"Baltra Ecuador" Isla Baltra by Agraichen

Day 1 - Galapagos trip. Arrival at the 1-runway airport on Baltra that has one flight leaving (TAME) just as we are arriving via AirGal. The entire airport (well, not the runway) could be put into just one airline departure "lounge" at any large airport in the US or Europe.

But security is quite tight and very efficient.

The tiny terminal reminds me of certain parts of Hawaii about 30 years ago. It's even smaller than the terminal on one of the Society Islands in the South Pacific which is quite refreshing. The focus seems to be on preserving the wildlife not proliferating tourism.

Stepping down from the plane (yes folks you have to climb down and walk...) and walking across the tarmac, we're greeted with a sense of "this is going to be a great vacation....."

Just outside the "terminal" are the ritual tourist shops. Their wares are mostly very good in spite of the normal tourist "junk" that is always present and needed to fill the bags before one leaves anywhere just to remind themselves or someone else that they had been there.

The new version and "up scale" tourist trade has a small "play yard" for kids while the parents shop. The one minor detail in the architecture is the location of sharp objects (ah...we are on a lava based island, right???) near to the play toys for the kids.

The thought here is, if you grow up on lava you know how to play with it, but if you don't know what lava is, then you should not play on it, or your parents should be very close and very diligent at watching.

• Pros:Airport entry to the Galapagos
• Cons:Airport entry to the Galapagos...means less animals
• In a nutshell:Sometimes modern life should be put on hold.