20240608 Celebrity Galapagos and Machu Picchu trip, Day #10 - Galapagos, North Seymour Island and travel to Quito and Lima

Celebrity Xpedition Galapagos and Machu Picchu trip - North Seymour Island - our final Galapagos stop and off to Peru

Today marked the end of the Galapagos portion of this trip. We spent the morning on North Seymour Island, right next to Baltra, walking along the top edge of the island, taking in our last Galapagos wildlife.

A swallow-tailed gull with a chick

The island is home to a slew of frigates. I couldn't count the number we saw. Many were males in full mating regalia, inflating their distinctive red chest sacks to attract the attention of a female.

So many frigates

Talk about wearing your heart on your sleeve...or chest

We caught sight of a lava gull feasting on an octopus.

A brown noddy was sitting back and watching everything.

The highlight for me was the large number of blue-footed boobys, swimming, flying, and nesting.

Booby love

Rolling over, taking a dip

Shaking off the excess water

Time for takeoff

More booby canoodling

We returned to the ship, finished packing, and vacated the room. 

We enjoyed an end-of-cruise presentation by the staff and a nice lunch before heading to the airport for our first flight to Quito.

Our route this week - 643.5 nautical miles

Our chariots await

Saying farewell to Xpedition for the final time

Arriving at the dock

We took a short bus ride to the airport on Baltra and headed for the gate after a short stay in the VIP Lounge.

In case you've ever wondered how to open an Airbus A320

Our departure was slightly delayed as the ground crew cleared land iguanas from the runway. (Thanks Pat & Linda for grabbing photos for me.)

That's him in the lower right

Arriving into Quito

We had a short layover, also with lounge access before our Latam flight to Lima, Peru. The roughly 2.5-hour flight was uneventful. We retrieved our luggage and cleared Customs without issue. Our Celebrity representative, Jenny, was holding the Celebrity sign as we exited the baggage area. There will be 14 of us on this tour - 12 from Xpedition and 2 from Xploration. It will be a busy week with lots to see and do, but first up was the nine-mile ride to the Westin Lima. Traffic at 11:00 on a Saturday night was crazy and the ride took about 40 minutes.

We got checked into what is an extremely nice hotel room. King-sized bed, walk-in shower with a rain head, tub, toilet plus separate bidet, panoramic view of the city - wow! Unfortunately, tonight, we're too tired to enjoy it. It has been eleven hours since we departed Xpedition and we're whipped.

We can enjoy breakfast just about any time we want tomorrow morning, and we will begin our tour program at around 11:00. I'll try to detail the week tomorrow, but for now, that bed is calling my name.