I have fallen in love with these islands from the very second we walked off the bus to a sea lion sleeping on the pier.
We have been fortunate to see some beautiful creatures in various parts of the world but nothing prepares you for the care free habitat that these animals call home.
The Galapagos Islands have the largest population of endemic species in the world and the Ecuadorian government has designated 98% of the archipelago a national park. The conservation efforts are many and stringent and it has made for a beautiful and untainted natural wonderland.
To dial it back, our stay in Tababela was handy (10 min to the Quito airport) but as Niki mentioned unless you have an early flight I would recommend staying in Mariscal or the centro. There is more value for your dollar and much more to do.
FLYING TO THE GALAPAGOS
(VIA BALTRA)
There are three airlines that fly to the Galapagos: TAME, LAN, and AVIANCA. Upon arriving at the airport in Quito there are extra protocols you must follow when going to the Galapagos. When you walk into UIO departures terminal, directly to your right is the Galapagos Registration area so before you get your boarding passes you need to register with your name and passport number etc. (it's $10.00).
(Note: we heard horror stories about AVIANCA cancelling flights, rebooking them, cancelling them, and rerouting through different airports making people travel by ferry to another island.)
Then you will go through a special security line, directly beside the registration area and here they check your bags for banned items (fresh fruit, veggies,plants, etc). Make sure before you leave the security area they have tagged your bag or they will not allow you to check them and you will be forced to go to the back of the line (this almost happend to us).
After that you will see the airline ticket counters. Many people were confused upon entering the airport about the order of things including us so I thought I should note that: YOU GET YOUR BOARDING PASSES AFTER GALAPAGOS REGISTRATION AND SECURITY.
The flight felt a bit long so keep in mind if you are flying from Quito you almost always have to stop over in Guyaquil. So we had to drop people off and pick up others. You stay on the plane but you are on the tarmack for an hour.(our whole trip was about 9 hours door to door)
We eventually arrived on Baltra (a little island that is very close to Santa Cruz Island and houses the airport) and the warm tropical air and sunshine woke us from any weariness we were feeling.
There is a free bus that takes you from the airport to the ferry dock to Santa Cruz (10 min ride) and it waits to fill up with people before leaving so there is no need to rush.
The ferry is about 5 minutes and boom your in Santa Cruz ( ferry 1$ per person).
You have two options when you get off ferry, you can taxi for ~ $18 USD or just hop on the bus (difficult to know egicj one so ask around) which most people do and it's only $2.00 USD per person. Be quick as the seats fill up fast and I ended up standing but usually they wouldn't allow someone to. The bus ride to Puerto Ayora town is ~ 45 minutes and it drops you off at the pier in the center of town.
This has been just logistics but read on for all the animal fun stuff!
No comments:
Post a Comment