Jenny Devine owns and operates Moonrise Travel in Puerto Ayora where she specializes in brokering short notice reservations for trips and day activities. After several minutes with Jenny we were booked for an afternoon shuttle boat to Isabela Island for 3 nights with a half-day trip to Volcanos Sierra Negra and Chico de Isabela. Jenny called the shuttle service to Isabela and said they had two round trip seats for $50/person.
We dashed off to the shuttle boat service where upon our arrival found the seats went up by $10/person. Kathleen and the woman behind the desk began to bicker about the price. I noticed a gentleman behind the woman was listening to the squabble and appeared to be someone in charge. He walked up and told the woman she was to charge us $55/person. We weren’t too happy with that, however, Kathleen and I both commented later the woman was clearly not happy with what she was directed to do. She only got to pocket $10 instead of $20. Something to consider: A typical working class Ecuadoran makes roughly $6-$10/day.
By noon we were back at Hostal Gardner checking out.
The woman at the hostal was none too happy with us leaving after 10am check-out time, so we set up a reservation for our return to Puerto Ayora. She didn’t have a reservation for our return on January 21, so we said we’d stay for two nights starting the 22nd. We then went next door to Hotel Epaña where we set a reservation for January 21. Whew!By 2pm we were boarding a 30-foot boat bound for Puerto Villamil (Vee-ya-meel) on Isabela Island.
Isabela is considered one of the prettiest islands of the Galapagos Archipelago. Jenny had advised us to sit in the back of the boat rather than inside the enclosed cabin. Twenty-five of us boarded for a two-and-a-half hour trip. We got underway and quickly realized that our dosages of Dramamine were wise.
The boat bounced and yawed as the seas were rough. Kathleen and I quickly noticed one guy was not going to hold down lunch and sure enough, erupted into a plastic bag. The boat crew must have had a pool going as to how many passengers would heave as they seemed to take glee in watching the hapless tourist.Kathleen and sat at the starboard stern of the boat. Part way through the trip a young woman sitting near Kathleen asked to sit where Kathleen was as she was about to get sick. As Kathleen got up to switch, I saw the girl began to gulp and get that expression that something was upward bound. Yikes!!! Not on me you don’t!! I grabbed the 90-pound woman and yanked her towards the side of the boat just in the nick ‘o time. I held on to her to keeper in the boat while she up-loaded into the ocean.
After the young woman’s lunch was lost at sea I switched seats with Kathleen and sat next to the woman’s looser boyfriend. The guy would have nothing to do with her in such a time of need.
We arrived at Puerto Villamil and disembarked from the SS Chum (Gaby).
Our advice would be to take your sea-sickness meds and sit in the very stern of the vessel. Oh, and wear ear plugs as the outboard engines are less than 3-feet away.
We walked into town and searched about for a place to stay. A number of hostals and hotels looked promising. We stopped in at one and the proprietor wanted $25/person for a poorly maintained room with no fan. As we left she said she’d bring the price down to $22/person. Nope! We know a gouging when we hear one.
Just down the packed sand street we inquired at Hotel Dolphin. The lady showed us up stairs through a newly built hotel to a nice room for $30/night. Fan and hot water. We’ll just see about that hot water. Kathleen and went out to the sun deck where I set Spot out to send a location message to the chosen.
By 6pm we were ambling about the sandy streets of Puerto Villamil. From the main street you could serve a tennis ball into the surf. The streets were lined with hotels and restaurants. Most of the eateries wouldn’t serve until 7pm. We came upon a small lagoon and found a Greater Flamingo, yes, Lesser Flamingos exist, too. The poor bird had a damaged wing. We hoped to see uninjured Flamingos elsewhere.
Rule of thumb: If the restaurant has plastic patio-furniture you’d find on sale at Walmart, the merienda (mear-ee-en-dah), dinner-meal-of-the-day, is going to be a bargain meal. We stopped into an establishment along a street, fully furnished as described herein, and had a fine basic dinner including soup, chicken, rice, vegetables, and fruit juice for $6/both.
As we walked back to our room we commented on how quiet and peaceful Puerto Villamil was so far. We walked back to our room and settled in for the night.
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