July 5 – Galapagos to Guayaquil to Lima

Wow!  One entire day spent traveling.  Up early to have breakfast and get out of our cabin.  It always seems like such a shock when a cruise ends.  Your cabin, your steward, your waiter and tomorrow they will belong to someone else.  Like everything else on this cruise it was done very professionally.  The luggage had been collected the night before and early in the morning it had been taken off the ship by Zodiac and trucked to the airport.  We never had to touch it.  We knew there was going to be a wait at the airport and it turned out to be a hour longer than expected since the charter flight was a bit late.  Most passengers were going onward to Quito, but 11 of us got off in Guayaquil to continue on the tour to Machu Picchu.  We claimed our baggage and went to international departures and checked them for our flight to Lima.  We then had a short bus trip to a hotel in town for a nice buffet lunch.  Then back to the airport for our flight to Lima.  We were met and taken to our Lima hotel, the Country Club.  It  was a very nice hotel.  How nice?  The President of China (or some similar high Chinese official) was staying the in Presidential Suite.   Up early tomorrow for a flight to Cuzco.