Activity Summary
Saturday 19th August - Day 319 (continued)
Flight to Guayaquil, Ecuador
Sunday 20th August - Day 320
Flight to Isla Baltra, Galápagos Islands
Los Gemelos
El Chato Ranch - Giant Tortoise Reserve & lava tunnels
Tour of Puerto Ayora
Dinner for $4 at some place along avenue Baltra
Walk around town and the pier; tons of wildlife
Monday 21st August - Day 321
180 Santa Cruz tour - Grupo Galapagos
Isla Pinzón snorkel
Lunch & snorkel at a secluded beach spot
Isla Daphne Major snorkel
Dinner at a place on the ‘cheap’ street in town
Tuesday 22nd August - Day 322
Las Grietas
Charles Darwin Scientific Station
Wednesday 23rd August - Day 323
Tortuga bay hike & beach chill
Researched in the afternoon
Walk along the pier
Summary
Isla Baltra
Small island that has an airport and nothing else. Interesting barren landscape however and very easy to get from the airport to the island port across to Santa Cruz.
Santa Cruz
Really nice island. The centre areas of town are nice with a whole lot of options for blowing money down the toilet. The cheaper food places were closer to where we stayed and for a very reasonable $4 could eat well. Easy to avoid the tourist traps.
The town pier was a highlight. The wildlife there at night was crazy and it was so nice to just stroll around. The islands are super safe and are so good at putting on kids entertainment things such as bouncy castles, shows and having large safe spaces for them to play.
The wildlife around the island on the snorkel tour was incredible, the 180 tour here being better than the 360 on San Cristobal.
Giant Tortuga are incredible.
After Colombia this was such a perfect zen place.
Transport
Isla Balta
Flight from Guayaquil to Galapagos. Required time in Guayaquil for bag checks and a $20 fee for the privilege.
Land in Isla Baltra where another $100pp fee is payable to enter.
Local bus outside the airport shuttles everyone to the ferry port for $5pp
$1 boat fee to get across to Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz
We hired a private taxi through the hotel that would drive us to the sights on the way to our accommodation. Cost $65 but we enjoyed the tour
Accommodation
Santa Cruz - La Mirada De Solitario George
Number of nights - 4
Price per night per person - £19
Positives:
Absolutely lovely place
Huge super super king size bed
Lovely owner who spoke east to understand Spanish
Tons of information at check in
Kitchen was good
Warm shower
Private bathroom
Pretty affordable for the Galapagos for such a nice place
Aircon that didn’t blow on the bed
Negatives:
Only that it was quite a walk to get to town
Recommend?
Absolutely
Diary
Saturday 19th August - Day 319 (continued)
Welcome to Ecuador. The flight to Guayaquil was fine and it was helpfully confirmed on the flight that we would need to collect our big bags before leaving the terminal, rather than being retained and transferred to our morning Galapagos flight. Luke did stress about the kids who seemed like complete travel novices and made sure they knew they needed to do the same.
Once through security with our big bags in tow (would have been no issue with the larger lense solution it turns out) we went through the normal ordeal of trying to find our taxi pick up. Nicola could not contain her frustration but eventually we found him in his car outside the departures doors.
The ride was only 5 minutes but Guayaquil is rough as fuck, also confirmed by our Spanish speaking neighbour on the flight who was concerned we were going to be touring the city. Nice gesture.
Once through the hotel doors we crashed out for the evening with plenty of time for a decent sleep before our morning flight.
Sunday 20th August - Day 320
The decision to split our journey to the Galapagos with a stopover in Guayaquil was a good one. While the airport hotel was a little pricey, getting some decent sleep before starting again at 8am meant we could function for the day.
The taxi from the hotel picked us up and after 10 or so minutes we were back at the airport. Check in was a little more involved this time, as we had to queue at a specific type of customs for the Galapagos, pay $20 each and then put our bags through a specific scanner. This would have been relatively painless had we not had the displeasure of having to interact with some overly self entitled Americans who cut the line on advice of the airline without so much as an apology or explanation. So naturally we lost our shit at them but this did fuck all.
