We again moved overnight from Floreana to Santa Cruz with a very early start today.
Many huge cactus trees!
3 huge tortoises, about a metre long, taking their early morning dip
A saddleback tortoise, also more than a metre
The airport is on Baltra Island which is just to the north of Santa Cruz so we had a 45 minute bus ride across the island and through the remains of an American World War 2 base. Then, very strangely for an airport, a transfer to a tiny ferry to cross the channel and a public bus to the airport. It is an area ripe for a bridge I would have thought. I asked Jonathan and he says the locals want it but the government is against it as it is a safe haven for sharks.
Our ferry to the airport...
After checkin we said a sad farewell to Jonathan and waited in the lounge until our flight departed. Once again the plane dropped down in Guayaquil before flying on to Quito. No problems with the landing in Quito this time. We were met by Estephanie again and transferred to the Hilton. At the hotel we said goodbye to everyone else as we all had different plans for the following day.
After a short chill and a repack of our stuff into our two big cases we headed out to Plaza Foch, had a beer in the Orange bar, and had dinner in Miskay. This restaurant came with rave reviews in Tripadvisor but was actually quite disappointing.
..and our luggage being loaded by Sassimo
Nice cerviche though
On the way home we decided to walk down the main drag rather than the quiet street that we had used the previous weekend, this strangely turned out to be a more threatening walk home as we passed a couple of street walkers and and a couple of shady characters. Back at the hotel we were not long before going to bed.
