I'm not sure what to say about our little trip to the Galapagos. We got partially scammed upon arrival so that put us down. Had a bit of trouble finding a place to stay but happened to find an apartment for the same price as a hotel room. Then we saw a bunch of wildlife 
down at the fish market which was super neat and had a great, 
cheap
dinner at a small restaurant [FreeSoul Cafe] raising our spirits. We picked up some groceries and headed into the 'burbs to our apartment, following the "X" on the map that the lady had given us.
At this time it was dark, and as everybody knows, things look a lot different in the dark! On our first try we couldn't find the place. We retraced our steps and tried again. still no luck. So we went all the way back to the beginning and followed the map once again. Nothing. We started questioning the map (it was one of those tourist ones that usually don't show all of the streets) thinking that maybe the place was on a road that wasn't on it. We got a taxi and asked the fellow to take us to a road called "something Maria". Puzzled at us tourists, he drove us around in a circle a couple of times before we let him go. It's about 11'o'clock now and one of my grocery bags just sprung a leak: one of the big bottles of beer broke through and smashed on the pavement, prompting lights to come on in the apartments around us, sending us scurrying away into the darkness. Stress levels are rising and we're getting frustrated - how did we manage to go around the world and never get lost and now here we completely lost track of where we are staying!? All of our bags are in that room. Julie's contacts are bugging her and she's not keen on the idea of getting a different place to stay for one night. We've tried to call the lady's phone to get directions but she's not answering. Then around midnight a motorcycle pulls up alongside us and the big fellow says "hey you guys!! why you wandering around late at night?". Aww, for crying out loud - it's the tour operator who we ditched earlier in the day after he wouldn't let us go for less than $90. Coyly we said that we were just looking for our hotel after having a late dinner in town. He asked which one and we said it actually an apartment. Then he offered us a ride but we declined saying that it's just close by - no worries, so he zipped away on his motorbike. We kept on wandering around, every so often coming across our broken beer bottle and using it as a landmark. A while later we heard a motorcycle approaching and sure enough it was fat man again. We had to fess up that we couldn't find the apartment. He offered to speed up our searching process by giving Andrew a ride on the back of the motorbike and search the streets while Julie made small talk with his son at their house. It was awkward for both of us as nobody likes to ride on a motorbike sitting behind a fat man. Either way we didn't find it. We thanked him for his help and walked back into town. Julie was dedicated to finding the place, but I'd given up. At this time of the night we're not going to wander around forever so we might as well just go get another hotel room for the night and at least get some rest. So we woke up some old fellow at a hostel and slept a few winks.
In the morning Andrew got up early and went to find either the lady who rented us the place or the place itself. On my first attempt I found the place - no problem at all, mostly because in the daylight I could see the building standing out amongst the others. Triumphantly I returned the hostel with Julie's toothbrush and a clear sense of where the place was. While I was gone a text msg showed up from the lady saying that her phone died last night and didn't get the message - here's the address.
So, does the story of this apartment end here? No. When something goes awry in Ecuador it stays that way. After getting settled in the apartment we try to use the stove, but it doesn't work. No gas it seems. Then Julie wants to have a hot shower. No hot water, because there's no gas. We call the lady again and tell her that there's no gas. She says she'll call the gas company but it might take until tomorrow to deliver. Julie insists that it arrive today. So we get a call later on saying that the gas has arrived but we have to hook it up - the connections are in the back of the building. What??!! Why do we have to hook it up - the gas company should do that! She says no, they just deliver. Well, it's her house, she should come hook it up. No, she says it's not her problem. Oh my word.
We happen to run into a neighbour in the apartment building and ask him about whether the gas company hooks up the gas. He says yes, the gas company hooks it up - he never touches his connections because it's gas and he doesn't want to blow something up. No kidding, neither do we! So we call the lady back and say she's gotta come over here and take care of this. We paid for an apartment that has a stove and hot water so make it happen. She came over, tinkered with the connections and declared that it works. But it didn't. She tinkered some more and then declared that she must call the company tomorrow. 
Well, that's our last day and we won't need it - could we please have a discount on the room? No. Why not? Because we used the place. Yes, but only 2 nights of the 3. Not her fault we got lost. But you drew the map! Not her problem. OK, but there's no hot water and that was her selling point! Again, not her problem. This lady made us so intently upset that we were on the verge of purposely wrecking the place. And if she didn't come in to clean up so early on the morning we were to leave, I'm sure that we would have left a dead fish in one of the closets or at least given away her DVD player. So we learned our lesson: once an Ecuadorian has your money, you're screwed. It's a lesson that we'd learn again, and again.
