We spent three nights in Quito and most of our time there was spent looking for good deals on boats heading around the Galapagos. On day two we decided to scrap the agents and fly straight to the islands, 600 miles off mainland Ecuador, and try our luck there but we had no booking or place to stay (but that’s not that unusual for us). It’s a costly business getting to the Galapagos! Flights are set at US$415 return and a $110 National Park Fee is imposed on all foreign visitors. On hindsight we did take a big risk not booking a boat before heading out there, as there was a high chance we wouldn’t get the boat or itinerary we wanted.
I think anyone who goes to the Galapagos will come back with similar stories; animals and marine life everywhere you look, lava carpeted with iguanas, so much so that you need to watch where you’re placing your feet, massive Frigate (what a great name) birds gliding effortlessly overhead, clumsy-looking Pelicans suddenly turning into graceful birds of prey and sea lions who sleepily acknowledge your presence by opening one eye then going straight back to snoozing.
Santa Cruz is the most populated island in the Galapagos with 30,000 residents, with many living in Puerto Ayora (PA). The airport is on another island called Baltra and it’s a bus ride/water taxi/bus ride to get to PA. There is one main road across the island, a few branching off it and that’s about it. Taxis are all 4WD utes (or pick-ups) that says something about the roads.
PA was a surprisingly quiet town with a few tourists around but still loads of wildlife. Huge frigate birds swooped overhead, an iguana insisted on crossing the road at his own pace and held up the (minimal) traffic, pelicans hung around the fishing port where daily catches were cleaned and sea lions ducked and dived in the water around the bay.
There are loads of shops catering for tourists but some are quite different and sort of funky, like this art shop that had mosaics all over it (and the power pole outside)
and this jewellery shop that looked a bit like an octopus
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Everyday the fishermen come in with fresh fish (mainly yellow-fin tuna and snapper as far as we could see). This guy was trying to clean the fish while behind him the pelicans sat waiting patiently
but a sea lion was more persistent and watched his every move. He even sat up on his hind flippers, front flippers on the table until the chap pushed him away. He then leaned on the guy, snuffling his pockets.
Meanwhile, out in the bay, these guys were trying to fish and being hounded by pelicans that were getting in the net and pinching the fish as they tried to escape
but when the net got tightened, they just lined up waiting
Unbeknown to the fishermen, a heron was having a good feast of fish that they’d already caught in their adjacent boat. It was very entertaining to watch as one of the fishermen nattered away to the heron in Spanish “here you go, aren’t you full yet?”, as he threw the heron a handful of fish.
In between trying to find a boat to get on, we walked the 3km through a cactus forest to Tortuga Bay, a stunning long beach. The white sand was so fine that it got everywhere and stuck even to dry skin and the black lava spilling down onto the beach made a wonderful contrast between the sand and turquoise sea.
It was here that we saw our first marine iguanas, a species found nowhere else on earth. They came here as land-dwelling creatures but were forced by the harsh environment and lack of food to evolve and head to the sea. In the 2 ½ weeks we were on the islands, we never got sick of watching them. We wondered why they sneezed a lot but found out that they ingest too much salt and their bodies have developed special glands that expel excess salt out their noses in great blasts that sound similar to a goat sneezing.
There was a lagoon round behind Tortuga Bay that was calm and warm, a perfect spot to swim
and we saw many iguanas swimming in the water just like fish – no legs (they’re tucked against their bodies), just using their tails. They can really motor too!
.jpg)
Las Grietas is another great spot, a water taxi ride and a hike from PA. It’s a chasm in the lava filled with brackish water and a great swimming and diving spot, popular with locals.
I think anyone who goes to the Galapagos will come back with similar stories; animals and marine life everywhere you look, lava carpeted with iguanas, so much so that you need to watch where you’re placing your feet, massive Frigate (what a great name) birds gliding effortlessly overhead, clumsy-looking Pelicans suddenly turning into graceful birds of prey and sea lions who sleepily acknowledge your presence by opening one eye then going straight back to snoozing.
Santa Cruz is the most populated island in the Galapagos with 30,000 residents, with many living in Puerto Ayora (PA). The airport is on another island called Baltra and it’s a bus ride/water taxi/bus ride to get to PA. There is one main road across the island, a few branching off it and that’s about it. Taxis are all 4WD utes (or pick-ups) that says something about the roads.
PA was a surprisingly quiet town with a few tourists around but still loads of wildlife. Huge frigate birds swooped overhead, an iguana insisted on crossing the road at his own pace and held up the (minimal) traffic, pelicans hung around the fishing port where daily catches were cleaned and sea lions ducked and dived in the water around the bay.
There are loads of shops catering for tourists but some are quite different and sort of funky, like this art shop that had mosaics all over it (and the power pole outside)
and this jewellery shop that looked a bit like an octopus
.jpg)
Everyday the fishermen come in with fresh fish (mainly yellow-fin tuna and snapper as far as we could see). This guy was trying to clean the fish while behind him the pelicans sat waiting patiently
but a sea lion was more persistent and watched his every move. He even sat up on his hind flippers, front flippers on the table until the chap pushed him away. He then leaned on the guy, snuffling his pockets.
