Upon our arrival we moved into an apartment that Dani arranged ahead of time. It worked out to be cheaper than a hostel as Jess is staying there for the whole month so we just paid her for half. It is an awesome place, very funky and has a great roof top patio.
We all rented bikes as the town is pretty small and you can bike pretty much everywhere in five minutes. Just down the road from our apartment is the Darwin Research Center. They have a tortoise breeding program there and you can go right into the pens with the large tortoises. It is pretty crazy to be right next to something that big and that old. They don´t even seem real, like something out of Jurassic Park. You can see all the tortoises at different ages and learn all about the work they are doing there. They also have a few land iguanas, which are fairly rare and hard to see in the wild. At the center is a beach with excellent snorkeling. I have seen all kinds of crazy fish, manta rays, golden rays, sting rays and sea turtles when I have been snorkeling there.
Down the hill from our apartment is the fish market where the daily catch is brought in. This attracts quite a variety of birds and animals making it one of the best places to see frigate birds and pelicans. There are also herons, seals, and rays that come to get scraps. It is actually quite a feeding frenzy and almost unbelievable to see. Behind the fisherman a flock of pelicans gather, snapping up anything that falls and fighting the sea lions for scraps. At the same time frigate birds, who have a wingspan of over four feet, continually swoop through the area grabbing anything they can. They can almost hover in one place without flapping, and try to grab fish off the table. The fish itself is amazing and super cheap (a couple bucks for two kilos of sea bass and $20 for a huge lobster.)
Across town is Tortuga Bay. A 2.5km hike through cactus forest takes you out to a huge white sand beach, with 1.5 meter lizards cruising up and down it. The marine iguanas can be found all over but Tortuga Bay has some of the biggest we´ve seen yet. The beach is also a pretty good spot for surfing as well. Down at one end of the beach is a sheltered lagoon which is good for floating around in, but the water is very murky so you can´t see anything. Apparently, it is also a popular spot for sharks but I didn´t see any. Out on the point by the lagoon a short trail takes you through a forest of huge cacti. There are so many iguanas that you have to walk around them as they are lying all over the trail in large piles to keep warm. Blue footed boobies sit on the rocks scoping out fish. The amount of wildlife is a little overwhelming.
Since we weren´t on any sort of package tour or cruise we organized a few trips on our own to explore the Galapagos. Having such a large group definitely helped.
One of the first tours we went on was the Bay Tour. It started out by going to an island sea lion colony but the swell was so big our guide didn´t think we should go in or we´d be thrown into the rocks. So we motored on to our next stop, the shark channel. This is a narrow channel cut into the cliffs that sharks supposedly like to rest in. I started to swim in but the water became so murky that I couldn´t see my hand in front of my face. Since I wanted to see sharks, not run into them, I backed out. There was really good snorkeling around the entrance though and we saw tons of fish, rays and eels. After that we went for a short hike over the headland where we could see the shark channel from above, but still no sharks. Our last stop was out in Academy Bay where several large sea turtles were hanging out. I jumped in right away and bee lined it for the turtle. It was huge, almost 2 meters long but it spooked when it saw me and took off at high speed, almost running over Sam. There were several more turtles in the area and a white tipped shark which gave me quite a surprise when it swam over to check me out. All in all, a good tour especially considering it was just around the bay.
The second tour we went on was around the island of Santa Cruz. We hired a couple of cabs (four door pickup trucks) and headed out. The first place we went to was Las Gemelos, a pair of massive craters that were believed to be involved in the formation of the islands. They were so massive that the forest growing in the bottom looked like shrubs. The second stop was a tortoise reserve. This area had many more large tortoises than the Darwin Station and they were all freely roaming around. You were allowed to go and walk right up to them. It was pretty cool to see these massive animals cruising around. After that we went to visit a lava tube. It was pretty long, maybe close to 750 meters and you could go in one side and out the other. In the middle was a pinch point you had to crawl on your belly to get past.
Another trip we all went on was a snorkeling trip to one of the nearby islands, Floreana. After a two hour boat ride we arrived at a small volcanic island, with black sand beaches. A short hike took us to a bay with a sea lion colony protected by male sea lion. He was not happy to see us and kept charging us, but our guide showed us that if you just clapped your hands, he would back off. We cautiously got into the water, a little unsure how much clapping would do for us underwater. I´m glad I went in as with two minutes I spotted a group of sea turtles grazing. They were smaller than others I had seen, only about a meter in length but they let me get close enough to touch them (they are slimy.) It was a good snorkeling spot and three female sea lions came out to play with us. They are as playful as dogs and love to swim all around you and blow bubbles at you. I was later told that if you bring a piece of rope they will grab the other end and tow you around. After that we boated off to our next snorkelling spot and highlight of the trip, El Corona del Diablo, an old underwater volcano. We jumped outside the rim and were immediately swept around to the other side by very strong currents. It seemed that fish loved this area as it was full of massive schools of fish. I saw two different types of sharks, a large brown one with a rounded nose and one that had strips, almost like a tiger shark. I am not sure what they were but I was told it probably wasn´t a tiger shark. Once on the other side of the volcano the currents were weaker and we were able to swim into the crater. On the edge we ran into a white tipped reef shark, about 7 feet in length. Inside the crater, it was much shallower so it was possible to dive down to the bottom and check out all the coral and fish. There were also several caves that led back out to the outside but would have required scuba gear. There was massive school of silver fish in the crater and you could swim into them and they would surround you. I was like something off of National Geographic or Planet Earth, it didn´t even seem real. After that spot we headed off to the third and final location, which while not as impressive as the first two had some very playful sea lions. I was bluffed charged by a male sea lion in the water, which was so big I thought it was a whale coming at me. Pretty scary. Tired and happy we boarded the boat and headed back to Santa Cruz.
Our time on the Galapagos was coming to an end and I still wanted to see more islands. Other people who had done cruises all said that Bartolome was their favorite, so Katie and I wandered around to all the tour agencies looking for a trip. Because it was last minute I was only able to find a boat with room for one more. Katie, kindly let me have it so the next day I left at 5am, busing across the island and then boarding a small cabin cruiser to Bartolome. After 2hrs on the water we arrived at a small volcanic island sitting off the coast of Santiago. First we hiked up a small volcano, through splatter and cinder cones to a view point that our guide said was one of the best in all of the Galapagos. I´d have to agree with him. After that we boated over to a crescent beach that we could see from the viewpoint. One side of the beach was a small penguin colony, the most northern penguins in world. They are not very big, about a foot tall, but they are super fast swimmers and impossible to keep up with when you are snorkeling. The bay had some really good snorkeling, especially below Pinnacle Rock, and I saw tons of fish, sea lions and another white tip reef shark. Across on the other side of the island is another bay that sea turtles and iguanas like to use for grazing seaweed. After that we headed slowly back to Santa Cruz, partly due a mid voyage repair (a theme of this trip?) It was an awesome trip and I would have to agree, one of the best places I visited on the Galapagos.I can´t seem to get my photos to work here but I have most of them on facebook already. I have put links below here and will add the ones from Bartolome soon.
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