January 21, 2026 – Up early to get picked up at 6:20am from the hotel to head to Galapagos! This is what we have been waiting for! After an uneventful ride back to the airport we started meeting other people who might be with us on the cruise. We didn’t realize quite how far away Galapagos is from the mainland. I sort of thought it would be a super short flight, but it’s not, it’s over 2 hours. We did make a stop at Guayaquil, Ecuador, which is south west of Quito (about an 8 hour drive south), picked up more people, and then continued on to San Cristobal, where one of two Galapagos airports is located. After clearing security and getting our luggage we were sorted on to busses to be taken to our cruise boat.
This was not a regular type cruise, it was an expedition cruise. We were with a company called Go Galapagos, and we would end up on the Coral 1, while we travelled alongside the Coral 2. The Coral 1 has a max capacity of 32 guests, has most of it’s cabins are on the lower deck and the upper deck with only two cabins on the main deck between the briefing room and the restaurant. I was super happy that we got one of the two on the main deck, so no stairs for me getting to and from the room, and super easy to pop back in to our room to grab things whenever we wanted to. There is also a very top deck which was the most amazing place to hang out and watch the birds, the stars (WE SAW THE SOUTHERN CROSS only visible from the Southern Hemisphere), and where they had barbecues. There was a staff compliment of 13 people, which i thought was a crazy staff to guest ratio. I don’t know what I was expecting from the ship, but it wasn’t this. I think I was expecting that the trip would be so focused on the excursions, and the ship was so small, that there really wouldn’t be any bells and whistles. I figured they’d toss us a sandwich and say, let’s go see the giant tortoises. This was a luxury experience. The food was amazing, and different every day. They had drinks and snacks ready every time we came back from hiking or snorkeling, they prepared fantastic bbq feasts, and there was a very well stocked bar with fancy cocktails. It was AMAZING. We even got a king size bed which I wasn’t counting on. The guides were incredible. One of our guides, Billy, had a Masters in Marine Biology and spoke 5 languages. These people are the real deal. They are the protectors of the Galapagos.
After we were picked up by Zodiac and taken to the Coral 1, we were given some time to unpack and then back to the briefing room for our orientation. They were very clear about the rules.
- Shoes off where you board the ship from the Zodiac
- On hikes you stay between the markers that indicate the sides of the path, so that every tourist tramples the exact same space.
- Nothing get removed from the island: not a rock, not a shell, not a grain of sand.
- Stay 6 feet away from all animals. If they come to you in the water, don’t stick your hands out, but on land, get out of their way. They are the priority.
There are 1000 licensed guides on Galapagos and each one is responsible for the tourists they are guiding. If anyone breaks the rules, the guide loses their license. They stressed over and over again that we should tell our friends and family about this place and that we are now ambassadors of Galapagos, and have to help protect it.
Once we had all settled in and gotten an idea of the rules, we loaded back onto the two Zodiacs and headed back to San Cristobal for an easy excursion, just an hour walk through an information centre and to walk along the beach and watch the Sea Lions. We were met with them literally the minute we hit the dock.
Back on the ship we had a terrific dinner and started to get to know our fellow guests, and discovered that there were 3 Rich’s aboard. Over the week we became fast friends with the other Rich’s and their wives. After dinner we had our nightly orientation for the following day. The guides would explain what we were doing to be doing, what kind of landing we were going to have (wet or dry), how easy or difficult the hike was going to be and what to generally expect. We all went to bed pretty early every night as wakeup was almost always at 7am, but we wanted to get up earlier and go up to the observation deck. Such a great first day.
