NEW YEAR’S EVE IN ISABELA ISLAND-GALAPAGOS
After a more than usual boat ride price because of the season. And despite the boat being late for over two hours. We were on a rowdy, and bumpy boat ride, on our way to Isabela. Not to mention the fact that only one engine was working, and the other one emitted a gas smell. We arrived at Puerto Villamil in Isabela Island on December 28th, at around 12:30 p.m. The turquoise water color that invites you to get in right away welcomed us. But first you have to follow procedure, once again.
This starts with waiting for a water taxi to bring you to the dock, in our case there was no taxis available, because we were late! Somehow they got one taxi to bring us, but we needed another one to transport the luggage. The price of transportation, is usually $30.00 per person each way, doesn’t include the taxi fare which is $1.00 per person.
More time passed and finally we and our luggage got to the dock and had to follow the path to a checkpoint where you have to pay $10.00 per person to enter the Island. This covers the port’s fee. Then to another checkpoint where they cut the lock they put on every piece of luggage when you depart from Puerto Ayora.
After these we had to find a taxi to take us to our hotel, because of being late from departure time, there was no taxis available. Later we found out that there isn’t many taxi in service in Isabela. This is a regulation established by the government. I hope it is because they don’t want more traffic than what they already have.
From the dock, walking to some hotels is possible, but in our case, it wasn’t an option. We were tired, and hungry. Although the lady at our hotel in Santa Cruz made some sandwiches for us, we decided not to bring them because we didn’t trust the cheese in it. We waited for a taxi, mainly because our hotel was far away, and Isabela doesn’t have paved roads, which adds charm to the island. This shouldn’t be a problem if you have small bags or just back packs but full size luggage would be harder.
Many restaurants were offering a Menú Navideño, and we tried it on New Year’s Eve. This day early in the morning main street was ready for what to us seemed the event of the year. The streets were closed to traffic. Lots of vendors were setting up, they ordered tones of beer boxes for this night. And the stage was being set up. They were announcing a big orchestra to play all night until 6:00 a.m. of the next day.
The day started with soccer games between different teams, first the guys and then the girls. Prizes would be given to the winners at 10:00 p.m. What caught our attention was the “monigotes” or paper puppet, doll, or effigies. They were made especially for this night.
They had people, boats, police cars, etc. Many full-size effigies were of politicians. Some had messages written on them, others were holding placards with some past events. The meaning of these monigotes is to burn it all as to close the past year. To start the new one clean and fresh. The effigies showed some art in them. The details were appropriate to whom they were representing. In Quito many neighborhoods have competition of Giant monigotes. They take this event seriously.
After the awards ceremony, they had a long speech that almost put everybody to sleep. It was 30 seconds before midnight when the Orchestra was getting ready to play all night. And it was at midnight that they started to burn the monigotes. We noticed three groups of monigotes, we were running from one to the other to see it burn down. One had some people running around the fire, but we couldn’t hear what they were saying, with the orchestra playing.
We enjoyed this event; they put a lot of work on the monigotes, they were happy to burn it all, and they were ready to start the New Year dancing all night. There was one group with the monigotes ready to be burn down. We thought they were late. We waited for it, when we heard them saying it will happen at 1:00 a.m. and at that moment we left. Everybody else did it at midnight, we wouldn’t wait to please somebody’s ego.
Overall we had a great beginning of the new year 2020. It was a very especial experience to be in Isabela Island. After doing some more traveling in Galapagos, I can say that Isabela is my favorite island of the few we visited, this time. We would have to come back for more.
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