Excursion with Aerogal

Another day we had to wake up very early – 3:50. We had Aerogal flight at 6:40, but you always need some time for taking a shower, have breakfast, pack your luggage and get to the airport. Fortunately receptionist from Cayman hotel ordered a taxi for 4:45 and we arrived to the airport few minutes after 6am. In the departure hall of aeropuerto nacional we were asked to pay 10 USD for just departing to Galapagos islands. Then we were boarded on 757-200 altogether with about 100 other passengers. I was surprised that this flight might be such crowded. Weather in Quito was beautiful and we departed on time. After 30 minutes of flight we landed in Guayaquil to take some more passengers. Then it took about 2 more hours to get to Baltra on Galapagos islands. They asked us to pay 100 USD more as an entrance fee and gave us colorful piece of paper. Ok, I thought – it might be used as toilet paper in case of emergency. Nevertheless it is very expensive piece of paper. Then we had to find a guy from Amigo yacht who was obliged to transfer us to the boat in Puerto Ayora. Guy was not very nice, told us that we are waiting for 3 more people and left us for more than an hour. Airport was small and very crowded and the waiting was really boring. Guy came for us after an hour and decided to take us alone not waiting for other people, because all flights just arrived. It turned out that other people were already in Puerto Ayora. So the yacht was full and we boarded the it for some lunch. What surprised us a lot was that we got spaghetti with bolognese sauce and some vegetables. After the lunch we disembarked to the city and visited Charles Darwin station. A lot of big turtles and some iguanas. It was like a zoo, nothing amazing, but some good opportunities to take pictures. Weather was not great and it got dark really quickly, so from the photographic point of view we weren't lucky. Due to this we had some more time and visited local restaurant for some beer. However waitress (actually old, black, local lady) was so great that we decided to order some food. We had baked banana with cheese and some fish with rice. I must say that after that I got in love with ecuadorian cuisine. It's tasty and very healthy. The confirmation of this theory came with the dinner on yacht. It was really great and I went sleep full. Our first day on Galapagos came to an end.


And especially for MickeyW who likes such pictures - Ecuadorian "McDrive" :)