Galapagos!

Trip Start Jul 15, 2006
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Trip End Jul 31, 2006


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Flag of Ecuador  ,
Monday, July 24, 2006

We caught our flight out of Guyaquil without any problems.  I definately have to give props to Tame.  The Ecuadorian airline is excellent.  The planes are modern and the food doesn't get much better as far as airplane food goes.  They also load and unload passengers through two doors which results in less time standing in lineups.

We arrived in Galapagos in the early afternoon.  The airport was outdoors, which is kinda cool.  The airport is located on a seperate small island.  There are a number of expensive options to get to the ferry which travels across to the island of Santa Cruz.  We chose to do what the locals do, and took the bus.  Next came a ferry ride across to Santa Cruz, followed by a long bus ride across to Puerto Ayora.

The bus ride took us across the full island and we ended up cutting through a number of villages as well as passing by a resort for the uber rich The bus ride across the island
The bus ride across the island
 .  Puerto Ayora itself was a bit of a surprise.  I expected Galapagos to be a mostly wild island with very limited urbanization, however Puerto Ayora is a full out small town.  No high rise sky scrapers or anything, but a few multi story buildings and a full out supporting infrastructure.  Hotels, restaurants, bars, and tons of stores.

We got dropped off in the middle of the main strip and proceeded to walk around until we found a hotel.  The hotel wasn't the greatest, but it was cheap.  We met a few Aussies and hung out with those guys on a few occasions. 

One thing that takes a little getting used to is the amount of unusual wildlife present anywhere away from the heart of town.  The unique species you come across are the coolest part about these islands.

Puerto Ayora has a taxi service, but it's not a full time gig as there isn't enough business to go around.  Most of the work consists of taking tourists to the airport and back, so these guys make cash on the side by taking people out on tours and basically being the guide around the island. 

After visiting the Darwin research center, which was nothing to write home about and checking the nonexistent nightlife we started to look around for better activities.  We met a pretty cool local guy who is a taxi driver.  He ended up hanging out and partying with us during our whole stay in town and showing us around a number of places.  We ended up checking out some giant turtle farms, the lava tunnels, and a number of remote beaches.

We also booked a tour to Isabella through Freddys tour booth.  So after a couple of days in Puerto Ayora, we were off to Isabela on Wednesday afternoon.
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