Galapagos Islands - Day 5: Adios Islas

Tuesday, November 6, 2007
I woke up Tuesday slightly sad because I didn’t want to leave the Galapagos, but determined to get in one last run to Tortuga Bay.

So I headed to the entrance and signed in, once again, and headed to the beach, which, once again, I had completely to myself. On the way back, the guard remembered my name and I felt pretty cool. (Ok, granted I was the only foreigner who signed up to run on the path, and I kinda stand out here, but still.)


The people on the bus go up and down...especially on these roads! Actually, compared to a lot of roads I've been on recently, Galapagos roads were in great condition

So after breakfast, our group had one last excursion on our way to the airport. We stopped by Los Gemelos (in Spanish, The Twins) which are large craters that you can peer down into and hope you don’t fall. It was pretty foggy so picture-taking wasn’t that great, but we were still able to see just how big and awesome they were!


Us U of I kids with Luis Alberto, one of the coolest guides ever


One of Los Gemelos, I hope its fellow twin isn't upset that I didn't post a picture of it as well

Then we had to continue along and took a ferry across the channel to Isla Baltra, the airport island. Isla Baltra has way less vegetation than Isla Santa Cruz, and in some ways it reminded me of Tijuana – except for the bright turquoise ocean in the background. It was also pretty weird because there were lots of old shelters and foundations falling apart, left over from the U.S. military base that used to be on the island.


Scenery on Isla Baltra...you can see the remains of a U.S. miliary building from World War II on the left

Once at the airport, we checked in, did a bit more tourist shopping, and hung out, waiting for our flight. Our first flight to Guayaquil went smoothly, but then right when we were approaching the Quito airport, we had to turn around because the airport was closed due to bad weather!


I took this pic from INSIDE the airport terminal, I guess windows are overrated

So we flew back to Guayaquil (I was very happy that there was apparently plenty of fuel) and we chilled on the Guayaquil runway for a while. Apparently, the Quito airport opened again, because after about an hour of waiting, we took off again, and landing in fog and rain, but safely, in Quito’s airport!

Thus concluded one of the most amazing trips of my life.