Galapagos: Puerto Ayora

Next up: Galapagos. A 1.5h flight from Guayaquil (we only learned in flight that there is an additional time difference, so now 8h behind Germany). They also hadn't mentioned that you needed to pay 20$ transit fee and have your baggage scanned before you can even check in. The line was quite long (three flights simultaneously and only two counters), so although we arrived to the airport 1:45h before the flight, we only made it because I asked them to let us skip the line. There were still 8 people behind us in the line at Avianca who also hadn't known about the extra step and missed their flights...
After that, things went better: Flight, arrival in Baltra airport (another 100$ entrance ticket), bus to ferry, ferry to Santa Cruz island and then taxi to Puerto Ayora - the main town - and check-in to our hotel.
As our cruise would only leave at noon the next day, we had booked a dive tour in the afternoon. With our great guide Claudia from Galapagos dive company, we went to two spots in the bay and saw big swarms of fish, sharks, rays and a sea lion playing with us. A great experience.
At night, dinner was had at Midori, which was all about amazingly fresh tuna. After that, we went to the pier, as the harbor lights attract fish and you can spot baby sharks and turtles from land.Read more