Galapagos Islands - April, 2024
Day 9 – Santa Cruz Island
Saturday, April 13
I woke up on Saturday morning not feeling the best. My stomach was queasy and I had no energy whatsoever, but it was the last full day of the cruise, so I decided to get ready and soldier on. We went to breakfast and I limited my intake to coffee (for the caffeine), some toast and a little bit of scrambled eggs.
Sunrise from the Flora.
Since the Flora never actually docks anywhere, I had been wondering how the provisioning process worked. Usually, at the end of a cruise/beginning of a new one, the home port is a hive of activity with pallet after pallet of supplies being forklifted onto the ship.
Here is the answer. Starting before dawn, boats pull alongside the Flora and boxes are loaded via a small conveyer belt.
The town of Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz hosts the largest population on the islands (about 13,000), so it makes sense that provisioning would take place here.
We loaded into a tender around 8:00AM for the short trip over to the pier. Next, we queued for buses that would take us half-way to the Charles Darwin Research Station. Due to the dirt and cobblestone roads leading to the Station, we needed to hike in the rest of the way (a 10-15 minute walk).
Giant Tortoise Breeding Center:
After the walk, my nausea was worse and now I was beginning to feel a little light-headed and out of breath.
As someone who lives in Florida, I am used to the heat and humidity. In hindsight, what I was not used to is being out in the heat and humidity for 6-8 hours a day while being fairly active.
Even though I felt like I was hydrating appropriately, the effects of the sun are cumulative, and this was day 9.
I tried my best to rest and stay in the shade during our visit to the Tortoise Center.
After the tortoises, we stopped in at the Charles Darwin Research Center. There is a gift shop here, which immediately made it my wife's favorite part of the excursion. It was also inside, with air conditioning, so it might have been mine, too!
At this point, we needed to head back into town. No buses would be coming back to pick us up, so we had about a 20-30 minute walk back to the pier, which we had to be at before 11:00.
Fortunately, our group took good care of me and allowed me to set the pace, which was... slow. We found a store that sold drinks along the way and I bought a bottle of Gatorade.
My wife also found a jewelry store (Shocking. Although, if we were lost in the desert, she would probably still find one of those!) They also had a bench to sit on and a really, really cold air conditioner, so I encouraged wifey to take as long as she needed (Mistake. This will be the last vacation we can afford until 2030).
We finally made it back to the pier, and somehow on time, but I realized that if I got onto the bus to the Highlands, I would be locked into this excursion until after 3:30. I wasn't feeling like I was going to be able to make it another 4 and a half hours in the sun, so I asked if it would be possible to return to the ship instead.
Fortunately, one of the tenders was at the pier and they were actually taking some other people back, so I headed that way. I tried to talk my wife into continuing on without me, but she refused and came back with me (which was a very sweet thing. Also, the credit card was probably maxed).
We returned to the Flora before 11:30AM, and I debated going to Medical, but I was convinced that I was just dehydrated and could resolve my issue. I finished the Gatorade, drank a Ginger Ale for the nausea, and continued drinking as much water as I could take. For the next several hours, I slept and sipped water and started to feel better... Until. Look, this is a happy little travel blog, and I don't want to dip into the realm of TMI, but a certain pea soup scene from The Exorcist comes to mind (if that scene happened to go on for like 5 minutes straight).
That was the turning point where I decided to give in and schedule an appointment with the doctors. We spent the next 4 hours in Medical, where I was subjected to blood work, multiple EKGs, and several tests. Finally, they decided I was probably just dehydrated, so I was given an IV with a bag of fluids and some Tylenol.
At 8:30PM, having missed the Departure Briefing and dinner, they told me to eat some chicken soup and see if I could keep it down and report back to Medical at 10:30PM to make sure I was feeling better. My wife ran into Zarella, our waitress from Glamping and asked her about the soup. When they brought it to the cabin at 9:15PM, I realized that chicken soup is not on the menu for the Flora. And they didn't just open a can of Campbell's and heat it up. No, I'm fairly certain they whipped up a batch of chicken soup from scratch just for me.
Thankfully, I felt much better and when I reported back to Medical at 10:30, they checked me out and decided I was going to live. They asked wifey if she had eaten anything, which she hadn't since lunch, so they called Boris (the Maitre D) and gave her the phone. She said she would just order room service, which normally runs until 11PM, but apparently it stops earlier on the last day of the cruise. Boris asked what she wanted and said he would take care of it.
We got back to the room and about 45 minutes later, there was a knock on the door and Boris himself delivered her order. I think maybe he got someone out of bed to cook it. Just incredible service from the Flora team.
Final step count for Day 9:
