First, don't bother dropping your dinghy in the water here. Everyone uses water taxis. Call 'taxi aquatico' on Ch 14 VHF, or flag one down as they pass by. It costs $.60 pp during the day and $1pp at night (after 7pm). They will not only take you into the main water taxi dock, but also over to the docks for the hotels in the harbor.
As you get off the water taxi, right in front of you on the left is a couple of restaurants and a supermarket and hardware store. Being so convenient, these tend to be a little pricier than going further into town. But this supermarket tends to carry more gourmet stuff than the town market.
Orientation: The main street that runs along the waterfront is Av Charles Darwin. This has mainly tourist shops, travel agencies, and restaurants. The main street that runs up away from the harbor is Avenida Baltra.
Banks: The first stop was of course the ATM machines. There is an array of 3 different ATM's right on the harbor next to the supermarket. But if you need a real bank, there is a Banco Pacifico on the malecon street a couple of blocks from the water taxi docks. The BP has 2 ATMs in its building. There is also another bank up Baltra.
Boat Parts: Puerto Ayora is surprisingly well stocked. We haven't seen a store like Bodega Blanca in over a year... it was a combination of West Marine and Ace Hardware (with a little bit of Home Depot thrown in). For marine parts, they had everything from a marine toilet, to marine quality line, to stainless steel rigging parts, to anchors, to watermaker parts and supplies, to electrical stuff like amp meters, etc. They also had a reasonable array of dive gear. Plus all the tools and home building supplies you would expect to find in an Ace Hardware. Bodega Blanca is half a block up from the malecon on Marchena (a few blocks beyond Banco Pacifico).
The next store was Electronautica, which has a lot of boating electrical stuff, including battery chargers, VHF's and GPS's, dinghy and outboard motor stuff, and a lot of computer stuff, too. They also had a very good fishing and diving section, with repair parts for dive gear that I've only ever seen in a dive shop. Electronautica is on Calle Binford, half a block up from the Banco Pacifico on the malecon, on the left.
The third stop was Mechanica Gallardo, which is more of an electrical / automotive type place, with an in-house machine and welding shop. I noticed that they had batteries (so did Bodega Blanca). We bought a belt for our watermaker there, and Visions had some stuff welded. We noticed that they had 8D batteries, and other sizes too (sorry no 6v). They are on Av 18 de Febrero, about halfway between Marchena and Baltra.
We also saw a Setmabas office somewhere in town, which we know from Manta, they do liferaft and fire extinguisher servicing.
Laundry: Visions had their laundry done in town at the price of $1 per kilo, which is about $6 for a reasonable size laundry load, wash-dry-fold. We saw several laundries, but they liked one that was where 18 de Febrero crosses Baltra.
For lunch we went up Baltra away from the harbor, a couple of blocks to Charles Binford, a cross street that has a bunch of local eateries. Here, instead of the tourist lunches for $10 pp, we got a nice 'almuerzo' (soup, main course, juice) for $3 pp.
There are a LOT of restaurants in town, mostly on the waterfront. The only other place we ate in town was at El Penon, across from Banco Pacifico. They had OK prices, decent food, and good wifi.
Internet: You can get limited internet via wifi in the harbor. Look for the REDGAL signal. This seems to be free/open wifi. However, it is slow, and they also have a firewall that blocks Airmal Telnet, outgoing SMTP mail (but not incoming), and some websites. Access to one of our financial institutions was blocked, but others were not. In town there are a number of internet places, they are not hard to find, and usually cost around $1.50 to $2 an hour. We were looking for a restaurant with wifi, and ended up at El Penon, across from Banco Pacifico on the malecon road. They had wifi good enough for Skype. There is also a table in the back that has a wall plug nearby.
Groceries: Besides the one on the waterfront, and various small tiendas scattered around, there are open air veggie stalls up Av Baltra a few blocks at the corner of 18 de Febrero. The big new supermarket is Mega Primavera a couple of blocks from the veggie stalls down 18 de Febrero, and the 'Feria' market, held on Sat and Weds, is another block down 18 de Feb. If you've come from Ecuador, be prepared for a shock at the veggie market... the quality is marginal and the prices are high. We paid $2.50 for a head of lettuce and another $2.50 for a head of brocolli. Apples were 3/$1.
Visions also dug up 'Galadristribution', a company that services the live-aboard cruise boats with higher quality deli-type products, including good wine and cheeses. They are located on Calle Charles Binford on the way to Bahia Tortuga. The owner is Aussie and speaks English. 09-744367.
Note that the availability of ANYTHING in the Galapagos is very dependent on when the supply boats come in.
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At 1/18/2010 12:21 PM (utc) our position was 00°57.95'S 090°57.73'W
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