Day 38 Thursday, April 11th Quito to the Galapagos!

Up at 5.15am for a 6.00am taxi to Quito’s new airport ($25). It’s one hour outside of town.

Our flight is at 9.00am and we are pushed back from baggage drop and told we have first to get the suitcases screened so that they can make sure that we are not bringing any plants, fruits etc that would pollute the sensitive eco-system of the Galapagos.

The airport ATM rejects our ATM card (unreadable) and we again realise that we have been careless in making ourselves dependent upon one card for cash. Almost all vendors on our trip to date have insisted on cash and it would be a major calamity to run out of cash or lose our ATM cards. We do get another bank’s ATM machine to accept the card and provide cash but it’s a period of anxiety we would prefer to have avoided. More alternate cards next time.

We arrive in The Galapagos (and pay the $100/person conservation fee) and it’s wonderful, eleven days may not be enough but we can easily extend our stay here. We take the free bus from the airport to the ferry (75c) to the main island of Santa Cruz and then (waving away the hoards of persistent taxi cab drivers/touts) take the bus to Puerto Ajora ($1.50) and walk to the Café Hernand to meet Mark’s friend Laura whom he has arranged to meet and help us. (Mark was the fellow traveller that we met and spent time with in Banos, Ecuador). We are late and Laura isn’t there and so we take a taxi ($1) to the place that Mark has recommended we stay while on Santa Cruz. Isabel’s place is great and she proposes $30/night-which we accept- and we meet her extended family. Hugs and kisses all around and we settle in. No hot water-there isn’t a hot water tap in the shower-but cold water is OK here, you just don’t linger.

Back to Café Hernand for some shrimp and beer and a look around the town. We look in at a pretty swanky hotel and ask the room rate ($330/night) and walk through to the deck overlooking th

e harbour only to find a seal sleeping by the swimming pool! We go to the local supermarket to buy some bottles of red wine and whiskey to keep in our room