Rygsækrejsen 2015-2016: Galapagos Cruise day #1

We left our room at 7 AM and checked out and headed for the same place where we got dropped off by the bus a few days ago. True to Island-logic the bus did not depart there. Instead we had to take a one Dollar taxi to the other end of town and the bus station. So we did that and missed the bus that just left.
We waited for the next bus to depart - which they do when they are full and not according to any schedule, so in our case it departed at 8:27 and crossed the island to the canal separating the main island from Baltra Island where the airport is located.
At the canal we boarded the boat that would take us across and waited another half hour for the 5 minute crossing only to arrive at the other side and wait 20 minutes for the shuttle bus to arrive from the airport. Once there the bus waited for the next ferry to arrive and then left for the 10 minute drive to the airport.
We arrived at the airport at 10:15 and found our tour guide in front of the building. Juan was a complete ass hole from the first sentence and he mostly complained about us being late, the other people now being at the boat "somewhere over there" and telling us to just sit down and wait for another hour or so until some more people were due to arrive by plane from the mainland. Another couple that had been on the bus from Puerto Ayora with us tried to explain but Juan just told us to wait. Which we did.

After 45 minutes he managed to get a bus for us to go to the cruise ship port which is a two minute drive, a Zodiac picked us up and we said hello to the other guys that had already arrived telling them a bit about the journey and Juan. Another guy, who'd been on the boat on a previous cruise explained us that Juan had been like that since first meeting him a week ago. A somewhat special way of interacting with the customers.
The rest of the afternoon was spent waiting for the last couple of passengers to arrive. We had a direct line of sight to the aircraft's approach to Baltra Airport so we could see a plane arrive and if there was no shuttle bus within 30 minutes we knew we had to wait for the next plane.

Not the worst place to wait at the back of a boat but we wanted to get going and experience something. In the end the passengers arrived, the boat left and we had lunch. We sailed for about 2 hours and then left the boat on the Zodiac, heading for the beach and one hour of walking around the trail, seeing a bit of wild life and listening to Juan as he explained about the island and the animals. We had seen most of the animals already having been on the island for the past few days so we were too excited. Back on the boat and getting used to the daily schedule which included briefing of the activities for the following day, having a nice dinner and then the boat left for Isabela and Puerto Villamil where were going to look at blue footed boobies tomorrow morning.

As soon as we left the bay where the boat had been anchored for dinner the waves kicked in and made the journey very, very rough. It's going to be a long night holding on to the bunk bed.