Activity Summary
Thursday 24th August - Day 324
Ferry boat to Isla San Cristobal
Playa Mann
Playa Punta Carola
Mirador Cerro Tijeretas
Muelle Tijeretas & Bahia Baquerizo Moreno snorkel spot
Playa Baquerizo hike
Panic dinner at Cris Burger
Walk around town and the San Cristobal dock; sea lion heaven
Friday 25th August - Day 325
Luke:
San Cristobal 360 tour
Bahía Rosa Blanca snorkel
Fishing off Punta Pitt
Lunch and snorkel at Bahia Sardinia beach
Cerro Brujo viewpoint
Kicker rock snorkel
Nicola:
Kachi Tanta bakery
Snorkel at Muelle Tijeretas & Bahia Baquerizo Moreno
Afternoon nap and chill
Team:
Dinner at D’L Coco
Walk around town and pier
Saturday 26th August - Day 326
Snorkel at Muelle Tijeretas & Bahia Baquerizo Moreno
Hike to La Loberia beach & search for humpback whales
Walk through town
Met up with Sam & Evan for dinner at D’L Coco
Sunday 27th August - Day 327
Flight to Quito, Ecuador
Summary
Isla de San Cristóbal
In Luke’s opinion, he probably preferred San Cristobal over Santa Cruz. The island is smaller in population, calmer and has better free things to do with our time here.
Food was still reasonably affordable at around $6 at the right places and the bakery we found was very good, by South American standards.
The sea lions are amazing and the snorkel spot at Muelle Tijeretas was epic for something that was near enough free. The miradors at this bay are also really nice.
The 360 tour wasn’t so great simply because of visibility and the group Luke went with but Kicker Rock was really cool.
Great way to end the Galapagos.
Isla Isabella
The island is supposed to be really nice but Nicola, understandably, couldn’t stomach the boat ride. We had heard good things but the ride got a lot of people spewing their guts up.
Transport
Isla de San Cristóbal
Taxi from the hotel to the pier
We booked the ferry across to the island from Santa Cruz online. May have overpaid versus finding a stall in town but we had left it a bit late. Cost us $35 each.
6am arrival to get bags checked, register our names on the boat for a 7am ferry across
$1 Taxi boat shuttle to the boat
2 hour ride across the sea. It wasn’t too choppy this morning thankfully
Another $1 taxi boat across to the pier
Walk to the hostel
Accommodation
Isla de San Cristóbal - Nathaly Hostel
Number of nights - 3
Price per night per person - £16
Positives:
Not too far away from town
Two single beds
Aircon
Negatives:
WiFi was truly awful
Aircon directly on Luke’s bed
Kitchen was a bit rubbish so we didn’t use
Shared bathrooms
Showers sucked. Either scalding hot or freezing cold
Recommend?
It was fine but would probably try a different place
Diary
Thursday 24th August - Day 324
Nicola had had a bit of drama with a company we booked the ferry with to get to San Cristobal island, in that we didn’t get a confirmation or ticket. It did sort itself out on chasing which wasn’t ideal and we believe we overpaid by $5 by doing it online. But it all worked out in the end.
The 7am ferry was the desired approach, being early enough to avoid the usual adverse afternoon weather and make it as smooth as possible. We were there 45 minutes early and being the first in the queue again meant Nicola could choose her seat. We simply had to find the guy at the pier with our boat's name, cross our name off the list and were issued tags and queued up at bag check on the pier.
A boat taxi took us from the dock to the boat which also included the additional $1pp fee.
The ride was bumpy in an up and down sense but no side to side rocking that usually KO’s people. Nicola kept herself entertained by getting Luke to feed her endless werthers originals. Such a gent.
We arrived on San Cristobal Island at 9am courtesy of another $1 boat taxi. Luke actually ended up feeling worse for wear after half sleeping half nodding for the boat journey.
At this point we got our first introduction to the mass of sea lions that live all over San Cristobal island. They are huge, tame and hilarious to watch as they just sleep, argue and crawl all over each other to find that niche comfy spot they can sleep in. It’s like watching a restless Nicola try and find her spot when going to bed.
It was a bit of a walk to get to our hostel in the sunshine, tired and hungry. We dropped our big bags and immediately turned tail to find food and Luke some much needed coffee.
