Today was a travel day. We started the day off with breakfast at 4:30am (the struggle was real) then double checked that we had packed everything before heading off to the airport to catch our flight at 8:30am. The plane journey in total, took 3 hours as we had a stop over in Guayacil. We arrived in Santa Cruz. It's safe to say most of us were pretty surprised when we looked out of the aeroplane windows and saw practically nothing, except a tiny airport building and a few wind turbines. But this only added to the excitement and mystery of the Galapagos! Once we had made our way through the airport (including queuing for the baños) and successfully collected all our bags, we were greeted by our 2 new tour guides - Mauricio and Fernando. In true Girlguiding fashion, after a quick introduction, we eagerly made our way via a bus, a boat and two taxis to our home for the next 5 nights.
After dropping our bags off, we made our way to a local restaurant and immediately noticed a big difference between the Galápagos and Ecuador (there were a LOT of tourists). We enjoyed some lovely food, and then went for a relaxing orientation walk in the sun. What an AMAZING walk it was. Within 1/2 hour we saw Sally Lightfoot crabs scuttling around on the rocks, pelicans in the trees, seal lions hanging out on the deck, marine iguanas basking in the sun and best of all...sea turtles!!! The gasps of the whole team were probably heard for miles when we saw the first turtle slowly swim to the surface and take a gulp of air.
After enjoying some relaxation, we made our way to a local street food market for dinner. The music, chatter and general hustle and bustle made it an exciting change of dinner setting. We enjoyed an array of foods - after hearing about the best stalls from our trusty tour guides - from tacos to shrimps, to whole barbecued fish in coconut sauce.
With our bellies full, it was time to head to bed and be rested up for our first day of community service!
Emilie & Herkiran
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