Meanwhile, out in the bay, these guys were trying to fish and being hounded by pelicans that were getting in the net and pinching the fish as they tried to escape
but when the net got tightened, they just lined up waiting
Unbeknown to the fishermen, a heron was having a good feast of fish that they’d already caught in their adjacent boat. It was very entertaining to watch as one of the fishermen nattered away to the heron in Spanish “here you go, aren’t you full yet?”, as he threw the heron a handful of fish.
In between trying to find a boat to get on, we walked the 3km through a cactus forest to Tortuga Bay, a stunning long beach. The white sand was so fine that it got everywhere and stuck even to dry skin and the black lava spilling down onto the beach made a wonderful contrast between the sand and turquoise sea.
It was here that we saw our first marine iguanas, a species found nowhere else on earth. They came here as land-dwelling creatures but were forced by the harsh environment and lack of food to evolve and head to the sea. In the 2 ½ weeks we were on the islands, we never got sick of watching them. We wondered why they sneezed a lot but found out that they ingest too much salt and their bodies have developed special glands that expel excess salt out their noses in great blasts that sound similar to a goat sneezing.
There was a lagoon round behind Tortuga Bay that was calm and warm, a perfect spot to swim
and we saw many iguanas swimming in the water just like fish – no legs (they’re tucked against their bodies), just using their tails. They can really motor too!
.jpg)
Las Grietas is another great spot, a water taxi ride and a hike from PA. It’s a chasm in the lava filled with brackish water and a great swimming and diving spot, popular with locals.
This is what the landscape looked like on the way to Las Grietas.
.jpg)
Santa Cruz is one of the older in the Galapagos archipelago and has more mature vegetation than some of the others. Up in the Highlands it’s positively lush with mature trees, loads of grass and there are a few ranches up there. The Highlands is where the wild tortoises live and we headed up there for a visit. The ranch we visited had an empty tortoise shell, complete with the backbone and ribs inside and it was huge.
From afar, the tortoises look like huge boulders in the paddock
and they graze slowly among the cattle and horses.
They don’t have teeth and seem to just tear at the grass and swallow it. They’re really very odd creatures and have incredible long necks. I didn’t realise that each island has a different type of tortoise with different shell shapes.
They’re quite large though when you get close to them and it looks like they’d hurt if they bit you.
.jpg)
If you get too close or they don’t like you (one didn’t like Euan very much) they pull their long neck in with a loud hiss, which is apparently their lungs expelling air and compressing to make way for the head, neck and legs.
It is mating season there at the moment and our guide, Monica, told us that the males groan. So when I heard this odd noise and saw a tree shaking periodically up ahead it seemed pretty obvious what was going on. We crept over for a look and sure enough, there were a couple of tortoises mating but when we got close, it was clear that the male had it completely wrong. The poor female was all tucked into her shell and we couldn’t see her head (he was on the wrong way) but she couldn’t move anywhere until he’d finished. We don’t think tortoises are very bright and Monica said she’d seen males mating quite happily with rocks.
He seemed happy enough (we’re not sure about the poor female) so left him to it and headed into one of the large overgrown lava tunnels that were on the ranch.
.jpg)
Santa Cruz is one of the older in the Galapagos archipelago and has more mature vegetation than some of the others. Up in the Highlands it’s positively lush with mature trees, loads of grass and there are a few ranches up there. The Highlands is where the wild tortoises live and we headed up there for a visit. The ranch we visited had an empty tortoise shell, complete with the backbone and ribs inside and it was huge.
From afar, the tortoises look like huge boulders in the paddock
and they graze slowly among the cattle and horses.
They don’t have teeth and seem to just tear at the grass and swallow it. They’re really very odd creatures and have incredible long necks. I didn’t realise that each island has a different type of tortoise with different shell shapes.
They’re quite large though when you get close to them and it looks like they’d hurt if they bit you.
.jpg)
If you get too close or they don’t like you (one didn’t like Euan very much) they pull their long neck in with a loud hiss, which is apparently their lungs expelling air and compressing to make way for the head, neck and legs.
It is mating season there at the moment and our guide, Monica, told us that the males groan. So when I heard this odd noise and saw a tree shaking periodically up ahead it seemed pretty obvious what was going on. We crept over for a look and sure enough, there were a couple of tortoises mating but when we got close, it was clear that the male had it completely wrong. The poor female was all tucked into her shell and we couldn’t see her head (he was on the wrong way) but she couldn’t move anywhere until he’d finished. We don’t think tortoises are very bright and Monica said she’d seen males mating quite happily with rocks.
He seemed happy enough (we’re not sure about the poor female) so left him to it and headed into one of the large overgrown lava tunnels that were on the ranch.
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