Travels to the Galápagos

Travels to the Galápagos

Sunday, February 17, 2002

Guayaquil/Miami/New Orleans/Home

Following the pattern for the rainy season, it rained overnight, and was still drizzling when we arrived at the Guayaquil airport Sunday morning. Security, check-in, paying the airport departure tax, and gate check-in were all very slow, but at least it was cooler than it had been during the arrival ordeal. Lindblad's local agents made sure we got up early, and arrived at the airport in plenty of time. One small bright spot: nearly all checked luggage on this flight was checked by hand for contraband -- but we were permitted to bypass this particular inspection, on the rationale that I would not be endangering my own family. The gendarmes on our departure from Miami last week apparently did not subscribe to this view. More smoke and mirrors. A supposedly "random" final security check before boarding the plane could apparently be avoided simply by not walking too close to the table where those checks were performed.

We crossed the equator for eighth and last time on our flight from Guayaquil to Miami. I had hoped to see the Andes from the plane, but it was too cloudy. In crossing from ocean to ocean, we could see small patches of urban areas through occasional holes in the clouds, somewhere in Central America, probably Panama.

Some skinny keys dotted the Caribbean, both before and after Cuba. Unlike the trip down, we overflew Cuba in daylight, but it was mostly covered by cloud. We saw some agricultural tracts and straight roads through holes in the Cuban clouds. I thought it was pretty cool to be flying over Cuba unmolested, but my wife was unimpressed.

Landed in Miami. Customs and immigration went very quickly, especially by comparison to Guayaquil. A male Golden Retriever (slightly overweight) was patrolling in customs, presumably sniffing for drugs. It was tempting to ask if we could pet him, but he was on the job, so I knew better. We are on layover, waiting in the Miami Airport Hotel as I write, as we did on the way down. Our layover is not quite as long this time. It is pleasantly cool up here by the eighth floor pool, probably about 68°F (20°C) and breezy. We are all tired, and this layover has seemed long.

Security was quick and painless as we departed Miami this time. I'm not sure whether to be grateful that it was benign, or irate that it is inconsistent.

The rest of our return was uneventful, if long. We arrived home 18 hours after we awoke in Guayaquil, 37 hours after we disembarked from the Polaris. By contrast, a direct flight from the southern United States to Baltra (if there were such a thing) would take about four hours. But there's something to be said for not making the Galápagos too accessible, even in the era of jet travel.

I'm reading William Beebe's Galápagos: World's End. I think I can appreciate it better after having seen firsthand the creatures and places he discusses.

For what it's worth: toilets in both the Hotel Hilton Colón in Guayaquil (2°S) and in our house in flush counter-clockwise. The Polaris had a vacuum toilet system, so direct comparison there is not possible.

None of us got seasick. All are well today.

I'll leave the final words to Mr. Darwin, from the Galápagos chapter of The Voyage of the Beagle:

"It is the fate of most voyagers, no sooner to discover what is most interesting in any locality, than they are hurried from it."