50 flight to board. Like the trip to Galápagos, we knew that the flight would make one stop at Guayaquil on the way to Quito. 

Our flight from the Galápagos to Guayaquil and Quito was uneventful. I managed to get a short nap and was disappointed that there were dense clouds over the Andes preventing a view of the beautiful mountain range.

Our hotel in Puembo

When we arrived at the Quito airport our bags arrived at baggage claim quickly so we made our way out to meet our waiting Quito guide, Patricia. She arranged for a bus to take us to our hotel, Rincon de Puembo, near the airport. The hotel was once part of a large hacienda that has been repurposed as a location for weddings and lodging for tourists. We unpacked then walked to the dining area where we met the group as people were preparing for their trip home. There were several meal choices at the hotel. Mine was a ceviche appetizer and an entrée of grilled fish with mixed vegetables and a dessert of ice cream covered with the fruit reduction. Mary had the potato soup appetizer then chicken stuffed with ricotta cheese as the entrée and warm chocolate brownie and a scoop of ice cream for dessert. As we ate, each of us reported out on things that we enjoyed most from the Galapagos and what we learned.

We chatted with Mark, Cindy, and Patricia briefly after dinner to consider options for the day on Sunday since we don’t have to leave for the airport until 8 pm. After looking at options, we decided to explore Puembo on foot and have a more relaxing day before our red-eye flight home on Sunday night-Monday morning.

Our rooms at the Rincon de Puembo were clean and comfortable. There was good internet coverage, so we cleaned out email boxes and sent notes to a few people that we were back in continental Ecuador. We went to sleep around 9 pm hoping for a good night’s rest.