I booked a trip to the Galapagos! YAY! The Galapagos is one of those places that I know a bit about, most of my knowledge learned from Alex Trebec and the Jeopardy team when they have a dedicated Galapagos category, but a place that, despite not knowing a ton, I always wanted to visit and explore. Especially since traveling in South America and Ecuador. And after getting scuba certified, a place I VERY much wanted to dive. Initially I wanted to do a liveaboard boat for a week, however, after researching a bit (and costing out the last minute deals I found), I decided to book a 5-day catamaran yacht to tour around the various islands and then stay for a few extra days on Santa Cruz and do two diving day trips. This way it’s the best of both worlds…exploring the land and sea of the Galapagos!
Before my Galapagos mission, I used some SPG points to book two nights at the Sheraton in Guayaquil. Best decision, because not only was a kingsize bed involved, but I got upgraded to the Executive Floor, which came with a free breakfast and happy hour. Helllooooo, out of place backpacker. Ha! The Sheraton turned out to be extremely convenient for me since it was a 10 minute cab from the bus station and a two minute cab to the airport. Oh, and it’s connected to a mall that had…wait for it…Baskin Robbins (my all-time fave). Happy belated Birthday two scoop mint chocolate chip cone for me. I may have gotten a small ice cream cake (and eaten the whole thing solo with no shame) but alas, the mall BR saved me from making the fat bastard decision I wanted to make by not selling cakes.
The Sheraton Internet was quite convenient after 18 days of slloooow (or not working) Loki hostel wifi. Felt like magic, it was so fast. Very nice for a little catch up & some Netflix. (side note: whenever I’m back in the states it’s going to feel soooo weird to have super fast wifi and be able to use my iPhone without having to seriously monitor my usage to attempt not going over 100MB per month…too many times, because, lets face it, that’s nothing! Shakes fist at Verizon global data…)
Oh, and I couldn’t find a laundromat near by, so I obviously did a bathtub washing. A few key items (shorts, beach towel) made their way to the Sheraton laundry service, since its hard to hand wash some stuff and really feel like it gets clean. Starwood Gold Member bathtub laundry at 5 full-service properties now. 🙂
