Chaos and the Deep

December 27, 2008

Getting to the Galapagos was a little more challenging than I expected. I knew about the 15 hours in transit. I knew about having to get up at 1:30am to catch my flight. I wasn't looking forward to it but it was part of the plan. The plan did not provide for Quito airport being the center of entropy in the known universe.

We were supposed to arrive in Quito at 10:22pm. For no specified reason we were late. The fog rolled in and the Quito airport closed. We landed in Guayagil at about 1:00am. We spent an hour or more on the ground as the air crew tried to figure out what to do. Other planes returned to Quito before dawn. We were put up in a hotel until we could return to Quito at 6:00am.

The reason we needed to reach Quito was to catch a 7:30am flight to the Galapagos. Curiously enough, this flight stops at Guayagil on the way. We could just stay here and wait for the plane to come to us.

Except we can't. My bag is on the plane and there is no way to get it off. So, after two hours of sleep and a night without luggage, we head back to the airport to catch that 6:00am flight.

Naturally, it leaves at 6:40. We arrive in Quito just in time to miss our flight.

After a little confusion about how to proceed, we get in line for standby on the next available flight. Is this the right line? Who knows? There are no signs, no official advice, and the entire departure area is stuffed full of overlapping lines. By conversing with others stuck in line, we eventually determine that, in Quito, the phrase standby is used quite literally. You must physically stand in line until the airline is ready to fill open seats.

But wait! You can't just get on a plane fly to the Galapagos. Bags need to be screened and given a special sticker. (small line). Each passenger needs a transit card. (big line) To get a transit card you need to know what flight you are on. Catch 22. Glenn stays in the standby line. I dealt with my bag and the transit card. We hope that it will somehow work out. Amazingly, it does. Glenn gets us seats on the plane (they fail to ask for transit cards or even passports), moments before I reach the head of the queue. Transit cards and boarding passes in hand we board the 9:30am flight. Want to guess whether we take off on time?

Glenn shuffles his gear after arriving at the Baltra airport

Not so important really. We got here, even managed to get out dive gear fitted despite the sleep deprivation haze.

What we found was a fairly clean (for third world) tourist trap town with nearly a dozen dive operators. Odd since, prior to arriving, no one had been able to tell me of the existence of more than three.

(above) Avenue Charles Darwin, Puerto Ayora

But we didn't need the others. Glenn had to sit out the first day due to a nose bleed but I had my first underwater experience near the Island of Sante Fe. Amazing visibility. Amazing cold in unexpected pockets. Vast quantities and varieties of fish. I even managed to get some passable photos in my first point and pray efforts. I managed to get the display turned on before the end.

Tomorrow Glenn and I head to Gordon Rocks. This is considered the best and most difficult diving available to a day trip.