We had the hotel store our items and caught a taxi to the airport. We checked in with plenty of time so we had a breakfast at a café in the terminal. By 9:10am we were boarding our plane and, spot on time, the plane backed out of the gate at 9:30am departure.
During our flight we were given a meal!! Remember those on domestic flights!? And, also, they don’t charge you for checked luggage. And, . . . and, they don’t get fussy over laptop computers! Airline blasphemy!
Kathleen had read where we would stop in Guayaquil (Who-wye-ah-kill), on the coast of Ecuador, before hopping over the Pacific to the Galapagos. Kathleen noted that this was not going to happen as we were soon over the ocean. We were going non-stop. Great!
We descended for the Galapagos. The plane made a couple zigs and zags before settling on a final approach route. Isle Baltra has only a single runway so the pilots needn’t be choosy. We touched down on an island that looked like a desert in either Arizona or some parts of Texas with sparse vegetation of cactus and acacia.
Kathleen and I thought the island reminded us of San Clemente Island off the coast of California if you removed the acacia.
As we waited to be processed along with 3 airliner loads of tourists, we were a bit nervous about the amount of money needed to enter the Galapagos Islands. 
Our guide book said $100/person, however, the Foot Print guide continued to say that this may double in 2009. We had just enough to cover $200 and not much beyond. We needed to get to an ATM. Oh, we know what you’re thinking. Puerto Ayora (Poo-where-tow aye-or-ah) has an ATM; no need to spend 5-hours to access one.Fortunately, we only needed to spend $100 each to enter the islands. We made our way out to the buses for the ferry off Baltra Island over to Santa Cruz where we headed to Puerto Ayora. Santa Cruz Island is the hub for most Galapagos activities. We climbed gradually over the island amongst vegetation similar to the mainland cloud forests at the apex of our route. Down the other side we meandered through agricultural areas complete with cattle, and typical down-town developments.
We reached the town of Puerto Ayora and set about looking for a hostal. 
The Hostal Gardner seem to fit the bill. 
We’re not going to bore you all with details about what are neighbors began to do with their iPod boom-box.We walked about Puerto Ayora and could tell that we were definitely among other tourists. Indeed the cruise ships in the harbor would disgorge their bounty of adventurers to the port for sightseeing, eating, and shopping.
Kathleen and I went to the Darwin Station to see what that was all about.Darwin. Y’know? Charles Darwin? The heretic who espoused some wild idea about origin and evolution of species and all that rot? Darwin Station is mostly a complex of buildings for offices and some labs, but mostly a captive propagation facility for Giant Tortoise. Actually, instead of propagation, Ecuadorans use the term ‘repatriation’.
Kathleen and I strolled among these 4-500-pound giants who became the primary grazers on the islands.
Each island has a unique subspecies of Giant Tortoise. Additionally, we began to see a few of the Darwin finches that Chuck used to showcase evolutionary processes in his famous works. The beak, size of the bird, and habitat you find the bird is key to determining the species. Because of that whole evolving to adapt to a particular habitat thingy.Here is a Small Tree-Finch.
Cactus Finch
Lava Lizard
Lava Lizard? Each island has a sub-species of lava lizard. No close relation to the iguanas.
Kathleen and I went back our room after a pretty good meal. The next day we were going to visit Moonrise Travel where one could receive help in booking short trips or activities on short notice.
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