Welcome back, Cruiseboysians!  It’s only one week until my Galapagos cruise begins!  It’s a good thing I took a look at the weather in Ecuador.  The country is on the equator (which is literally the translation of “Ecuador”), so I expected everything to be very warm.  I pretty much planned on wearing shorts most of the time.

Nope. 

On the islands themselves the predicted high over the two weeks I’m there is 67 °F (19.4 °C) and the low is 62 °F (16.7 °C) – only a five degree day/night swing.  I fly into Quito (more about that below), which has a larger temperature swing – but only cooler.  While I am there the high is 66 °F (18.9 °C) with the low 52 °F (11.1 °C) with constant rain.

So my packing plan has shifted a bit.  I picked up a pair of hiking trousers after being entirely too cold during my Grand Canyon visit in April, but I bought more since I will be gone for almost three weeks.  And I will bring my wet weather gear for Quito, which I did not plan to bring as Silversea says they will provide some while on the ship.

Now, about Quito.  During my 2019 World Cruise I was put up in a hotel for the night before.  I only lived an hour from San Francisco so it was no problem.  However, many guests could not arrive before the ship sailed due to wind storms at their connecting airports.  I can just image what Silversea had to do to keep them occupied before flying them to the South Pacific to meet up with the ship.

With that in mind, the standard for visiting Galapagos with Silversea is to have two nights in Quito before flying to San Cristobal to meet up with the Silver Origin.  But due to the irregularities of flights from Phoenix, AZ I will be spending three nights in Quito.  Seems the timing of the connecting flight from Miami to Quito just forces that.  It’s all covered by Silversea, so no issue there.  It’s just another day for me to find tourist things to do.  My plans are constrained due to it raining all three days, but I will survive and provide you with photos and tidbits.

While planning my packing I reviewed my 2019 World Cruise notes and found some cool things about Ecuador:

• Ecuador uses the US Dollar, so no need to exchange currency
• Ecuador uses US electrical outlets, so no need to carry adapters

So there are two less things to worry about. Joy!