The final two days of my trip were a bonus of the Travelzoo package. They were completely open and unscheduled and I spent a lot of my time hiking, taking the water taxi, and visiting local beaches for swimming and snorkeling.
One of the popular local spots is Tortuga Bay, an inlet that is home to a lot of protected wildlife but also has very calm waters for swimming; the waves were so small that it felt more like a lake than a bay. It’s one hell of a trek to get there though. From the lodge, the hike takes more than an hour each way in the equatorial sun, with almost no shade and no breeze. (I later learned from Juan that an inside joke is that Tortuga Bay is sometimes called “Torture Bay”, for good reason.) After my unexpected death march through the jungle, jumping into the water felt fantastic and after a little while I found myself swimming with a sea turtle again.
For the rest of my stay, I wandered through Puerto Ayora, visiting shops and taking photos. During my Saturday evening stroll, I came across a group of locals dressed in very colorful outfits dancing to traditional music.
The final day of my trip was all travel: pickup truck taxi, water taxi, bus, and several airplanes. I had a long layover in Guayaquil before my redeye to Miami and ended up touring part of the city with a couple women I met in the airport. I left my camera (and almost all of my other valuables) in an airport locker because Guayaquil has a bit of a reputation for crime, but any photos I would have taken wouldn’t have compared to my photos from the islands.
Funny story: while I was changing in the airport bathroom, a cockroach jumped out of my bag and ran off. If mainland Ecuador is devastated by a new invasive species of cockroach in the coming months or years, feel free to point the finger at me.