November 15, 2014: Santa Cruz Island
	Return to the Index for Our Galapagos Adventure

Well, our cruise through the Galapagos has come to an end, and this morning we are leaving the ship for our return to Baltra and the airport, and our flight back to Quito.

Returning to Baltra Island and the Galapagos Airport

We left the ship about 9AM, but our bags left the ship a good deal earlier. We were up for breakfast about 7AM (and out of our stateroom since they needed to be prepared for the next group of guests who would come aboard in mid-afternoon.

Back on the stern just before breakfast, Fred, Yoost, Greg and I were watching them take our luggage off the ship and into shore. That was convenient; we would not have to deal with it at all, and it would be delivered to our rooms back at the Quito Marriott where we would be staying this evening.

What was interesting and somewhat humorous was the interest that some of the local pelicans took in the Zodiacs loaded with our luggage. Fred took a series of pretty funny pictures of the birds and our luggage, and you can see a few of these pictures by clicking on the thumbnail images below:

As I said, we were off the ship around nine and taking one of the Zodiacs back to the same little pier that we departed from seven days ago.

Our last Zodiac ride was uneventful, although unusual in that we were carrying our small luggage items with us- something we hadn't done on our various shore excursions.

When we disembarked at the little dock, we had a while to wait for the bus to the airport. We amused ourselves by taking photographs of some blue-footed boobies that were floating around near the dock. Click on the thumbnails below to see some of these pictures:

On the dock, we took our final two pictures of the cruise portion of the Celebrity Galapagos experience; click on the thumbnails below to have a look:

The Flight Back to Quito

The flight back to the mainland was uneventful. I took about three hours, and we were served a nice meal on the way. I spent the time doing some original editing on the many pictures I was taking. We landed at the Quito Airport about 3:30PM.

We did stay one more night in Quito- a hotel supplied by the cruise package. The few pictures that we took after our arrival back in Quito can be found on the album pages for our stay in Quito itself.

Next on our agenda will be some time in Cuzco, Peru. During that stay we will cross off another bucket-list item by making a self-guided day tour to Machu Picchu.

You can use the links below to continue to another album page.

	November 15, 2014: Santa Cruz Island
	Return to the Index for Our Galapagos Adventure