Day 29 - Santa Cruz island and flight to Guayaquil

Today was our last day on the Galapagos.  We set off at 6am for our last wet landing on Santa Cruz Island.  It was a beautiful white beach with turquoise sea.  On the beach were the remains of WW2 American barges sunk when they left and a sea lion.  We walked further along the beach, spotting a turtle in the sea and came to a small lake inland from the beach and there were around 10 flamingos standing in the lake.  Most took flight soon after we arrived, but three stayed.

Then it was back to the boat for our last breakfast and soon our luggage was being taken across the channel to Baltra Island, followed by us on our very last panga ride.  We took the public bus to the airport and checked in for our flights leaving just a few of the backpackers behind.  Luckily for us there was a VIP lounge and we were able to sit on comfortable seats for a while until the flight was called.

And 2 hours later we were in the hubbub of Guayaquil traffic.  As Glynis’ rucksack strap had broken as we got off the plane, our guide stopped in town to get it mended by a man with a very old sewing machine.  Then it was off to our hotel, the very posh Wyndham on the end of the Malecon, much better than our previous one in Guayaquil. 

We had a long walk into the city centre revisiting places we went just over a week ago, then went out for dinner to one of the many restaurants along the front of the new buildings along the rejuvenated Malecon at the bottom of Santa Ana hill, which is safe on one side, but not on the other, which is rather like a Brazilian Favela.

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