GALAPAGOS! Santa Cruz and Isabella Islands 2/22

Got up after what seemed like no sleep at all and had a real nice breakfast at the Hampton Inn Guayaquil. More food than you could handle/want. After some fits and starts we arrived at the airport way too early and then started experiencing the “Ecuadorian” way of doing things. We stood first in one line for our 9:00 flight with TAME Airlines – our flight had been pre-paid. When the TAME representative arrived we found out that we first had to get in another line to have our bags tagged for entry to the Galapagos. We also had to purchase a special card that you must present at various times once in the Galapagos. Rich collected all the passports (12) and collected the $10 fee per person required for the card. He stood in that line for what seemed like an eternity and finally returned card(s) in hand. It seems that the person in charge had to hand enter all the passport information into their computer system. At the end of this process each person has a credit card sized document with their name imprinted on it.
Now back into the original (now much longer) line at the TAME counter where the passport information was again hand entered into their system and boarding passes issued. Once on board the flight left 6 minutes early and arrived exactly on time 90 minutes later. With the time change back to what is effectively Chicago time we were on Baltra Island at 9:30.

Collected our luggage and were met by Elsie (a representative from The Angermeyer Waterfront Inn) who would act as our guide that day on Santa Cruz Island. We will be staying at the Waterfront Inn for four days after we return from Isabella – try to stay with all this it eventually makes sense.
OK, herded onto a bus which took us to a ferry crossing from Baltra to Santa Cruz Island. Our luggage was loaded on to the roof of the boat and we were ferried a very short distance across a channel. You could easily see across this channel which came in handy shortly. Everyone who had been ferried across were grabbing their luggage and getting onto another bus to go wherever their final destination was on Santa Cruz. Unfortunately, our luggage had returned back to the other side of the channel somehow and Elsie’s cell phone had no service. So, now the luggage handler was on one side and we were on the other. They eventually figured it out and we were off to our planned activity for the day.
We had to travel 42 kilometers across Santa Cruz to the town of Puerto Ayora, basically up and over a mountain to the other side of the island. We had planned a stop at a tortoise farm with a lunch at a restaurant. The idea of a tortoise farm seems a bit strange at first blush. The area we had entered was not a part of the Ecuadorian National Park systems but a privately owned farm. And luckily for them a group of tortoises happen to like to live there. It seems that tortoises, unlike turtles never enter the water. So these gigantic creatures spend their entire lives on land and there are ponds and grasses to eat – a pretty good life. We walked around on some paths and saw quite a few of them and then got back to the restaurant for a nice repast. Elsie suggested we stop next at a lava tube which was really huge – much larger than ones we had seen in Hawaii. I guess his lava tube was found when a cow went missing. It has fallen into the lava tube and the farmers eventually realized they had a cool lava tube sitting under their pastures. They even left a pile of bones at the entrance to the tube (perhaps in homage to the cow).
Back on the bus for our final ride to Puerto Ayora where we would board our arranged boat transfer to Isabella Island. We could see the Angermeyer Waterfront Inn off in the distance – looked quite nice. When we return in 3 days from Isabella we will be staying there for 4 days. See, eventually you begin to grasp all of this.
A word about this transfer. We could have taken a “public” boat or arranged for this private transfer. The public boats are not quite so nice or a fast as the one we decided on – spent a little more but basically had the boat as we wished during our trip. The captain stopped along the way for some snorkeling with a group of sea lions. A couple of people decided that wanted to jump in and we all watched the sea lions swim around and under them from the boat. After what seemed like a LONG 2.5 hour ride we arrived on Isaballa.

Our bags were transferred to our hotel – The Elbemeyer – right on the beach in a quaint little town. We rounded the corner to some of the loudest music I had ever heard! It seems that there is a Carnival party going on directly across the street from our hotel. Two gigantic speakers are pointing right at our hotel – about 50 feet away. We were told that the previous night they played music until 3:00 a.m. GREAT! NOT! One couple decided on the spot to move to another hotel a few blocks away. We decided to try and tough it out and the proprietor offered a 50% discount for our stay.
We walked around for a while and found a restaurant where we ate a meal that will seem hilarious after some time has passed. Several of the group had taken motion sickness pills for the boat trip. So those 4 were falling asleep at the table while we waited for quite a long time for the meal to arrive. You could easily hear the music from the Carnival party the 4 blocks or so we were from the hotel. We returned back to the hotel about 11:00 and the real fun began. The power went out – blessedly stopping the music for a short time but leaving you in the dark with no AC! Eventually, the power was restored and unfortunately the music! I do not exaggerate – this was the loudest music I have ever heard. I guess I fell asleep at some point – no idea when – and I had those wax ear plugs jammed in as far as they would go. I tried to post to the blog but the wireless internet connection wouldn’t work. I was sitting in the lobby with a wired Ethernet connection trying to post when the power went out! I was finally able to upload one image - I'll try to add more in the morning.