AlternateRoute

For the first time on the trip I rose early enough to see the sunrise and was rewarded with a brilliant orange grey sky. Soon after we went onshore to San Cristobel to finally see Blue Footed Boobies. Some were already settled on egg filled nests while others rocked from foot to foot, doing a dance that would find them a partner.

Also on the hunt for a partner were the frigate birds, who puff up a bright red pouch to impress the females. We were so busy looking at the birds on either side of the track that we would sometimes almost step on a sea lion or iguana that lay across the path.

Here we also saw the land iguanas for the first time, all of the others had been marine iguanas. The land iguanas are bigger, fatter and don’t have the line of spikes along their back. We had breakfast later than usual and then motored back to Baltra.

There was a bus shelter where we got off the boat, but both of the large bench seats were occupied by sea lions. And they weren’t even catching the bus.

After a short bus ride we were back at the airport. The airport terminal is like a large shed with half height walls on two sides, this allows a steady cooling air flow through the building, giving relief from the hot equatorial sun.

The sound of someone gargling in a bucket has just filled the air, meaning we will be boarding soon. We return to Quito via Guayaquil.

….. Well here we are in Guayaquil, for the second time today. We stopped here for an hour on the way to Quito as scheduled and then took off for the 40 minute flight to Quito. About 35 minutes into the flight an announcement came over in Spanish and I only managed to understand ‘20 minutes’. The English version said there was a delay due to problems with another plane. A few minutes later the announcement said the delay would be an hour. Soon after that it was announced that we would be returning to Guayaquil. No further explanation was provided. We shall wait in the departure lounge until further notice.

Apparently there was an incident involving a plane on the runway at Quito and Quito airport is closed. There was a mention of ice on the runway, it must be that a big cold snap has hit.

….. Flights are now leaving for Quito. We have been notified of a gate number and a departure time, we are back on the road. (Or in the air as the case may be.)

We eventually got to Quito, although much to everyone’s annoyance we were not offered additional refreshments. We went to a Mexican restaurant with the rest of the group and didn’t get home until 2330.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 19th, 2007 at 1342 and is filed under South America 2007.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.