Day 60 - Leaving Galapagos-Arrive in Guayaquil

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Up earlier than usual at about 04:35 as the boat had re-started on it’s way presumably to Daphne Major for a scheduled last activity circumnavigating the volcano island. I couldn’t get back to sleep but we both got up at the scheduled time of 05:45 to go to the top of the Nemo I to watch the birds. At 07:00 was the usual breakfast before last minute packing to have our bags ready by 08:00 for the transfer to shore.

We bid farewell to Christof and Nicole, Florian and Miriam who were staying on the islands a bit longer and the rest of us hopped on the airport bus. We had a fair bit time to kill so we all did some last minute gift shopping before boarding our 10:08 flight. We were the only ones getting off at Guayaquil as the others were flying onto Quito so we said our goodbyes before boarding the plane. I’ve collected everybody’s email addreses so I can set up another cluster sute so we can share photos and videos.

We got to the Holiday Inn Guayaquil airport very quickly and after catching up a bit with our new interet access, we decided to go out and asked about any city tours which may be available and at first the receptionist offered to get us a taxi driver for $10 per hour, similar to what we did in Quito, but then the other receptionist, Nadia explained that she and her mother do private tours and offered us a city day tour and visit to the Historical Park for $80 which we decided was a good offer. So we waited until Nadia finished her shift and got her car from home which is very close to the hotel and we set out at 16:30 for the Las Penas area which is famous for the Santa Ana Hill and lighthouse. Nadia drove us there and we walked up the 444 steps slowly. The area is very interesting with bars, restaurants, cafes and residences built on the hill which we passed as we walked up. The top has good views of the city and harbor and a lighthouse and small church. We descended just as the sun was setting and we had asked Nadia to take us to a place to buy a Panama hat and one of her hotel colleagues has a hat shop at the bottom of Santa Ana hill and I duly bought one at a good price. Daisy tried on a few hats but didn’t find anything to suit. Nadia then walked with us a bit further around and we asked her for a restaurant recommendation and asked her to join us for dinner. We decided to share a large paella dish which was plenty of food for the three of us. Nadia then drove us back to the hotel and we will continue the tour tomorrow morning. So the day ended up perfectly.

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