Tuesday May 8th started with an early rise and the temptation to wake the woman who had woken us the day before. She was the hostel owners mother and had woken us up quite early the day before with loud knocking followed by 5 minutes of uncomprehendable Spanish before she finally gave up at our lack of understanding and walked away. Guess it wasn´t that important. We made our way to the dock to catch our 7:00 boat back to Santa Cruz. I had forgotten to put on my sea-sickness patch, so I popped a couple of pills hoping they would kick in. Another boat using the only dock spot delayed our departure so after the security people had cleared our bags (they check for fruits, veggies, etc.) Sarah went to grab a snack while I ... read more

Today we got up at a leisurely pace and headed down to Galapagos Fishing Adventures by 8:20 to let them know we were ready for our snorkel/dive trip. We did not need to be there for another 25 minutes so we went across the street and upstairs to a restaurant for breakfast. Another continental breakfast with a banana milk shake (gross in Sarah´s opinion). About 5 minutes before 9 the tour guide rushed us out of the restaurant, resulting in Sarah having to chug hot coffee. And of course, two minutes later we sat at the dock waiting for 20 minutes for everybody else to show. At the dock we met a really cool older couple from Australia. They had rented out their house and were traveling for a year solely on the rental income. Nice! ... read more

We woke up this morning and headed down to the dock to find a 7am water taxi that would take us to San Cristobal. We had seen ads for $40 round trip so that is what we were shooting for. Turns out those ads are to Isabela and not San Cristobal and there is only one boat that makes the trip at 7am in the morning and it was full. Bummer, we had woken up so early. Instead, we bought round trip tickets leaving at 2pm that afternoon, the next departure. We took our bags back to the hostal for the day. After a poor imitation continental breakfast at a restaurant across the street from our favorite, we set off for the Charles Darwin Interpretation Center. This time we wanted to do the whole tour, which ... read more

The adventure continued this morning as we started the day off walking back towards the docks. We had some appointments with people on cruise stuff, but since we had some time we went in search of food. And to Sarah´s delight her every wish came true when we found pancakes! As a huge breakfast lover she has been in serious withdrawal on this trip and this was a welcome change. Needless to say, this restaurant became a mainstay for us with the pancakes, french toast, good coffee, fresh fruit and juice. As a non-breakfast person I can still say it was quite good, especially the freshly squeezed fruit juice. Afterwards we walked down to the pier. Overnight there was a lot of change in the cove with the number of boats. The water level had also ... read more

We arrived in Guayaquil to the main bus terminal about 3:00 in the afternoon. Guayaquil does it right, their bus terminal is gigantic, has a mall and sits right next to the airport. We grabbed some US$ from the ATM (so wild that they use the USD as their currency). In the food court we grabbed some Pizza Hut. Talked to information. Then took a $3 cab ride to the city center. We had the cab driver drop us off near Iglesia San Francisco near the Malacon district, the Miraflores of Guayaquil (aka gringo safe spot). The Malacon recently underwent a massive facelift and is now the nicest part of the city. It is about a 2km long section that hugs the Rio Guayas. The Malacon was quite different than Miraflores. In Miraflores most buildings were ... read more