Galapagos 2023 -- To Guayaquil and on to DFW

It was Thursday, May 18, our day for disembarking from La Pinta and returning to Guayaquil.  We were up early and, as requested, had our checked bags outside our door before breakfast.  The ship had left Cormorant Point around midnight and arrived off Baltra Island about 6 am.  It would be a very fast turnaround for the ship's crew to prepare for the next set of guests, so we had to have everything out of the room and would not be able to return once we went down to the dining room for breakfast.

Back to Guayaquil.  Once breakfast was finished we retraced our steps from the day we arrived, i.e. a panga ride to the passenger dock, followed by a short bus ride to the airport.  We then hung out in the VIP Lounge until our 10:25 am flight was called.  The flight was 2 hours and there was an hour time change, so we arrived about 1:30 in Guayaquil.  We made our way back to the Wydham by bus.  Our flight back home was not until 6 am on Friday, so we were staying another night in Guayaquil.

This was the first time we had driven between the Guayaquil Airport and the Wyndham in daylight.  It is unfortunate that the current violence in the city made much exploration impractical.  Yes, there was some obvious poverty, but there were other very interesting things even on this very short drive. Some of the wide divided streets were nicely landscaped.  The whimsical monkey sculpture definitely brought a smile to my face.  It is apparently one of several sculptures by Juan Sánchez Andrade around town.  (Sorry.  I could not take a picture and I could not find a free photo online I could post.  Do check out the monkey sculpture.)

Dinner along the river.  It took awhile for the hotel to make up our room, but it was eventually ready.  We later met up with Paul, Gwen, and James for an early dinner.   As it turned out, they had a large late lunch, so we ate and they had happy hour.  After walking around a bit, we finally allowed ourselves to be pulled in by a couple of the multitude of young people touting the restaurants just down from the hotel  We chose one of their outside tables and had the area nearly to ourselves.  Despite my fear of a mismatch between the waitress's English and our Spanish, we even got what we ordered!

Hotel Wyndham in the foreground with the boardwalk along the river, including many restaurants one level up. (https://hotelwyndhamguayaquil.com-hotel.com/en/)

Morning comes early.  We were up early on Friday to check out and take an early (3 am I think) hotel shuttle to the airport for our 6 am flight to Miami.  The streets were nearly deserted since there was  a 1 am to 5 am curfew.  It was also strange to see an armored vehicle at the entrance to the drive leading to the airport.  However, there were no problems and we were soon through security.  We spent a relaxing time in the VIP lounge with Gwen and Paul, who were leaving at almost the same time as we were, but going via Panama City. 

On to Miami.  It was beginning to get light as we finally left Guayaquil 

Looking up the Daule River, the western of the two rivers which combine to form the Guayas River,  as we take off from Guayaquil

The flight to Miami was uneventful.  I was on the wrong side of the plane to see the Panama Canal, but I could see some of Cuba as we passed overhead.  

Matanzas, Cuba, City of Bridges

Once we got to Miami International, everything ground to a slow crawl  It took forever at baggage claim, then there were extremely long lines at customs (despite filling out our forms online), and another long line to go back through security despite  having Pre-check.  We made it to the gate on time, but our flight was delayed due to  weather in Dallas.

Flight to DFW a new experience.  We finally made it onto our flight, which turned out to be a different flying experience,   The plane was a Boeing 777-200ER, which is a huge plane: 212 economy seats in a 3-4-3 arrangement (Thank goodness we weren't squeezed in there!); 24 premium economy, 2-4-2; and, where we were, 37 business seats in 1-2-1 arrangement (i.e. 9 rows and one extra).  Each seat in business class was a little cubicle with a lie flat seat.  This plane was likely one that normally would have been on international flights, but was currently being repurposed until tthe international flights come back completely from the pandemic.

The seats would probably have been wonderful if we needed to sleep, but I actually did not like the arrangement much for this daytime flight.  The window seats, where I was, alternate forward and backward.  I was facing backward.  (This is apparently one of two arrangements for the 777-200ER, called the Zodiac arrangement.) The Frog was across the aisle in his little cubicle in the center so I could not really interact with him.  Worst of all, ALL carry-ons had to be in the overhead bins.  There is no space for easily accessible "under seat" items.  I hate getting up in the middle of a flight to retrieve items from the overheads.

It took me a long while to figure out how to use the controls for various features.  The entire business section was full and it was obvious it was a new experience for the other folks as well.  I did end up watching a Tom Hanks movie, which was great,  American did serve us a meal and we did finally make it to DFW.  That was only after doing loops in east Texas and Oklahoma waiting for DFW's ground stop due to weather to be lifted.

We collected our things, found the car, and made the short trip home before night fall.  Wow, what a wonderful trip it had been.  I will wrap everything up in one more blog post to follow.