We said good bye to the lazy dogs in the mountains and hello to the lazy sea lions in Galapagos. One bus ride to Lima, one flight to Guayaquil and one flight to the islands later, we changed from 3600 Meters elevation to sea level. So much oxygen in the air and so much heat and humidity. Put away the sweaters and hop in your shorts and T-shirts. Galapagos, here we are. Ready for the sea lions.
Galapagos has a different opinion on this. It is not ready for us. The flight on a small plane to our island Isabella is 4 hours late. Good thing that our travel agent Karin meets us at the airport to take our heavy suitcases. The plane only fits 10 people and small baggage.
The airport food is good and we have our first fish and plain, dry rice dinner. 4 hours later the airplane is ready to go. Michelle is not amused. She does not like small planes. 8 passengers sit in really narrow seats in the back. One person gets to sit on the copilot spot. Michelle does not volunteer for this seat and is happy to sit in the back. She doesn’t know enough about the instruments.
After 30 minute flight we arrive in Santa Isabella airport. One person is sitting there and wants 10 USDs from us. We already paid 120 USD per person to enter Galapagos, but at least we get another nice ticket with turtles on it.
This is the only person at the airport and he is soon gone with his bicycle. One passenger got picked up with a bike and the pilot flies back with his airplane. 5 lost tourists are sitting at a ghost airport. How to get to town?
Our phones are not working, also the ones from another couple. Should we walk? The idea of rolling suitcases for 2 hours on a gravel road is not promising. One lady has signal on her phone and together we figure out how to call a local number. We talked to somebody and they told us, a taxi will come.
20 minutes later a white pickup truck arrives and brings us to town. BTW all cars on the islands are small white pickup trucks. I wonder if other cars a not allowed. Or maybe the get a good deal by buying 5000 white trucks at the same time.
Anyhow, our hotel is very nice and we jump in the ocean right away to cool off. The water temperature is 27 degrees and the waves are big. The hotel built big sand walls with sand bags in front of the hotel because of the waves and the high tide. Normally, May should bring the Humboldt current should and cold water to the islands. But Mister Humboldt lets us sweat like he did with our kids, when they went to the Humboldt Gymnasium in Vaterstetten and had to do their exams.
It might be nice to get warm water for snorkeling and warm air, when sitting at the beach and having a drink at night. The negative side effects are big waves, humidity and rain. On the next morning we get up early (6am) to go to our snorkeling tour with boat. We get picked up by Pedro in a white truck. At the office they tell us. There will be no boat tour today because of the sea conditions. We walk back to the hotel and decide to face the humidity and do a bicycle tour, since we already up and fit. We want to ride on the board walk to the turtle station, but some weird animals are blocking the way. I guess these girls would have good chances on the “Germany’s next Topmodel” show.
Somehow we find a way around these creatures and get to the turtle breeding station. The program seems to be a big success, because we see hundreds of turtles in different sizes. Some of them are huge and can almost be used for riding. Are there Galapagos Cowboys (Turtleboys) riding these animals?
We want to continue our bike ride to a place, where we can see the turtles in their natural environment and where there are great views of the island Isabela. Due to the strong waves the road is gone. It is humid and hot and we would have to push our bicycles thru the sandy beach. We drop the bikes in the sand and jump into the roaring waves to cool off.
Afterwards we are fresh and cycle to the main harbor of the island in order to check whether the food and beer delivery to the island is still working. Everything (even water) has to be delivered by boat. It was all good. We saw trucks with gas, beer and food coming from the harbor.
We wanted to rest a little on the benches, but they were all occupied by unfriendly creatures who would not make any room for us.
At least the little kiosk had spot for us and cold coconuts for drinking and eating.
On the way back we visited the church to do our thankful prayers, because the supply chain for the island was still intact. It was modern church with a turtle as the altar and colorful paintings on the wall. Very different and interesting.
In the evening our hotel service called us that the excursion on the next morning was cancelled and our planned ferry trip to the next island in the afternoon is also cancelled. We should instead be at 7am at the airport to fly over to Santa Cruz Island.
We went early in the morning to the ghost airport of Isabela and were the first guests there. No other people were there. After a while some people arrived and everybody got to fly with 9 passenger plane but us. We were again stuck at the ghost airport. Michelle was not amused.
Somehow we got back to the village and could buy tickets for a later flight. We came back in the afternoon and an airplane came in. We were also already checked in and had big hopes to leave the island. The departure was postponed and we were afraid the plane had technical issues, because people were working on the plane for quite a while. But then the pilot itself took over, fixed the wing with duct tape.
So we could fly to Baltra Island, hopped over with small boot, took the bus and finally arrived in Santa Cruz in Puerta Ayora. We were happy to see an ATM machine, because we had no money left and Isabela has no ATMs. How small things can make you happy.