The only expected fast food places were outside airport security but on looking at the Ecuadorian Mcd's breakfast we were not impressed and Nicola couldn’t stomach a breakfast KFC so early.
Once through security it was a choice of the less than impressive Juan Valdez chain or another cafe. We chose the latter and while the toasties were decent, they had all the hallmarks of a Starbucks rip off in terms of cost and lack of portion size.
The flight to Isla Baltra was chill and we got to see what made up the airport island from the air. Really just a dry and almost barren lowland island due to a lack of rainfall. It was however the landing island for tourists getting to the largest island in terms of population, Santa Cruz.
On entry we were required to pay another entry fee, this time being a big fat $100. Without having done anything fun in the Galapagos, we had spent in excess of £400.
After a quick dog check on the bags we left the airport terminal and were on a $5pp bus to the ferry dock between Baltra and Santa Cruz.
The ferry cost $1pp to get across and at the other end we wandered around aimlessly looking for our taxi driver for the rest of the afternoon. We have had a 100% failure rate so far in having our drivers show up on time or doing so in a way that made our lives easier. There was however a decent chicken rice and beans offering ($6.50, not in Colombia anymore) from a shack at the dock so we took turns in chowing down while the other roamed.
Eventually Kenny showed up and we were on the road in a private 4x4 truck to Puerto Ayora town via the sights along the way. It cost $65 for the 3 hour trip but it made sense to incorporate all the highland activities on our way to town rather than going back and forth.
Our first stop was Los Gemelos, a giant crater with a ton of greenery around it.
The path took us through a Scalesia forest which was chill just so and wholesome.
Next stop was the El Chato Ranch which was a Giant Tortoise Reserve. From the moment we turned into the reserve we could not contain our excitement. There were hundreds of giant tortuga’s lining the grass as we drove down the track to the reception so we were both already so gassed before we’d even arrived.
At the reception we checked in, paid the $10pp fee and waited for our guided tour to start. The coffee and water was well received. There were a number of giant Tortuga shells in the main area so Kenny took it upon himself to show us how to get in them.
Naturally Luke then forced Nicola to do the same. Jeez they were heavy.
We then got our first introduction to just how incredible the wildlife in the Galapagos is. The guide we had was great, giving us a ton of information about the reserve, the tortuga’s and taking plenty of couple photos for us.
There were loads of tortuga’s everywhere. They could not have cared less about us as they simply chowed down, grunted, shuffled a bit and then carried on.
The biggest boy in the ranch we were looking at for a while gave us a nice showing of how he poops.
There were also a load of birds knocking around and the Galapagos finch brought back memories of the NZ South Island finch. They would be absolutely everywhere.
After spending close to an hour wandering around admiring these giants, we were taken through some of the lava caves that had hollowed out some of the ground.
Before moving on we had a sit down with a coffee, admiring the tortoise paradise and then got chatting to a guy called Sam who happened to have the same bag as Luke. Quite likely we would cross paths again going down South America so we stayed in contact.
The last (unexpected) activity was having Kenny switch out for his son and give us a driving tour of Puerto Ayora town. Didn’t really need this last part but seeing the place from the comfort of a car was quite nice.
At our hotel we checked in and it turned out to be an absolute gem. Lovely super super king size bed, arraigned in a romantic fashion with free coffee, water and use of a decent kitchen. Very happy with the place as we didn’t mind the 10/15 minute walk into town. The owner was also super nice, incredibly helpful and spoke easy to understand Spanish which was a refreshing change.
On the owners recommendation we tried to go to a local cheap eat place but for love nor money couldn’t find it. On our way into town there was a busy local place so we decided on some easy Pollo Frito y Papas for a very reasonable $4 at some place along avenue Baltra. Sadly it would be closed the next few days so we wouldn’t have the easy cheap eat again.
