The Galapagos Islands ~ Day 9

Our last day was a travel day - literally - a  travel day:

1. 4am wake up to finish packing.
2. 5am left hotel to walk a mile in the dark to the pier.
3. Water taxi to "ferry."
4. 6am "ferry" back to Santa Cruz.

Don't these seats look nice? Well, we were the last people on the "ferry" and there were no seats left - we think they were over their passenger limit - well, we know that they were over their passenger limit by at least one as Suzanne had to wear some old, leftover life jacket and we sat in the back by the motor and didn't enjoy those comfy seats.

5. Water taxi to Santa Cruz - where once again we paid $1 to get on the island.

6.  Land taxi to the Itabaca Channel - the airport is on Baltra Island, so we needed to take a....

7.  Ferry to island of Baltra.

8. Shuttle bus to the airport. 

 

 (Brad getting tickets for the shuttle bus.)

 

 

 
9. An 11:40am flight to Guayaquil, Ecuador. However we had to get past this guy at the door! 😄

 

Oh, we had to give back the remaining half of the transit card we purchased when we left Guayaquil the week prior. We had no idea where they were, so the women behind the counter just said, "okay, go ahead." (Guess it wasn't such a big deal!) Oh, and there were huge lines at the airport for those who needed to check luggage (not us!) or check-in (done!) - we just walked right into the terminal - yeah!

10. We then had about a 9-hourt layover in the Guayaquil airport where we got some lunch/dinner and sat around while Suzanne graded papers. Eventually at 6pm we were allowed to go into the international terminal where we went through passport control and once again had our bags x-rayed. The agents must have been bored as they also went through our bags and were concerned at the amount of toothpaste and sunscreen we had.  So they took our bottle of sunscreen - fine - but the toothpaste had about 1oz remaining of a regular tube (for the record, we had gotten into Ecuador with more toothpaste) and Suzanne begged them to let her keep it, saying that she hadn't brushed her teeth since 4am and really needed to. They laughed and let her keep it. 

So we went to the Admirals Lounge where they had......showers! Wahoo! We each took showers (they even provided towels), brushed our teeth with our smuggled-in toothpaste, etc... and waited around until our....

 

11. 11:50pm flight to Florida. (Where we grabbed a Lyft and were home around 6:30am, so yes, a day of travel!)

In sum, the trip comprised of.....

• tens days
  
• three islands
• four flights
• four hotels
• three "ferries" (speedboats)
• two pre-arranged snorkel trips via boat
  
• multiple water taxis
• a few land taxis 

So lots of "moving parts" and they all fell into place. (Lucky us.) There was only one rain storm that didn't impact us, huge thunder storms when we left Guayaquil that didn't impact us, and we landed in Ft. Lauderdale just a few hours before it shut-down for three days due to massive storms. Again, we were lucky.

 

Some thoughts about the Galapagos Islands......in no particular order.......

•  We are glad we went. It was on our list for some time now, and the timing was right to do it now.
• That being said, we enjoyed our trips to Hawaii more - in terms of better snorkeling.
• It is an understatement to say that it is hot at the equator - the sun is relentless. 
  
• The wildlife was amazing - giant land tortoises, sea turtles of all sizes, seal lions everywhere, blue footed boobies, etc.....
• The people were very nice and helpful. While some spoke English, many did not, and most people were very accommodating with our very poor Spanish. (Though Isabela had the most reserved people who did not seem quite as friendly.) It is also a trusting society - as we've mentioned, everyone left their belongings out and never once was anything touched.
  
• There was a bit of a "Mexican border town" feeling in terms of so many unfinished buildings. We wondered if we heard a different language - anything but Spanish - would it still have the same feel. We think so due to the unfinished buildings. (Note - there was none of that peddling that one associates with the Mexican border towns.)
• For some reason, we thought it would be lush and tropical. Nope, very desert-like and arid. 
• We really enjoyed running into some of the same travelers again, such as ones we met on the ferries or a snorkel trip. Nearly all the tourists were super nice and enjoyable. 
• We did feel a little "nickel-and-dimed" with the $1 (or $10) to enter each island, etc...
• We really liked not being on a cruise and island-hopping on our own instead. We very much enjoy immersing ourselves in a culture and meeting locals and other travelers who are like-minded in terms of travel. We also enjoyed the multiple ferry experiences - even Brad who was a bit weary at first. 😉

 And that was The Galapagos Islands.