Heading Home, Travel Chaos, Another Check Mark

November 18, 2025: The day started off normal enough. The crew of the Carina loaded all of our luggage on the zodiacs and shuttled it the 15 minutes from where we were anchored to the dock on Baltra then came back for us passengers. We said our goodbyes to the ship and climbed aboard for our last zodiac ride of the trip. Then the day became a reverse of our arrival.

We collected our luggage at the dock and boarded the public bus to the Seymour Galapagos Ecological Airport. We checked in for our flight, got our exit stamp, and then our merry band of travelers proceeded to the lounge to wait for our flight.

Once again we flew to Guayaquil, Ecuador and then on the Mariscal Sucre International Airport in Quito, all very smooth and uneventful. Once again we collected luggage then boarded a bus to the Wyndham Airport Hotel, where OAT had arranged day rooms so that we could shower, repack and rest until our flight.

We had a nice farewell buffet dinner at the hotel before taking the 9PM shuttle to the airport. Here we said our goodbyes parted ways with friends Deb, Charles, Becky & Kim. They were heading to Chicago via Houston on United and while we were off to SFO via Miami on American. It was so much fun traveling with them, hope to do it again.

Once again we checked in for our flight and proceeded to the lounge to wait for our 1AM redeye flight, we had some time to kill.

As our November 19th 12:10AM boarding time approached, we checked the flight board, all normal, so we headed down to our gate only to be greeted with total chaos! In the 5 minutes between leaving the lounge and walking to the gate to board, our flight had been delayed by over 14 hours! (it would eventually be canceled altogether a couple hours later) The gate agents were overwhelmed with confused and angry passengers, and communication (in English or Spanish) was not forthcoming. Dan managed to get through to the AAdvantage hotline and we were rebooked on the 7:45AM flight to Miami, then Miami to New York, then New York to SFO, but we lost our premium class seating. Everyone was not so lucky to get rebooked as most flights to the US were already flying at capacity.

American Airlines eventually got their act together and we were told that we had to leave the secure gate area, collect our luggage, process back into Ecuador through Customs and Immigration, then check-in and process out again no earlier then 3 hours before our flight. We collected a lot of passport stamps today, good thing we ordered extra pages.

All of the area hotels within a reasonable Uber distance were sold out so we found a layover lounge to try to get some rest. Although it was filled to capacity, we did manage to find two chairs to try and catch some sleep, No go,,, Too many people and too much noise.

At exactly 3 hours before our flight we checked in at the ticket counter, proceeded through security, checked out of Ecuador (another passport stamp) and once again made our way to the lounge (they honored our original ticket class) and waited to board our sold out flight to Miami. This time our flight was delayed an hour, but we eventually took off. Layover in Miami, lounge, sold out flight to New York. Sue was a trouper as she was squeezed in the middle seat between me and a very sweet lady “of size” who really should had bought 2 seats, Sue was thankful for wine and exhaustion.

American booked our flight from New York to SFO on domestic business class (yes they have domestic business, who knew?) so we were finally able to get some sleep. Dan slept through the entire flight, missing all of the meal services including ice cream. What a waste of a perk.

We made it home just after 1AM on the November 20th. Despite the travel hassle of getting home, it was an amazing and memorable trip to Machu Picchu and Galapagos with our friends and we would do it again! Check off the bucket list!

Leaving Baltra

Quito Layover

Finally Heading Home

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