Location: Quito to the Galapagos
We woke up in Quito to a delicious breakfast of yogurt, granola, cereal and fruit. Most of the kids spent the time, before the 1:00 flight, packing up for the long trip ahead of us to the Galapagos Islands. The bus arrived at the Airport Garden Inn at approximately 10:30 to collect us to go to the airport. We arrived at the airport and Devin then told us that we must go through extra security before we could go through regular security. We completed the extra security with plenty of time to spare so we received our boarding passes and went across the street to the restaurant where we would receive our complementary lunch for flying with Avianca. The flight was a very quick trip and before we knew it, we made it to the islands. We arrived to the island and we were in awe of the modern yet natural look of the solar and wind powered airport. The first thing that struck me as I exited the plane was the very strong wind that knocked my hat off. We went through security once again, then we got on a bus headed for the hotel where we would stay the night before boarding the boat. The trip consisted of a ferry and two somewhat long bus rides. We arrived at the Castro Hotel and got our room assignments after turning in our passports for safe keeping. For dinner that night we asked the hotel staff about the best place to eat. Then, in his very broken English said look for the street of tables. We walked through the street to find that the man was not exaggerating when he said the street of tables. An entire block of road was filled with wooden tables and the smell of seafood. We were bombarded with owners who wanted the large group of ten to eat their food. After a quick browsing of menus from various restaurants we decided on the restaurant with the best options for the best prices. The food was delicious and the looks on all of the full faces were much better. The night finished off with a walk on the pier which featured a few sleepy sea lions and many baby sharks fighting for the abundance of minnows. We returned to the hotel and went to bed dreaming of the things we might encounter on the trip going forward.