First off we tried a local breakfast place down the road but they ended up taking us to their office to try to sell us a room. It was such a baffling experience despite us saying frequently ‘no no - solo comida’ so having no faith in them we ran away when they finally got the message. Worst part was they had signs advertising breakfast…
We found a slightly bougier food place on the road parallel with the pier which was alright but for $10 was overpriced. It did have alright WiFi though so we were able to come back to reuse when Luke’s mobile data and the hostel WiFi meant we were internet cold turkey.
Once fed, Luke found a 360 island tour for the next day (Nicola not wanting to do it because of the expected savage boat ride) and went back to the hostel to check in properly which as a nice perk we were able to do early.
After a short rest we were out for a walk to do the Mirador Cerro Tijeretas, a number of viewpoints on top of one of the high coastal cliffs nearby to town.
On the way here we passed a number of beaches that we could quite happily chill or snorkel on. Both Playa Mann and Playa Punta Carola had a number of people relaxing with the classic sea lion crew, white sandy beach and calm waters.
Hobo seal on the beach at Playa Mann made Luke laugh.
Of the three viewpoints, the first one was Luke’s fave. We sat watching the world go by, overlooking the sea and sea lions jumping in and out of the water. We were a little disappointed to realise they weren’t dolphins but at this point we were zen sitting and eating our homemade sandwiches.
The highest viewpoint had good views over Muelle Tijeretas & Bahia Baquerizo Moreno which would turn out to be the best free snorkel spot we found on the Galapagos.
Once reaching the top mirador there was the option of continuing the walk to Playa Baquerizo. This got a lot more rough and ready as the constructed path ended and jagged volcanic rock became the predominant surface.
Nicola didn’t enjoy this very much at all, especially without Matilda to keep her steady. It ended up being quite a long walk because it was so slow going.
We spent a maximum of 10 minutes at the beach before turning around as Nicola got scared a couple of encroaching sea lions were about to block off our only exit back onto the path. Didn’t stop us taking a selfie though.
Back home and showered we then went for a panic burger dinner at Cris Burger. The lack of WIFI in our hostel would cause a few problems over the next few days, the worst involving online check in. There didn’t seem to be an obvious array of cheap eats in town and given we were searching for food just after 5pm, super early for locals, we couldn’t go off crowd approval ratings. So citing we wanted big meals, the pier side burger joint was rated alright and fed us for $12. It did the job.
San Cristobal, much like Santa Cruz, had a nice friendly atmosphere with a pier where we could walk down and watch the sea lions roaming around, playing and arguing. Lovely and zen and the sea lions are jokes.
Friday 25th August - Day 325
Nicola had her fill of boat trips on our travels, hilariously saying once done with the crossing to San Cristobal, she was so happy to be done with mandatory ferries, sea sickness and general anxiety over the quality and safety of these vessels.
She made the right decision in not doing the 360 tour. The ride was rough, the boat getting air time that would have people half gasping and laughing.
So Luke got up early and went off on the San Cristobal tour on his Tod. Another $180 price tag for the privilege.
Luke story time:
The meet time was 7am at the Galápagos Eco-Challenger office. At this point I knew there would be no one I’d be speaking to. There was a young Italian family with 2 kids, a group of over excited American women and two Spanish speaking couples.
I was however perfectly happy with this and once meeting up with Martin, our guide, I perched myself on the lonely seat at the end of the boat but with the best views over the island as we toured around. Very therapeutic watching the world go by on a boat.
It would take us 1.5hrs to get to the first beach and snorkel spot, going anti-clockwise around the island. This was probably the roughest part of the ride, the south side of the island being exposed to the worst of the wind that had the boat getting air time when crunching over the waves. The kids would hilariously shout / squeal whenever this happened and all I could think was how this would be so unappreciated by Nicola. Personally, I was absolutely fine with the ride.
The first stop was Bahía Rosa Blanca, a calm enclosed bay that required a short walk across the rugged volcanic to the snorkel spot. I knew instantly that this was a group of plebs when they took 15 minutes to walk 200m.
Everyone then got kitted up on the rocks and the ineptitude just kept coming. I was kitted up in 2 minutes and in the water for 20 before everyone had managed to faff themselves ready. The guide must have been doing his nut in, but credit to him it didn’t show. About 60% of the group were in life jackets and two of the American ladies were so useless they were getting dragged around by Martin on a rubber ring. How useless do you have to be to not be able to use your legs in fins?!