Overall we had great time on the first island. But we also found out that things are not always working the way they are planned on Galapagos. In the 4 weeks in Peru everything worked just perfectly. So we had to adjust to the different elevation, to the very different client and to the different way of life.
But now we are prepared to new adventures on Galapagos. Stay tuned.
Galapagos has a different opinion on this. It is not ready for us. The flight on a small plane to our island Isabella is 4 hours late. Good thing that our travel agent Karin meets us at the airport to take our heavy suitcases. The plane only fits 10 people and small baggage.
The airport food is good and we have our first fish and plain, dry rice dinner. 4 hours later the airplane is ready to go. Michelle is not amused. She does not like small planes. 8 passengers sit in really narrow seats in the back. One person gets to sit on the copilot spot. Michelle does not volunteer for this seat and is happy to sit in the back. She doesn’t know enough about the instruments.
After 30 minute flight we arrive in Santa Isabella airport. One person is sitting there and wants 10 USDs from us. We already paid 120 USD per person to enter Galapagos, but at least we get another nice ticket with turtles on it.
This is the only person at the airport and he is soon gone with his bicycle. One passenger got picked up with a bike and the pilot flies back with his airplane. 5 lost tourists are sitting at a ghost airport. How to get to town?
Our phones are not working, also the ones from another couple. Should we walk? The idea of rolling suitcases for 2 hours on a gravel road is not promising. One lady has signal on her phone and together we figure out how to call a local number. We talked to somebody and they told us, a taxi will come.
20 minutes later a white pickup truck arrives and brings us to town. BTW all cars on the islands are small white pickup trucks. I wonder if other cars a not allowed. Or maybe the get a good deal by buying 5000 white trucks at the same time.
Anyhow, our hotel is very nice and we jump in the ocean right away to cool off. The water temperature is 27 degrees and the waves are big. The hotel built big sand walls with sand bags in front of the hotel because of the waves and the high tide. Normally, May should bring the Humboldt current should and cold water to the islands. But Mister Humboldt lets us sweat like he did with our kids, when they went to the Humboldt Gymnasium in Vaterstetten and had to do their exams.
It might be nice to get warm water for snorkeling and warm air, when sitting at the beach and having a drink at night. The negative side effects are big waves, humidity and rain. On the next morning we get up early (6am) to go to our snorkeling tour with boat. We get picked up by Pedro in a white truck. At the office they tell us. There will be no boat tour today because of the sea conditions. We walk back to the hotel and decide to face the humidity and do a bicycle tour, since we already up and fit. We want to ride on the board walk to the turtle station, but some weird animals are blocking the way. I guess these girls would have good chances on the “Germany’s next Topmodel” show.
Somehow we find a way around these creatures and get to the turtle breeding station. The program seems to be a big success, because we see hundreds of turtles in different sizes. Some of them are huge and can almost be used for riding. Are there Galapagos Cowboys (Turtleboys) riding these animals?
We want to continue our bike ride to a place, where we can see the turtles in their natural environment and where there are great views of the island Isabela. Due to the strong waves the road is gone. It is humid and hot and we would have to push our bicycles thru the sandy beach. We drop the bikes in the sand and jump into the roaring waves to cool off.
Afterwards we are fresh and cycle to the main harbor of the island in order to check whether the food and beer delivery to the island is still working. Everything (even water) has to be delivered by boat. It was all good. We saw trucks with gas, beer and food coming from the harbor.
We wanted to rest a little on the benches, but they were all occupied by unfriendly creatures who would not make any room for us.
At least the little kiosk had spot for us and cold coconuts for drinking and eating.
On the way back we visited the church to do our thankful prayers, because the supply chain for the island was still intact. It was modern church with a turtle as the altar and colorful paintings on the wall. Very different and interesting.
In the evening our hotel service called us that the excursion on the next morning was cancelled and our planned ferry trip to the next island in the afternoon is also cancelled. We should instead be at 7am at the airport to fly over to Santa Cruz Island.
We went early in the morning to the ghost airport of Isabela and were the first guests there. No other people were there. After a while some people arrived and everybody got to fly with 9 passenger plane but us. We were again stuck at the ghost airport. Michelle was not amused.
Somehow we got back to the village and could buy tickets for a later flight. We came back in the afternoon and an airplane came in. We were also already checked in and had big hopes to leave the island. The departure was postponed and we were afraid the plane had technical issues, because people were working on the plane for quite a while. But then the pilot itself took over, fixed the wing with duct tape.
So we could fly to Baltra Island, hopped over with small boot, took the bus and finally arrived in Santa Cruz in Puerta Ayora. We were happy to see an ATM machine, because we had no money left and Isabela has no ATMs. How small things can make you happy.
Overall we had great time on the first island. But we also found out that things are not always working the way they are planned on Galapagos. In the 4 weeks in Peru everything worked just perfectly. So we had to adjust to the different elevation, to the very different client and to the different way of life.
But now we are prepared to new adventures on Galapagos. Stay tuned.
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