Santa Cruz Island
Visitor Sites - Accommodation - Bar-Restaurants - Internet Service
INTERNET SERVICE
Internet services are now in abundant in Puerto Ayora and easily found around the main part of town. As well as cybercafés, you can also find access to the net in various hotels and restaurants and most cost roughly the same price. Although easily locates, there seems to be three main places where people would descend to check their mail.
INTERNET CAFÉ – BANDA ANCHA
Banda Ancha is a newly opened internet café which is situated on Avenida Charles Darwin on the main seafront. Downstairs is a small shop selling books, camera film, batteries, clothes and other touristy items.
Upstairs is a bright sunlit room with green floor tiles and five computers all with web-cam and printing facilities. Internet costs $2 an hour and most of the time is slow but quite reliable. Up another set of stairs is the tiny Café Mundo Marino selling Brownies ($1.50), tea and coffee ($0.50) Pringles ($3.00) and other cold drinks and snacks. There are few plastic chairs and tables where you can enjoy your food looking out onto the ocean whilst listening to the soft music playing in the background.
CHOZA.NET
Situated on Baltra Street not far from the harbour, Choza.net is one of the most popular and in my opinion best value for money places in town. Normal internet costs $2 an hour ($1.50 for 45 mins, $1.00 for 30 mins, .50 cts for 15 mins). If you are planning to stay for a long period of time then it`s well worth investing in one of the pre-paid deals they have on offer. $5 gets you 360 minutes, $10 – 840 minutes, $15 – 1320 minutes and $20 – 1800 minutes. You are given a password and can log in and out whenever you choose. The good thing about these deals is that if the connection is painfully slow then you can simply log out and return later when the net is working more efficiently, ensuring that you don`t waste money. There is a mix of about fifteen modern and old computers, not all working at once but generally very reliable. It seems to get busy mid-morning and early evenings but you never really have to wait long. International calls can be made from three private cabins and C.D.s can be burnt for $2.50. You can also buy all sorts of computer accessories.
PELIK@N NET
Halfway up Charles Darwin street, walk past the fishermen pulling in their daily haul amidst an army of hungry pelicans, take a left at the bright blue “Angelique Art Gallery” and there you will find a dark sliding door behind which is Pelik@n Net. It`s a small place with six computers and a printer. I found it to be very reliable and the connection there was very good. Internet costs $2 an hour ($1.50 for 45 mins, $1.00 for 30 mins, .50 cts for 15 mins). Here there are also eight private cabins where International calls can be made.
CYBER CAFE GALAPAGOS
This is another popular place, situated on Charles Darwin street, more or less opposite the harbour. It has twelve decent computers and connection speed varies from painfully slow to relatively fast (for Galapagos standards!).
Costs are $2 an hour ($1.50 for 45 mins, $1.00 for 30 mins, .50 cts for 15 mins). Here you can download photos, print, scan, use webcam, make photocopies and buy computer accessories, snacks and postcards.
Here you can also hire bikes and the staff can give you advice on where to ride on the Island. It has a nice environment in which to check emails and visit the web.
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