Well, I did it! Up at 5am, I never knew that time existed on holiday!

I had a rotten night's sleep. We dropped anchor here at North Seymour at 2am which was really noisy and I think I just catnapped after that.

So.... all aboard the pangas for our last walk on Galapagos.  But, oh wow, what a walk!

Up to now we have only seen frigates circling overhead or perched on the masts of Mary Anne. Here, on this island, we had frigates in abundance. 

 The sun came up in a very impressive sun rise just as we passed by the recent demise of a young pelican that had crash landed and broken its neck. I suppose that really is survival of the fittest? Bit of a bummer though, you manage to take off, fly around a bit, enjoy the view and then b***** up the landing. Boof! End of pelican!!

Many of the frigates gliding over us at low altitude were showing their magnificent red pouches, trying to impress the ladies!

As we rounded a corner, there were several males perched in a tree displaying, this must have been the bachelor club, the equivalent of hanging around on a street corner, eying up the passing girls - the only difference was that these boys are stunningly beautiful. The pouches are a membrane under their beak that they inflate and they can be really big, sometimes it looks like they can only just keep their beaks over the top without getting a crick in their necks. There were birds of all ages, both parents sit on their nests to incubate their young. They went from a downy chick still being sat upon by its parents, to juveniles, to full grown. They are really beautiful birds. As far as evolution goes, it does make you wonder how this red pouch came into existence? Maybe, because it is so visible from all around, to get the full attention of the ladies but I'm not sure if this is unique to the Frigate or whether there are other birds with the same type of inflatable throat pouch. No doubt my birding friends could enlighten me!

All the while, Marie was counting land iguanas. There was a census recently that showed there were only 200 on the island. Her record sighting was 52 on one visit. I am proud to say that we managed to spot 54, so once again, it was a happy day for our guide.

Liza continues to amaze me with her attitude. She came on this holiday with no camera or binoculars! This is essentially a wildlife viewing holiday. Today she looked at a splendid, brightly coloured lava lizard and said  ' Ugh another creepy crawly'. I hate to think what the lizard said about her!

Back on the boat, breakfast was served, as we crossed over to Baltra Island by the airport. We ate everything short of the tablecloth as we had no idea about when our next meal would be. I suspected it would probably be dinner.

With a final pack of the suitcase, we boarded the pangas and wound our way through the myriad of now anchored,cruising boats. Mary Anne is the only sailing boat and she looked magnificent. She was a perfect vessel for us all and we really felt the part when we had the sails filled, scudding along the wavetops, listing over by 25 - 30 degrees . Collectively, our only regret was that we never got to see her from the sea with her sails up, which is probably a good thing, as this would mean that we had been left behind somewhere She is a barquette and was built in Kiel originally. We never found out how she ended up in Galapagos. 

We waited a while by the jetty, accompanied by a small land iguana and a couple of lady sea lions. One of the sea lions was very grumpy and she took an instant dislike to Brian and chased him all around the seating area. She wasn't bothered too much about anyone else! Must have been the sunburnt head or the hairy legs! Glad I had mine sugared! Legs, that is!

The other sea lion decided to get up onto the benched seating and proceeded to waddle down the length of it, weeing all the way!! Sea Lion wee is very pungent. She then jumped down and flippered her way down the jetty and into the sea, weeing all the way! What a big bladder!!

Along comes a very posh Barbie-look-alike guest from one of the big, plush boats. She spied the empty bench and sat down - on the wee - then she took out her Gucci bag and put it - you guessed it, on some more wee - then took out a second bag and put it - yep, you're getting the idea now, on another bit of wee - then repacked one inside the other, stood up and got on her coach transfer to the airport.

At this point I was hoping she wasn't on my flight! I suppose Hebe and I should have said something but it all happened so fast and we were laughing so much ..........

At Baltra airport, I somehow managed to be at the front of the queue, probably because I just get on with it and was put onto the earlier flight. This was a godsend, as I didn't fancy hanging around at the airport for four hours and also didn't fancy getting in too late at the hotel.

They have no problem with you taking water through security here, most odd!

I went straight to the gate as the flight was due to take off at 10.20 and we only left Mary Anne at 9am. I couldn't see anyone else from the boat to start with and then eventually a few filtered through. Brian and Nick and our US family had also managed to get the earlier flight, although I think they may already have been scheduled on the early one. One of the last through was your friend and mine, Liza.  'Are you on the first flight?' she asked  'Yep'  says I, praying she wasn't.  ' Oh, I'm on the second one' , she said. Thank you God. And she proceeded to sit down next to a Japanese lady to start up one of her one-sided conversations. I think, given the chance, the Japanese lady would have dashed outside to volunteer for kamikase duties!

Unfortunately, at this point I lost contact with Hebe and Graham. I kept looking out for them but they never appeared at the gate.

Meanwhile I had been spotted by Marie, who was also on my flight and she phoned up the travel company to bring forward my transfer at Quito. She is getting off at Guayaquil, where I think she lives.

They called my flight and off I went, thinking that was it, I'd never have to listen to Liza again. Wonderful!

But no, Jill, not so fast.....

I'm sat in my seat and look up, and there she is, with her little piggy eyes, looking dead smug! She sat down behind me. b*****!

Two minutes later, Security have arrived and they are escorting her off the plane, she was protesting vehemently that it was all their fault, they shouldn't have taken her boarding card! I quite agree, they should have shredded it! I don't know how she thought her luggage was going to appear on the carousel in Quito, when she was booked onto an entirely different flight?

Book her, Danno!!

It was about a 90 minute flight to Guayaquil, with no food, as I suspected. Then 40 minutes on the ground for a refuel and change of passengers. Strangely enough I had an empty seat next to me all the time, so their would have been room for you know who, after all. Maybe the check-in staff at Baltra lost the will to live as well?
 
 The flight to Quito was only about 35 minutes, up then down, as fast as that!

I emerged from the domestic arrivals hall to find no transfer board with my name on. I waited about twenty minutes and then decided to get a cab. I made sure it was an officially recognised cab first. It's about an hour's drive to my hotel from the airport but I knew that taxis are fairly inexpensive here. I managed to ask, in Spanish, how much it would be and we agreed on $26 which I thought pretty reasonable. He seemed to know where the hotel was, which was also hopeful!

Having travelled this route a few times now, I knew he was going the right way and not going to sell me to white slavers!! Well, you never know, stranger things have happened! Senor Ayrton Senna got me here safe and sound, so I gave him $30. I was just happy to be alive after his breakneck pace!

I retrieved my left luggage and repacked my things for the flight home - unfortunately nobody wanted my dirty laundry!!. I have also checked in for both flights but haven't managed to print my boarding cards, as there is no printer here at the hotel. Hopefully I can do that at the airport tomorrow.

As I hadn't eaten all day, I decided to pop down to the hotel restaurant for dinner. There were two large groups of Americans with their guides and me. I ordered a beer and chicken cordon bleu. I was half way through the beer when the waiter turned up with two teacups and the guide from one of the American tables. 

Odd, I thought.

The guide explained that the waiter had made a mistake. There are elections tomorrow throughout Ecuador and alcohol is banned today, tomorrow and Monday.

And so it was that my cerveza was decanted into two teacup in orders to fool the alcohol police and it was removed from my bill too!

Cheers!

Finally, a telephone call from Andean Travel Agency. Apparently they turned up for the second flight and were concerned that I hadn't been on it! Bloody good job I hadn't waited then, wasn't it?

They gave confirmed a 6am pick up in the morning so I'm off to bed now, for an earlyish night.  xxxx