We had a bit of a rocky start to the Galapagos trip today. We had no trouble getting out of the parking lot at 5:30, the caretaker Diego, was true to his word and was awake in time to unlock the gate for us. But getting our ride to the airport was a bit more problematic. First we got into the wrong taxi - one just stopped and asked us if we were going to the airport. It took us 100 yards to realize that this was just a random request from an alert cabbie, not our designated ride. So we got out and waited some more. We had a number of further offers but now we knew that the correct answer was no. The appointed time, 5:45am, came and went and still no sign of the correct taxi. So we called the travel agent emergency number. Eventually discovering that the driver was waiting on the corner of Almagro and Pinto not Almagro and Pinta. That seems like a pretty basic mistake, particularly since we had given the street number in Almagro as well as the intersection. But ... we got to the airport, onto the plane and out to the Galapagos Islands.

The airport at Baltra was a bit of a mad house. Lots of tourists trying to get through formalities and collect their bags. They tell us this is the low season and that in high season there are 4 to 5 times as many people landing each day. I don't think I would want to be apart of that.