Galapagos Adventure - Day 7 - June 20
We rocked and rolled all night long. The older ships do not have the gyro stabilizers. Two of the drawers in our dresser opened and closed as each wave passed. I was finally annoyed enough to get up and stuff the drawers with towels. That worked. Dark thirty was 5:15 am. We were at breakfast at 5:45 am and off the ship at 6:45 am. We bid farewell to the captain and crew and rode the pangas to the pier. Next we took a forty minute bus ride to a ranch with giant tortoises.
We found the largest giant tortoise for our family photo. We wore rubber boots to walk along the trails. Giant tortoises leave giant tortoise droppings.
We saw a group of tortoises wallowing in the mud. Many of the tortoises were over 100 years old. The oldest tortoises live be 175 years old. The tortoises eat grass. Once they have a neck full of grass they stretch out their neck to swallow the grass.
No visit to a tortoise ranch is complete without wearing an actual tortoise shell.
Wendy treated the group to cheese empanadas and we boarded our bus to drive to the ferry.
Seeing the Galapagos giant tortoise checked the box for number twelve of the Big Fifteen. However, twelve out of fifteen is the most we could see on this trip. The remaining three - Albatross, flightless cormorant and Santa Fe Iquana are not seen on the islands we visited. We would have to travel to other islands that were not on our itinerary. It would require another trip to the Galapagos to visit those three extra islands.
We needed to cross over to Santa Cruz Island to get to the airport. The ferry ride was 10 minutes and the bus ride was 8 minutes. Not long travel times just a lot of climbing on and off buses and ferries. Our back packs weigh 30 pounds each because our suitcases are at the maximum weight for air travel.
At the airport we cleared immigration and security without drama and were treated by Tauck to use the VIP lounge in the airport. After an hour wait we boarded our Latam flight 1414 to Guayaquil. The flight time is one hour and forty minutes. Once we arrive at our hotel we will have a little quiet time before our farewell reception and dinner.
We are staying at the Wyndham Guayaquil which is on the Guayas River. The Guayas River is 241 miles long. We are at 10’ above sea level. Quite a contrast to being in Quito.
Our tour director shared a warning from some US department of something that pickpockets have been extremely aggressive in the area of our hotel. They recommend not venturing outside the grounds of the hotel while we are here. Eleanor suggested we could go outside but just not have any money or cell phones and we would be fine. Sounds like good logic to me.
This is the view of the Guayas River from our hotel room.
If you thought dark thirty came early this week you ain’t seen nothin. Our flight from Guayaquil to Miami is at 6:00 am. Departure from the hotel is 3:00 am. Ugh! Interestingly 32 of the 36 people in our tour group are on the same American Airlines flight. There will be time enough to sleep when we get home. We should arrive in Chicago around 5:00 pm on Saturday.
We feel pretty good that we made this trip a memorable experience for Jackson and Eleanor.
Until next time.
John and Priscilla