Heading home

After three weeks, I had to say goodbye to Ecuador. My last morning on San Cristóbal I had to get up quite early again to catch the ferry back to Santa Cruz. As it was just start of school holidays, it wasn't only the typical tourists taking the ferry, but it seemed like half of the island was wanting to leave as well. Because of this, it also took quite long until all people (including all their luggage) were actually 'stored' on the ferry. The ride then was accordingly uncomfortable, but after 2 hours, we finally reached Santa Cruz. (Here, all the people and luggage had to he unloaded using the taxi boats again.)

From Puerto Ayora, I was driven to the other side of the island again, took the short ferry over the canal to Baltra, and got into the (completely overcrowded) 5-minutes bus to the airport. With a last view out of the window I said goodbye to Galapagos.

Again, the flight went via Guayaquil, and on the way back to Quito, I once more had a beautiful view on the volcanos. After an hour drive from the airport, I finally reached my hotel in Quito around 7 in the evening. I didn't really do much except for a quick dinner (I finally managed to try some guinea pig), as I was going to be picked up to head back to the airport at 5 in the morning again.

I hadn't managed to get a direct flight back to Amsterdam, so I was heading towards Mexico-City on the next morning. Mexico seems to have special rules for all planes coming from South America, meaning all passengers had to go through immigration and customs, and all luaggage was checked. This procedure took almost an hour, which, for me, was no problem; I had a 6 hour layover. Finally I also figured out, that I actually had to change terminals, and where I would find the train taking me to Terminal 1. And so I waited for my flight to Amsterdam, not without enjoying a Mexican steak and beer for lunch/dinner.

In the evening, I could finally get on my plane to Amsterdam, where we arrived about 9.5 hours later. And after a bit more waiting time, I got on the plane back to Munich.

Islas San Cristóbal and León Dormido (Kicker Rock)

In the afternoon, I took the next ferry, this time to San Cristóbal. The main town, Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, is actually the capital of the Galapagos region (although nowadays Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz is larger and more important). Landing in San Cristóbal was a bit different for a change, as the ferry could actually dock directly at the pier, no taxi boats needed. Upon arrival, I could again directly see all the sea lions relaxing all along the waterfront, on the beach, the pier, benches, and one even in the waterslide for the kids. After checking into my hotel (quite a bit out of town, was about 5 walking minutes away from the pier), I enjoyed the last hour of sunlight for the day by walking along the waterfront and watching the sea lions.

On the next day, I was going out on the boat for a snorkeling trip again. We went to visit Kicker Rock (or León Dormido), basically just a huge rock in the sea. It is to steep and to high to actually land on the rock, but we went around it in the boat to watch the birds and sea lions living there. The main attraction, however, is under water. Along the wall of the rock (apparently more than 100 m deep), a beautiful reef had formed, with hundreds of colourful fish, sponges and starfish. In total, I spent almost two hours in the water, enjoying the reef. (After a while, the water actually started to feel quite cold, if with the wetsuit.) I did manage to see some of the seals untie water, as well as several sea turtles, who just didn't em to care that I was there. I had hoped to be able to see some (harmless) sharks in a channel between two parts of the rock, however, unfortunately, it didn't seem to be the right time for it. (Our guide also hadn't seen any, similar to the previous days, and even the divers only managed to see 2 or 3.) Luckly, however, I managed to see 3 Mola-Mola fish swimming together, although it seems to be rather rare to see even one. They really are very odd looking creatures.

After warming up again a bit on board in the sun and having lunch, on the way back to the harbour, we stoped once more at a beautiful beach, back on San Cristóbal, to relax and enjoy the scenery. After arriving back in town, together with another girl from the trip, we headed out of town again (by foot), to another bay, for a little bit more snorkeling. Again, we saw sea lions, turtles, and many, many fish, but also 2 big rays. We didn't stay that long, as we wanted to be back before dark (which was somewhere around 6:15), and the water was really getting cold.

After a mice warm shower, I meat up with 2 of the other girls again, to go out for dinner, for my last night on Galapagos. We ended up in a nice restaurant at the waterfront, where (as the king prawns wee out) we had lobster in a very delicious coconut cream sauce, with rice and platacones (banana chips) (but only for the price of the king prawns).

It was a perfect last night for a wonderful time on Galapagos, but also amazing 3 weeks in Ecuador. Early on the next morning, I started heading home...