July 2006: Surf Trip to the Galapagos Islands

Page 2 - From Quito to the Galapagos

Hot damn, I’m sitting here in my seat on the airplane, waiting for my fellow passengers to finish getting into the plane, get set down into their seats, and lets fire this bitch up and GO!!!

Last night I slept like a baby, and this morning I’m wired up on coffee, driving Jason nuts with my rapid fire performance of deranged MacLarenoid baloney.

Tough shit, Jason.

Tough shit everybody else, for that matter.

Woke up at 0630 and put myself together and we were down to the hotel lobby to await Galapagos Surf Tours to come and get us.

I’d checked the weather a day or two ago, and discovered that the morning low in Quito was forecast to be in the low 50’s so I’m dressed and ready for that. Jason had also warned me about the chill, so I was doubly forewarned. Jason, unfortunately, failed to heed his own advice and is moping about the hotel lobby in t-shirt, baggies, and slaps, and is cold.

Oh well.

Quito, Ecuador, waking up in the morning

A walk outside reveals a crystal morning just getting under way, with the city shuddering to life as people come and go on unknowable business.

Once again, the guys at Galapagos Surf Tours are totally on the ball.

The van to take us to the airport is on time and we load the boards into it. Anabel has showed up and is directing the operation with grace and style.

Bing bang bam and we’re off into the city, airport bound.

Along the way, Anabel informs me that the great snow-capped volcano I had seen yesterday while flying in, is actually named Cotopaxi. Helluva mountain. Pinchincha, which is what I thought it was called, is actually two separate volcanoes that directly overlook the town of Quito. Pinchincha Wawa (and I have no doubt I just spelled that wrong, but oh well, that’s the way it sounds) is the “baby” and looms directly above town. It’s active. But not today. Seems like a little bit of close quarters for an active volcano, but they say it always erupts in the “other direction” so I suppose since they live here, they should know, right? Forgive me for having second thoughts about living directly in the shadow of an active volcano. Pinchincha Roca is the “mother” and sits behind Pinchincha Wawa. They say it’s not active so I guess that’s ok, especially with the “baby” sort of blocking things. Ecuador is exceptionally well endowed with cycloptic volcanoes, most of which are either sleeping very lightly or not at all.

In very short order, we’re out of the van and into the swirling maelstrom of the departures area.

Unlike yesterday, when we more or less had the whole place to ourselves, today the place is jammed with people. Washington is there at the curb to greet us, and the handoff is made smoothly and efficiently.

The departures area is just a complete mass of people, and without Washington’s expert assistance, we surely would have managed to get ourselves into the wrong line or otherwise run afoul of things in here.

Eventually, all the lines have been stood in, the boards have been inspected one final time, and we’re now sitting in the departure lounge. Place is PACKED. There were two Tame (please pronounce that “ta-may", ok?) airlines flights scheduled to go to the islands this morning and people from both of them are filling the place up. We were originally scheduled to fly on the early flight, but for some reason, we received word yesterday evening that we’d been changed to the later flight.

The crowd of people In here is just as interesting as all hell. “We’re going to the Galapagos,” seems to bring out some strange instincts in people. Lot of Outward Bound looking folks milling around. All geared up with everything except the fucking pith helmet. Khaki trousers, shirts with way too many pockets, and outsize fanny packs abound. Gringos of all shapes and sizes. Not what I’d call a very representative sampling of the population of this country.

As it turns out, the late flight departed before the early flight even though it wound up taking off an hour late. You figure that one out, ok? I can't make the least sense of it at all. Connecting flights seem to be not altogether perfectly synchronized. Folks attempting to connect flights from Quito or Guayaquil might want to take note of the “flexible” airline schedules and not attempt to connect a pair of flights too closely, or otherwise they just might find themselves spending an additional day somewhere they weren’t planning on staying, and missing that day in a place they were.

Eventually, things are sorted out and we hit the air, one more time, but we’re not going directly to the islands. We stop in Guayaquil for a half hour, to let some folks get off and on the plane.

Spent a perfectly dull forty-five minutes sitting in the plane under a leaden marine-layer sky, waiting to finally finally finally hit the sky with the Galapagos as an actual real, no fooling around, destination. Jason just said that this has been one of the longest flights to a wave he’s ever taken, and he’s certainly got something there. Oh well, at least we spent last night in a very nice hotel, recuperating from the previous day’s exhaustions. Truth be told, I needed it.

So ok, now we’re out over the Pacific Ocean, with the continent of South America in the rear view mirror, and nothing to do till we descend the final time to the land of giant tortoises, marine iguanas, and WAVES.

Halellujah!

I just opened the window shade on the airplane, and the solid deck of marine layer has dissolved. Jason perks up and says “That’s the ocean out there? ”Yep.” Jason’s stoke meter immediately jumps, and his knees are now bouncing with an amplitude and frequency I have not seen in him before.

We’re well and truly on our way, boys and girls, how fucking cool is THAT shit?