June 1, 2019
We started the day at 5:30am with a ride to the dock and a frustrating experience as they had no record of our reservation even though we had prepaid for the tickets. After some time Kevin was able to secure our passage (most likely by them illegally putting too many of us on the boat). This boat ride was cramped and had very choppy seas. Sarah managed to not get sick on this boat ride by sitting in the back and using her Seabands and ginger Dramamine. The boat trip took a little over two hours. Back in Puerto Ayora we grabbed breakfast and headed to our hotel. For this leg of the journey, Kevin choose the Rancho Piedras Blancas hotel in the highlands of Santa Cruz. In the highlands, it is usually cloudy and rainy, but much cooler and quiet compared to Puerto Ayora.
The grounds of the hotel are impeccably manicured with lush vegetation growing thought. They had a multitude of fruit trees and banana trees in the areas around the buildings. We reserved a two bedroom suite that was very nice.
The hotel graciously let us check-in at 11am so we could store or gear and go out on an excursion. For the afternoon excursion, we choose to hike to Tortuga Bay. We got a taxi into town and found a place to eat and then began the walk to the bay. The walk is not terribly long but the heat humidity and sun make it uncomfortable.
From the restaurant, we walked 3 miles to the bay. Part of the walk is along the beach with crashing waves and unsafe swimming conditions. At the end of the beach there is a peninsula and beyond it is Tortuga Bay. The beach here is lined with trees for shade and very calm water for swimming or snorkeling. The beach itself felt empty and the kids were able to play in the water, but the snorkeling was not going to happen since the water was too murky.
We returned to our hotel for a wonderful dinner where we were the only ones in attendance. After dinner, we packed our gear in preparation of our flight back to Quito the next day.