Monday 22nd May 2017
Galapagos to Guayaquil
Up early for lovely breakfast – home-made carrot cake, fresh
tree-tomato smoothie, banana/watermelon/orange sections, scrambled egg/cheese.
Joseline had sorted a taxi and we paid extra for the driver to take us over the
Itacama channel ferry and to the airport with all our baggage. $42. However had
to pay $20 excess due to weight of our now 3x bags. Annoyingly our backpacks
were light and we could have just moved some gear across and paid less – all going
in the same plane! I was then paged in the airport and had to go air-side as
they had identified ‘rock’ in my suitcase and couldn’t access the combination
lock. It was the salt crystals from
Uyuni and therefore OK, but interesting that they had detected them and we so
hot on not removing anything from the islands.
Plane was also delayed by an hour for no apparent reason. It all happens in 3’s! We weren’t bothered as had no linked flights.
Once in Guayaquil, took a taxi to Casa del Rio Guayas which was
very near the airport. Nice basic room with most amenities, including wifi.
Re-packed some items to reduce the weight and rethinking our outfits (shorts
and T-shirts to hiking boots and fleeces!).
Took a taxi into town for $4 – very confused driver who couldn’t work
out where the tourist area should be. Ended up alongside the river with a very
modern waterfront. It had all the amenities – imax cinema, theatres, boardwalk,
big wheel, parks. As it was getting dark
we found a nice restaurant where Iain had seafood mixed in rice and an
additional full crab alongside! I had seafood linguine. Very nice, washed down with Marguerita
cocktails. We then grabbed another taxi for our return, who became very
confused with the hotel card, his own app and Iain’s e-maps. Eventually found
the hotel with great relief and still only charged $4. Good taxis here.
Caught up with blog – finally up to date after two weeks, but
photos still to do. Will try when we’re waiting at airports!