We had breakfast at the hotel again and got ready for our less-than-two-hour flight to the Galapagos Islands. Everyone working at the hotel - including the armed security with bullet-proof vests 😉- was very nice and helpful. We were surprised that there were very few English-speakers working and staying at the hotel.
The hotel arranged for a taxi ride to the airport, at which time we needed to get our transit cards, $20 each. (The black lines are identifying information that doesn't need to be online - pretty much our names, passport number, birthday, etc...)
We then had our bags scanned for items that are prohibited from the Galapagos.
And went through typical security. We boarded our flight ....... (Okay, yeah, this picture is everyone leaving the flight......)
....and headed to our first island ~ San Cristóbal! (600 miles west of mainland Ecuador.)
Interestingly, right before we landed , the flight crew opened all the overhead bins and sprayed the luggage and cabin with a (and we quote) "safe, approved by the WHO" pesticide.
Once we arrived we went though passport control - which is strange as we were in the same country, Ecuador. We then each paid $100 cash to enter the Galapagos Islands, had our bags scanned again (as if we obtained something illegal in flight...), and handed over one half of our transit card.
We took a taxi to our hotel for two nights ~ La Zayapa ~ which was directly on the waterfront.
Where we had a decent room.
We then meandered the town looking for a place for lunch and to see the sites.
The sites were pretty much sea lions (called sea wolves in Spanish) that pretty much have the run of the town......
some very colorful crabs....
and the occasional iguana.
After lunch we took a taxi to La Loberia Beach to snorkel.
Again there were lots of sea lions that couldn't care less about humans and some more black iguanas.
The water was a bit cool and somewhat murky (mornings tend to be better for snorkeling). We practiced with our underwater camera and walked the beach a bit.
(Not the best fish picture, but at least it's something!😁)
This was the first of many snorkeling outings - and we always felt 100% confident leaving our stuff (including money and cell phones) on the beach. There is very little crime in the Galapagos - it's 180-degrees from the violence and crime that is prevalent in mainland Ecuador.
Brad under water! 😃
We took a taxi back to our hotel, showered, and went for dinner. Unfortunately Suzanne had to still teach (online) and Internet proved to be challenging in the islands, so she took her laptop and papers to dinner with her where she would reply to a student, take a bite of food while it took (no joke) a couple minutes for the email to send, reply to another student, take a bite of food, reply to another student, take a bite of food........
Then it was back to our hotel to prepare for our planned snorkeling trip the next day.
Some late afternoon pictures of San Cristóbal........
And an evening picture as well...........
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