Olon, Ecuador - Days 1 & 2
Tuesday, February 22
Today we said good-bye to the Galapagos traveling back to mainland Ecuador. Our flight wasn’t until 1:30pm, so we enjoyed a slow morning together at Hotel Katarma in San Cristobal. We ate breakfast on the hotel’s outdoor patio and Tory, Aden and I did some school in the hotel room. It was fun to pull out a map of Ecuador and review the places we’ve traveled and the things we’ve learned about the islands during our 10 day visit. In that time, we traveled to seven different islands, observed many different animal species, swam in the ocean, hiked and explored. It was an amazing place to visit.
Tory said she most enjoyed seeing giant Galapagos tortoises in the wild and Aden’s favorite part was swimming with sea lions.
Since our flight was over lunchtime, Andi and I decided we’d walk into San Cristobal and get a bite to eat before we left for the airport. We sat on the outdoor patio of a local Ecuadorian cafe & shared a cheese boloñ and two empanadas + strawberry and mango juices. They were delicious! I am going to miss eating these two Ecuadorian comfort foods after we return to the States. Boloñes, specifically, will forever remind me of Ecuador.
After we left, Andi couldn’t help but wonder if the woman didn’t charge us enough for our food items. We only paid $4 for all those items which didn’t add up —especially for Galapagos pricing. So, the four of us walked back to the cafe and Andi gave the woman another $5. She looked embarrassed, but smiled and thanked Andi for returning.
Next, we grabbed our bags and took a taxi to the San Cristobal Airport. It was a short 10-minute ride — much simpler than when we flew into the Santa Cruz Airport on Baltra Island. It took us less than 15 minutes to check in for our flight and to go through security and migration.
Our flight from San Cristobal to Guayaquil was an uneventful 90-minute journey. The plane was hardly full, so everyone had lots of room to spread out.
Andi arranged for a taxi driver named Yoder to pick us up at the Guayaquil airport and take us to our next airbnb near Olon, Ecuador. Olon is three hours away from Guayaquil, so we decided eating dinner at the airport would be the easiest option vs. stopping somewhere along the way. It was slim pickings for airport choices — we settled on McDonalds.
Yoder had kindly picked up our forgotten swimming suits at the Wyndham in Guayaquil, so we were glad to have those returned to us.
It was a fairly easy three-hour drive to Olon without a lot of twists and turns. We arrived at our Airbnb just after 8:00pm. I forgot we’d lose an hour of daylight since we were now back in the Eastern Time Zone so it felt especially late.
For our week’s stay here, Andi rented us a boat house located right on the beach outside the town of Olon. It is a small individual house with one bedroom, one bathroom and a set of bunk beds in the main area for the kids. The property itself has a shared pool, outdoor kitchen area and two other airbnb apartments as well as the owner’s main house. We’ll be here for the next week.
Wednesday, February 23
Today was a chill day at our airbnb. Tory’s had a cold the past few days and now Andi isn’t feeling well, so we figured it best to stay put at our airbnb and catch up on phone calls and school work.
Tory, Aden and I did check out the beach near our airbnb for a bit this morning. Our airbnb is steps away from a long, smooth, sandy beach and wasn’t another person out there today. Our rented house for the week also includes beach loungers, sand toys, umbrellas and balls for guests to use. This was really the first time we’ve relaxed on the beach during our time in Ecuador, so the kids and I enjoyed the sand and sunshine. It was hot though! The heat of the day chased us back inside our airbnb after about an hour outside.
We had the chance to FaceTime with Andi’s sister Lindsay and her new baby Nora this afternoon which was really nice.
Just before sunset, Tory, Aden and I ventured up to the rooftop patio of our boathouse to watch the sun go down on the day. The beach here is so flat that people were biking and riding their motorcycles down the sandy shore. It reminded me of a beach in Texas where we parked the RV right on the sand.
Although today wasn’t the most exciting travel day, it felt good to rest and check up on life. After spending 10 days in the Galapagos without internet, we all needed a day to catch up on our favorite tv shows (kids), blog (me), and return phone calls (Andi), etc. It feels good to be at the beach and enjoy the warmth and the sunshine.
