I started off my day bright and early at 4:00 am and caught my flight to Galapagos this morning around 8:00 am. We had a short stop in Guayaquil while other people boarded the plane. Leaving Quito was very pretty since we flew over the mountains. I got to the airport around 10:30 a.m. and was looking a person standing with my name on a card but there was no one waiting! I ended up waiting til 11:30 until finally asking someone if they could help me to call the volunteer company. The airline I flew with thankfully was able to call them and they said they would be there shortly. That turned into another hour. When the driver arrived to pick me up, she was very confused about where I was even going. When I arrived at the volunteer house, they didn't even have my name listed until the 16th and I will actually be at the Hacienda on the 16th! So much confusion but I finally got here and the family who runs the volunteer house also lives on site too. The place where I'm staying doesn't have wifi or AC even though this was advertised. It's a lot hotter here too so my room felt like 90 degrees when I arrived.
I went down to the pier when I arrived to get internet and explore a little. One of the grandsons of the women who owns the volunteer house walked me down to the pier area to show me where a few things were. The Ecuadorian people are extremely nice. This is a ghost town compared to La Mariscal in Quito. They also close the shops around 12:30-1 and reopen at 3 so the families can have lunch together.
I luckily was able to find one restaurant that was open, Rosita, where their theme is the World Cup with tons of jerseys hanging up everywhere. Lunch was only 5 dollars for a bean soup with beef, a delish mango juice and another soup kind of like ceviche with fish. I watched some of the World Cup game and then had coffee at Zayapa Ice cream place to take their wifi....i think they caught onto me by the end of the night since I was hanging out around there in the evening trying to take the wifi and then all of a sudden, it stopped working. I wandered around the pier and checked out all the sea lions hanging out on the pier, beach and in the water slide! It's a very small town, but absolutely beautiful near the water. I stumbled upon a young woman who is interning here from North Carolina and she gave me tips on where to eat and purchase tours. Again, all the tour shops were closed though when I walked by so will have to see if I can book something tomorrow since I want to island hop at the end of my volunteering adventures. Ecuador plays tomorrow at 12 though so that isn't looking so good for shops to be open either.
I finished off the night at Rosita watching the next World Cup game, having a tuna sandwich and drinking a grande beer while I researched which islands would be worth going to. I really didn't do much today besides eat and take in the scenery :) When I got back to the house to take a shower, there was a fairly big lizard staring at me. That was a very uncomfortable shower along with not having hot water. Welcome to Galápagos Sarah! Haha!!