June 1, 2016
It’s 7:30 am in Quito, Ecuador. I should be tired with less than 6 hours of sleep, but I’m exhilarated by the day ahead. Today I fly to the Galapagos Islands! Equally exciting, I am meeting up with my friend Maureen, who started her own digital nomad adventure in February. I am very excited to see her again, and to compare notes.
There is a snag – my flight into the Galapagos has been pushed back 3 hours. Maureen will now arrive 3 hours before me, instead of 20 minutes. She arranges to wait at the airport and re-books the taxi coming to pick us up at the ferry dock. Brilliant!
I use the extra time to check my emails and get some work done, then head to the airport. My hotel shuttle driver speaks no English, and my Spanish isn’t great. I can understand the gist of what’s being said, but every time I try to speak, whole sentences come out in French. I settle for smiling and nodding a bunch. I learn that my driver has never been to the Galapagos, and that it can be quite windy – windy enough to rip up trees.
The Quito airport is much smaller than I expect. The airport itself is roughly 18 km east of Quito itself, and has only a couple dozen gates. It was dark when I arrived last night, so this is my first glimpse of the primeval mountains that surround the airport. We’re almost 10,000 feet above sea level, a fact that doesn’t sink in until I realize that the clouds are covering some of the mountain tops.
View of Andes Mountains from Quito Airport
It’s my first time flying on a non-US airline. Boarding takes longer than expected, but the flight itself is a pleasant surprise. There’s plenty of leg room, even in economy, and the flight is only about half full. I get a whole row to myself! And our snack, when it comes, is a delightful baguette with some sort of fish filling. It’s delicious.
During the flight I meet Hay and Lana. Hay is a wonderful doctor from Birmingham who’s taking her animal-crazed, soon-to-be-in-vet-school daughter to the Galapagos for 10 days of vacation. Hay and I chat off and on throughout the flight; she’s impressed with my digital nomadic lifestyle, and I love hearing about her practice in Birmingham, and her residency in Australia in the early 1980s. We part at the Galapagos airport with an invitation to visit their cabin if Maureen and I find ourselves on the way to Tortuga Bay.
The flight from Quito to the Galapagos is almost 2 hours. For a long time, there’s nothing but clouds and rippling blue sea below us. And then – land ho!
First view of the Galapagos Islands!
At first I am disappointed with the Galapagos from the air. The northern island of Baltra is brown, brown, brown, and so is the main island of Santa Cruz. This is what I see as we taxi down the Baltra airport runway, turn around at the end, and come back to the terminal:
Baltra Island from the airport runway
But after customs, baggage claim, an enthusiastic reunion with Maureen, and a packed bus ride to the ferry terminal, we finally board the ferry. After the brown-ness of the terrain, the contrast of the blue, blue water, the black rocks, and a smattering of green bushes is startling:
Ferry terminal, Baltra Island
On the Santa Cruz side of the ferry terminal, there are green mangroves everywhere along the water. We meet our taxi, pick up another couple from Quito who need a ride, and drive off into the brown countryside.
About 20 minutes later, we enter the Galapagos National Forest, and here, finally, is the green I’ve been looking for. It’s an odd mix of desert plants (lots of prickly pears) and trees, with more trees and greenery the further south we go.
Our taxi driver is an enthusiastic guide, and points out many of the local sights, including our first tortoise sighting! Unfortunately, my Spanish is rudimentary, so while I get the gist of what’s going on, there’s a lot that passes me by. Thankfully, Maureen is pretty fluent in Spanish now, and she carries on the conversation for both of us and translates a few times when necessary.
At long last, we arrive in Puerto Ayora, my home for the next 12 days, and Maureen’s home for the next several weeks. It’s a real city, with paved streets and lots of shops. Our first of two guest houses is fabulous: two bedrooms, two baths, a gorgeous living area. And, best of all, a hammock inside between the two main pillars.
We unpack, relax, catch up, and finally decide we’re ready to go find dinner. We eat at an OK place along tourist strip, making notes of other restaurants to check out later. We pass this jewelry shop. It’s so out of place with the square-concrete-box architecture that we both stop to take a picture.
Octopus-like jewelry store on Puerto Ayora’s main tourist street
After dinner, we explore the local grocery store. Drinkable yogurt appears to be a big deal here. It fills an entire case in the cold foods section. To my delight, I find pear juice, which I haven’t had in over a year.
It’s only 8:30 pm, but the sun has been down for 2 hours already. It feels much later, but that’s probably a combination of travel fatigue and time zone change. Despite the time dislocation, it’s a pleasant walk back to our guest house; the temperature is warm but not hot, slightly sweaty but not slicked with sweat. Pretty much perfect.
We lay plans for the next couple of days, catch up on some work stuff, and head to sleep. Tomorrow we’ll explore the Charles Darwin Research Station Beach that’s a short walk from the house, and plan our excursions for our four-day weekend.
Leave a Reply