Return from Galapagos - June 2

This was a travel day for us today to get back to the ship in Manta and it was a very long day.  It started at 8:00 with a one-hour drive across the island to get to the ferry which would take us to another island where the airport was located.  At the airport, we faced two very long lines – one to get our boarding pass and the other to get through security.  So despite the fact that we got to the airport two hours early, we needed every minute of those two hours.

We were finally on the plane for a 2 hour flight back to Guayaquil which was totally uneventful. By the time we landed it was 2:00 (with a time change) and we hadn’t eaten since breakfast so the guides gave us ½ hour to hunt down some food before our 3 ½ hour drive back to the ship.

I headed off to the Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant which turned out to be a huge mistake.  Their concept of fast food was totally different than the U.S. concept.  When we stepped into the area, a server handed us a menu (a menu for KFC!) and told us to take a seat and she would take our order in a few minutes.  Huh?  We complied and she eventually came over to take our order and then we proceeded to wait at least fifteen minutes for our food to arrive - for chicken!  Seriously!  Meanwhile, we were all glancing at our watches trying not to stress about the fact that our time was ticking by rather quickly and we still had no food.   So much for a quick lunch!  We finally got our orders with five minutes to spare so we scooped up our food and ran off to the meeting place…only to be informed that our buses were stuck in traffic and hadn’t arrived yet.  Lovely. 

Finally the buses arrived and we settled in for our very long trek back to the ship.  Again, the students settled in for their naps but I watched and observed the towns and country side we traveled through the area.  It was fascinating because we went through many poor areas and I saw quite a few televisions.  The T.V.s were obvious due to the large groups of people gathered around them because a major soccer match was being televised between Ecuador and Argentina – apparently there was a major championship game going on (Ecuador lost, by the way).

We finally arrived at the ship at 7:00 pm – the people to board the ship before departure.   Once we arrived, the ship was free to leave the port on schedule so some of the administrators on the ship were very happy to see us arrive on time.  We were very happy to arrive too.  Half an hour later, we felt the ships engine start up and soon we had a tug boat pulling us away from the dock and we were puttering our way towards Panama. Ecuador has been an amazing port because of the time spent in the Galapagos Island.  I wish that we had had more time to explore other parts of the country but given the time limits we had, I definitely made the right choice!