Arrival in the Galapagos Islands is one of lifes truly exciting experiences. I have never read Darwin's Origin of Species (which only references these islands in sporadic parts) or seen one of many documentaries, but this is still a place of legend. Stepping off the plane, you are greeted by a pelican and iguana casually loitering on the runway. It's like bumping into a kangaroo as you disembark a Qantas jet.The Galapagos boat tour theory goes like this: the closer you are (in time and physically) to an actual boat setting off on a tour, the cheaper the price. And so in good backpacker spirit, I flew into town and headed straight to the dock. Unfortunately, this was in high season and just one day after carnaval which meant there was little on offer. Sure you can wait for two or three days and something will turn up eventually. But the port town of Puerto Ayora is not cheap and not really worthy of much more than a night. So, after 4 hours hunting for something in the heat, I took a tour a couple of classes above what I really needed. Although I spent more than I wanted, or rather got fewer days than I was aiming for, there was some comfort knowing the standard rack rate was almost 3 times what I paid.
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