19th Oct - Quito to Santa Cruz, Galapagos

Today was tough enough, woke up a few times during the night cos I was so bloody paranoid about missing my alarm for the taxi to the airport!

Got up at 5.45 and got to airport for 6.15 after paying $10 for a fifteen minute taxi booked through the hostel (should be about $4 or maybe $5 max) - another reason to hate Secret Garden, they really are horrible bastards.

So got to the airport and it had free wifi so I was emailing and surfing for a while. Flight was delayed for 20mins but I didn't really mind. Uh oh, then they shut the airport! Rain was too heavy apparently. It was bloody misting. If they closed it that often for rain at home, airports in Ireland would be open about 3 wks per year!

We eventually get going after the incessant light drizzle clears away

Plane took off eventually at 11.35, originally supposed to have been 7.45. Punishment. I spoke to the tour operator though and she said that the boat would wait for me in Baltra, the island my tour was starting from. Had to change planes in Guayaquil so eventually arrived in the Galapagos around 3pm, which was 2pm local time, it had been a long day already!

No drizzle here! Welcome to Baltra airport, Galapagos!

Got to Baltra airport and everyone on board whipped out the customs declaration form that they got back in Quito. Ah crap. All the time I had in that bloody airport and never sorted that out. Luckily I could do it in the airport, it just took a bit longer. Then I had to pay the $100 Galapagos entrance fee - all my money was in my bag in the hold though, so this took ages as well. Especially as after I got my luggage from the hold, I searched through it and realised my money was in my bloody carry-on all along. AAAAAAAGGHHH! Utter nightmare day so far. Then met the guide, a fairly rotund lad called Alfonso and also two French lads Philippe and Arsene who were coming on the tour. Philippe had ok English, Arsene spoke zero English and zero Spanish. Great! I immediately told them I hated Thierry Henry, but they didn't seem to mind, and they were good lads.

Our late arrival meant that the tour had been delayed by a few hours, but no matter, we were here now. We drove in a pick up for about 30 mins before the guide decided to double check where the rest of the tour were. Turns out they were back near the airport so we had to turn right around and drive another 30 mins back! KRYSTE! Very irritating.

Met the rest of tour eventually, bear in mind that I'd booked a shitty boat so that I'd get it cheap but also so that the likely clientele would hopefully all be in the 20-40 bracket.

Elderly couple in their 70s from the States, Gerald and Rebecca.
German couple in their 40s, Daniela and Steffan.
The two French lads in their 40s, Arsene and Philippe.
Two German lads late 20s/early 30s, Rene and Gerrit.
Pierre, 22, sound French lad with excellent Spanish and poor English so we struggle by in Spanish.

Mmm... not quite the 9 Colombian models I'd hoped would be on the trip! Ah well, I suppose I'm here in the Galapagos to see the wildlife. Seriously.

First stop was to see a local giant tortoise farm. That's the tortoises who are giants, not the locals. Hilarious!

Anyway, it's a farm in name only really, basically a big wildlife reserve to house the animals. The farmer makes much more in grants from the state to keep the tortoises on it than he would by using the farm for another purpose. I've always been fascinated by giant tortoises, seeing them was pretty much my main reason for coming to the Galapagos and coming to the Galapagos was the main reason for coming to South America!

So, for me, it really was such a great privilege to see them. They were beautiful. Though they wouldn't be much use in a fight. Their only defence is to hiss and pull their heads back into their shells!

Beautiful? Yes. Useless in a scrap? Also.

Come out lad, don't be shy!


Watching them eat was amazing - and I find it hard to explain why! It just was ok!



The guide reckoned that if you put papaya fruit in front of them, they'd eat it in front of you. So the guide did indeed put it in front of a young enough tortoise (apparently he was around 50!) and he gobbled it down. I loved this tortoise here though. I waited for 20 mins, all the time watching him with the fruit under his nose and he never touched it - I reckon because I was looking at him. He's been around for 70 or 80 years, he doesn't have a whole lot to do, he can wait another half an hour to eat in private!



How did the hare ever lose to one of these lads?




Guide was telling us that there were 500,000 giant tortoises before the Spanish came, but now just 24,000. A lot of them are wild - in places tourists can't get to - but some are still being bred in captivity and released then.

Left the farm and went to see some lava tunnels - tunnels formed when the gas in a lava flow blows out and leaves tunnels in its wake. Then climbed into a tortoise shell at the house at the end of the tunnels - tortoise had been removed. Perhaps he was hiding in the kitchen and would claim it back later, I never did find out.

Drove to the dock then where the boat was moored and came aboard. Had dinner, and l headed off to bed around 7.30. Long day!