This seems like a theme in the “logistics” section of this trip but I was stressed about the inter-island ferries too. While my stress over the pre-travel and day-of-travel requirements turned out to be unfounded and the stress of the Baltra to Puerto Ayora transfer was minimized by our driver from book-ec, the ferries turned out to be every bit as stressful as I feared.
Our driver was wonderful and helpful but spoke limited English (and we spoke even more limited Spanish). He pointed out some restaurants for lunch as we drove through town but when he dropped us off at the pier, he could do little more than point down the long dock to indicate that we were to catch the ferry somewhere down there.
We wandered down the nearly empty pier for a bit as we all marveled at the sea lions lounging on the pier, on the docks, even on the benches! If the Itabaca Channel was our first glimpse at the beautiful landscape of the Galapagos, the pier sea lions were our first glimpse of its incredible wildlife.
We still had over 2.5 hours before the ferry left but before we went to eat lunch I wanted to be sure we were in the right place. All of the docks off the pier were empty. There were plenty of boats anchored out in the water but nothing appeared to be a “ferry”. I wandered down to the kiosk at the end of the pier but there was nobody there. I continued along the waterfront to another kiosk that had a gentleman inside. I tried to ask him where we would catch the ferry and he tried to sell me tickets. When we finally understood each other, he pointed me back to the other kiosk and said simply “2:30” which was 30 minutes before our departure time.
I figured that was enough to at least know we were in the right place. We headed to lunch at El Descanso del Guia and relaxed for the first time in 3 days. We still had some more time to kill after lunch so we explored more in the area of the pier and the kids played on the playground. The area was beautiful and full of marine iguanas, sea lions, and pelicans.
Our relaxed feeling didn’t last long though. Finally people started to show up and we started the process of getting ready for the ferry. There was definitely a language barrier and I still wasn’t clear about where exactly we had to go and what we had to do. We ended up getting a lanyard with our ferry’s name on it (Gladel Yacht) and then waited on line for the luggage check only to find out that we had to go back to the kiosk and pay a “pier tax” of $1.
After paying the pier tax, we headed back through security. We had to walk through a tunnel that sprayed us down with some sort of disinfectant. Whether this was a covid precaution or a regular practice to avoid spreading things from island to island, I don’t know. But we walked through the spray and into the small building. Any of the bags that still had the airport zip tie on it did not need to be rechecked. I had opened my bag to get sunscreen and my husband opened his to get flip-flops so we had to put ours back through.
We then lined up along the pier to board the boat – even the sea lions got in line!
A police officer checked our names on the ferry’s manifest and let us down the dock to the water taxi. Here again we had to pay a small fee of 50 cents per person. I definitely felt like we were getting nickeled and dimed all day long but I was prepared with small bills and coins so it wasn’t a huge deal.
We left our bags at the end of the dock and boarded the water taxi. It took several taxis to get everyone out to the ferry and they threw random bags onto each one so again we lost sight of our luggage. But if I was worried about the bags on top of the flat, slow-moving ferry, the water taxi took the worry to a whole new level. They stacked the bags on the front of the boat, which went much faster through much rougher water. There was no ledge around the side so the bags could easily have fallen off in the choppy water. In fact, I’m honestly still not sure how we didn’t lose any of the bags. But thankfully we didn’t.
From the different water taxis, the bags were unloaded and stashed in various spots on the Gladel Yacht. It was definitely an exercise in trust but they seemed to have the process down so we just went with it. The “ferry” or “yacht” was really nothing more than a big speed boat. There were about 6-8 spots outside at the back of the boat and then maybe 20 seats inside. My husband and youngest grabbed a spot at the back of the boat and my oldest and I got a spot inside.
It’s hard to put into words exactly how miserable this trip was. I had heard that it could be bad but it was beyond what I had imagined. We literally bounced off our seats with every wave and banged back down – I’m not sure if the sound or the feeling was worse when we crashed down every few seconds. I made it through about half of the trip just barely hanging on and then started to feel really bad so I moved to the back of the boat where I proceeded to throw up into a plastic bag 4 times over the next hour. It. Was. Miserable. I had taken dramamine beforehand but it didn’t touch it. It felt like the trip would never end and I would throw up until there was literally nothing left.
But of course it did end. Roughly (very roughly – ha!) 2.5 hours later we arrived in Isabela. I had never been so happy to see land in my life. (Although we would unfortunately surpass this experience a few days later… stay tuned…) We boarded yet another water taxi ($1 per person). This time not only did our luggage not stay with us but our family got split up between two boats. I was on my own but didn’t care – whatever got me to land the fastest.
We made it to the dock and miraculously all of our bags did too. I immediately sat down and tried to settle my stomach. Our hotel driver was already waiting for us there so I couldn’t sit for too long. We had to go to the desk on the pier and show our passports and paperwork and pay the $10 per person entrance fee for Isabela. Then we took a (thankfully) short ride in a pickup truck to Iguana Crossing.
We were finally at our first destination! It certainly felt like an epic journey to get there. On Saturday we drove 4 hours from Charlotte to Atlanta. (Due to covid concerns, we wanted a direct flight, plus it was significantly cheaper to fly from Atlanta.) We arrived in Quito around 8pm local time. On Sunday we were up before 6am to get the shuttle to the airport. My youngest was battling altitude sickness and literally collapsed at the entrance to the airport and threw up (the first of several times in the airport). He felt better once we got up in the air in the pressurized cabin and we made it to Baltra thinking the worst was behind us. (Oh – did I mention that my oldest son’s braces (which he had only had for 2 weeks) broke on the flight to Quito and he had a wire sticking out of his mouth? That was fun too.) We made the multi-leg journey from Baltra to Puerto Ayora and then the dreaded ferry ride. But we were there. And I knew within minutes that it was all going to be worth it.