One of the best moments of the day did happen in these 20 minutes however. The first thing I saw was a giant turtle that I managed to follow for a good few minutes and I could not comprehend the size of him. He was so big and so close to me the GoPro couldn't fit him in shot. Absolutely amazing.
The rocky sides were good for seeing the various barnacles and fish that stuck near to them, but the visibility was terrible.
There were a lot of white tip reef sharks chilling on the bottom of the bay. So I was able to dive down slowly and get some pretty good shots of these guys who were more likely to run away than eat me. A load were sleeping under a cave and looking through that and having about 6 sharks look you in the eye was so weird.
Once back on the boat we were provided snacks and continued around the island. San Cristobal isn’t overly exciting until getting to the South Eastern side where a load of rocky outcrops that resembled a small Monument national park lined the coast. Certainly enjoyed this part of the coastline the most.
Once at the northernmost point of the island at Punta Pitt, the crew released two fishing roads carrying nothing but a fake fish and a hook. It was incredibly successful, catching a wahoo in about 3 minutes and then a massive 15kg yellowfin tuna 10 minutes later. The latter was an impressive catch and both would go to feed the tour the next day; sadly no sashimi for Luke.
The menu del dia lunch was served on board at Bahia Sardinia beach which we got to enjoy with a shoal of puffer fish tailing the boat and two quite large black tip reef sharks.
I went snorkelling looking at the puffers and black tips but in my eagerness and with not such great visibility again, got drawn a little too close to the back of the boat that had a blood water mixture from the caught fish seeping into the sea. The two black tips then got a little too curious with me, coming to within half a metre before quickly changing direction once staring them down.
This happened again and once the guide started giving me shark swimming tips about staring them down, I panicked and ran the fuck away.
Sadly the beach sucked but I was too scared to get back in the water. The horseflies chased me and absolutely demolished my legs so ended my walk along the beach. I ended up just wading knee deep in the water, talking to no one and watching pelicans chase the group of girls. Pretty boring to be honest.
Eventually the boat came to the rescue and we were off to Kicker Rock / Leon Dormido for our final snorkel. There was a nice initial viewpoint of the rock through an arch called Cerro Brujo so we stopped and had some pics.
The approach to Kicker Rock gave us a great opportunity to get the iconic picture.
I had absolutely no faith in the group in the water around Kicker Rock. The rock was isolated in the ocean with serious currents that if not careful would take people right up to the jagged rock face.
Once again I was the first in the deep ocean water and it was pretty cold this time only in a shorty 3mm wetsuit. The idea was to stay together as a group but again that took about 15 minutes to get everyone in the water, this time with two rubber rings and the second I would end up pulling with the two Italian kids on.
It didn’t take long for the group to get halved; the kids got cold which was understandable and some other dead weights retired early. Interestingly the useless rubber ringers stayed strong but I guess it’s pretty easy doing fuck all work.
From that point it was a lot easier. The views around Kicker were pretty good, the visibility in parts being pretty good despite the choppiness and managed to get some decent videos and pictures:
Plenty of turtles
A couple of sharks but were too far away
Sea lions
A monster shoal of millions of quite large fish that I cannot remember the name of. It required a fair dive down but it was seriously cool
Plenty of other fish, starfish and rock based wildlife
It wasn’t too long back to port but with the sun now out it was pretty nice. Once off the boat I just walked off away from the group who would have taken an age, dropped my wetsuit and gear and spent 15 minutes chilling on the pier in the sun.
Overall the trip was enjoyable but the group sucked and made the day less fun that I expected. Sadly I didn’t get to see hammerheads at Kicker Rock but it turns out they hadn’t been knocking around for the last week or so. For $180 it was again overpriced but expected.
Nicola story time:
I headed out in the morning searching for a good snorkel and food. Thankfully I found both raltively easily with a decent bakery called Kachi Tanta and then headed off to Muelle Tijeretas.
The walk there was nice enough and I was almost tempted to snorkel at the other beaches but stuck to my instincts and carried on to the rocky bay. I arrived for around 10am and there were already a fair number of Ecuadorean families on the pontoon.
Unfortunately the fact that many Ecuadoreans can't swim means that the people always hang around the stairs into the water meaning it's absolute chaos to squeeze around people and sea lions to the water.
