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| Day 11 |
Day 10 brings us to the end of our Galapagos experience. We spent the morning exploring North Seymour Island, then on to Baltra to catch a plane to Guayaquil (Why-a-keel).
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North Seymour Island is a dry landing where there are trails right through one of the most active seabird breeding colonies in the Galapagos. As we walked on carefully marked trails we had to be careful that we did not disturb Blue Footed Boobies whose nest might be two feet to the right or left. The birds just sat on their eggs as if we were not even there. Frigate birds with their red balloon display, and of course an occasional Pelican were seen.
We returned to the boat for a snack, then a panga ride to the dock at Baltra, followed by a short bus ride to the airport. On to Guayaquil!
We arrived at Guayaquil, collected our luggage, and passed into the airport main building to meet our guide, Fernando. To meet our guide Fernando......wait a minute, there is no guide! There we were all huddled together, looking very much like a group of lost tourists. Patrick tried to reach Fernando on his cell phone but received only "no service" messages. I went outside and to see if there was a bus available when several people who were guides for other tours came up to me and asked if there were a problem. Well the first problem was they spoke only Spanish! I explained to them in my very best fractured Spanish that we were supposed to meet our guide, Fernando, but he was not to be found. Great luck! They knew Fernando and called him on their cell phone. Fernando was stuck in traffic and he would be here in a few minutes. Everyone was very helpful and reassuring to this lost group of Gringos. Fernando arrived, we went to the Gran Hotel Guiaquil and checked in.
Guiaquil is quite different from Quito in that it is right on the coast of Ecuador and was somewhat hot and humid. We went on an extensive walking tour of the riverfront area. Again the people who were out walking were very friendly. One family sent their little girl up to talk to us in order to practice her English! She was very shy but very cute! Her parents were obviously very proud of her.
After our extensive walking tour, we returned to the hotel, had our farewell dinner and retired to our room. We had an early morning flight which required a 4:30 A.M. wakeup call. Even though Elderhostel makes it clear that if you arrange you own transportation you are on your own to get to the airport, Fernando made all the arrangements and drove us to the airport at 5:00 A.M. and made sure we successfully got our boarding passes and paid our airport tax. I guess it would be bad publicity if two Elderhostel tour members ended up in an Ecuadorian jail because they had evaded the airport tax collector!
After spending the day either sitting in airports or riding in planes, we finally arrived back at Detroit Metro Airport at 10:30 P.M. We were really tired but still had to collect our car and drive 75 miles to get back to our home town. It was good to be home and in our own bed.