I was a little nervous snorkelling alone, so didn't head out too far. But you didnt really need to as it's super easy to spot sea lions, fish, parrot fish and animals in the vacinity.
Even a Pelican tried to take me out as it dived into the water next to me. I also witnessed a grouper vs octopus vs eel death match which was entertaining. The grouper won. The eel got a bite, and the octopus was no bueno.
Around lunchtime I headed back as after 2h in the water, I was feeling a little cold. In the afternoon I chilled waiting for Luke's return.
We were reunited at around 5pm and quickly went out for dinner at a cheap menu del dia place called D’L Coco. $6 for a decent whack of food and the garlic herb addition was a nice touch.
Our evening activity was once again having a stroll around town, sitting on the pier and watching the sea lions do their thang. In prep for the next day we stopped by a dive shop to get Luke a $3 snorkel mask which was of pretty decent quality, the only drawback being the pressure they would place on the forehead after an extended period of time.
Saturday 26th August - Day 326
To optimise the calmer morning weather we were up at a reasonable time to get over to Snorkel at Muelle Tijeretas & Bahia Baquerizo Moreno. Nicola’s previous bakery trial and tribulations meant getting lunch at Kachi Tanta was cheap, of decent quality and easy.
It was a lovely morning. The sun was out, the water was clear and visibility was good (certainly the best we had had in San Cristobal). The sun certainly helped with the cold water and lack of wetsuit.
We ended up spending about 2 hours snorkelling with an hour outside of the water sunning ourselves between the two stints. Most of the big wildlife that Luke had seen around the snorkel tour we found here in large numbers:
Loads of fish
Plenty of turtles
Sea lions - were the highlight. They would swim super close, breeze past us and jump and play right in front of our faces. Nicola’s squeals of delight and fear were hilarious.
It was one of our favourite snorkel spots of the trip and it was basically free. The sea lions making friends with Nicola and our feet was pretty hilarious. We were never sure whether he was going to have a taste of our toes.
We stopped when we got too cold and the sun went in around 1pm. It was a very good morning.
We mooched back to the room and it took all our energy to get up and out of the door again. The second trip to the bakery was required for some emergency empanadas and sweet bread.
Fuelled we could then hike the 30 minutes or so to La Loberia beach. The walk was completely uninteresting, mainly on a long road before hitting the beach area.
The volcanic rocks provided a semi-adequate seating arrangement for us as we sat and tried spotting humpback whales with the binoculars, sadly to no avail but it was a nice chill activity. Again it was mainly watching sea lions but with little complaint from us.
We were meeting up with Sam, a Scottish guy we’d met on Santa Cruz, & someone he’d met called Evan for dinner at D’L Coco and had a bit of time to kill so we mooched around the pier and watched a bit of the kids dance show that was popping off in town.
After a few hours eating and chatting we parted ways with the guys, packed and had serious issues trying to online check in without decent WIFI. Somehow it seemed to work.
Sunday 27th August - Day 327
Our flight from San Cristobal was at 11:35am and interestingly the airport was only 1.5km from our hostel. So it would be the first and only airport we would ever likely walk to from our accomodation in the centre of a town. It was probably a little far to walk with our big bags in the heat.
Naturally we stopped by the bakery for lunch supplies, Nicola chronically under buying for someone that requires consistent feeding.
The queue for check in was pretty long and we had the slight added anxiety that they were super strict with carry-on bags after conversations we’d had the night before. Sam had informed Luke his bag did not meet the size restrictions, completely unbeknownst to him, and could have problems at the gate. We’d had none so far and it worked out all fine here.
The only issue we had was with boarding passes. We weren’t able to print these on the crappy hostel WiFi so frantically had to go to one side because Avianca wouldn’t print them for us. First time this has ever happened and of course it’s the one time we couldn’t easily get ahold of them but the airport WiFi eventually pulled through.
The airport was tiny and hella expensive so Nicola was unable to stock up on food. Luke did share his empanada to help tame the beast.
The flight to Quito was probably the most luxury to date. Tucked away in row 3, we had the equivalent of the business class seats on the flight with none of the cost (equally none of the other benefits bar space). Plenty of legroom and an extended arm rest occupying the middle seat giving us some luxury. This allowed Nicola to incorporate all she’s learnt from her sea lion friends, shuffling into and sleeping at what normal people would consider wholly weird positions.
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