Fuelled up we had a digestive walk around town and specifically the pier. This turned out to be amazing as a load of fish were clearly attracted to the pier lights that in turn brought a mass of juvenile black tip sharks and pelicans that would hunt into the night.
We’d certainly had a nice intro to the amazing Galapagos wildlife. Before heading home we grabbed our all important full length wetsuits for the next days snorkelling trip. The Caribbean Sea we are not in anymore…
Monday 21st August - Day 321
Our big activities on the islands was as much snorkelling as we could do, with the caveat that this didn’t destroy Nicola in the process. The big snorkel trip around Santa Cruz was the 180 tour, a trip that would take us around half of the island and to two islands for some snorkelling.
We went with Grupo Galapagos and booked online as we could not face the effort of walking around town to book last minute. It cost us $200pp, so a minor fortune but considering one guy paid $160 after haggling a ton and didn’t have a full length wetsuit we were happy with our decision.
It was an 8am meet at the tour office where we were kitted up with snorkels and fins. Sadly the collection of fins absolutely sucked and Nicola’s short stubby were particularly shite.
The boat was a decent size, two benches running along the sides and Nicola had positioned us at the back where the views were better and would help her cope with the sea journeys. Overall she felt pretty rough and didn’t enjoy the journeys out to the islands but it was manageable.
The first stop on the tour was Isla Pinzón which took about an hour and a half to get to.
Once in the water the snorkel experience was great. The guide was really good, led us along and pointed out plenty of wildlife throughout and the whole group was pretty competent. The visibility was good and what we saw was immense:
Tons of fish ranging from colourful small things to half metre long parrotfish.
Sea lions - a number of them were jumping into the water and swimming right up to and past us with great speed. Nicola gave some hilarious snorkel squeals of both delight and fear.
Diving marine iguana - this was pretty epic, seeing the only marine lizard in the world in action.
Lunch was had on the boat in a secluded beach spot, standard menu del dia vibes, and then we got a chance to have a snorkel and beach chill. The snorkelling sucked as the visibility was so bad so we just ended up on the beach talking with the group.
The last stop was Isla Daphne Mayor, a more remote island off Santa Cruz that ended up being a much choppier journey out than Nicola would have liked. The island was pretty cool and the boat did a slow drive around to see what we could spot which ended up being mainly sea lions and crabs.
This was a much colder snorkel spot and we were very happy for the wetsuits. Sadly the visibility was not great and the water was properly choppy. Nicola had arrived feeling woozy but the water was also making her feel sick so struggled immensely with the snorkel in her mouth. After a short time Luke took her back to the boat to reset before she got back in for round 2.
While the visibility wasn’t great, the wildlife was amazing.
Loads of turtles
White tip reef sharks - Luke decided it was a good idea to dive after one but it made for good video
Manta rays - there was either one we kept seeing or a number doing the rounds around the island and it was magical. The guy was about 5m long and it was an incredible experience. This guy made it for us.
The 180 tour worked pretty well for Nicola as the boat pulled into the Isla Baltra dock where we got taxis back to town for about 5ish.
Overall it was an incredible snorkelling experience. For Nicola, the long boat trip out to the islands is a bit too much and the feeling of being sick does take away from the magic of the trip.
$200 is a savage price tag. The snorkelling here is not better than Luke did in Coiba for a fraction of the cost, the big sell being the mass of big marine life. Visibility around the rocky and choppy islands isn’t great sadly but it is a once in a lifetime place to come to.
Never go out for dinner hungry and without a plan. Our previous chicken joint wasn’t open Monday or Tuesday so after walking around aimlessly we settled on a place on the ‘cheap’ street in town for a $6 menu del dia. They only had fish which wasn’t what we wanted, it wasn’t great but all the places along this street looked a bit naff.
Tuesday 22nd August - Day 322
On planning the next two days we had realised that we’d covered all the best things to do in Santa Cruz already. It also didn’t help that the weather was grey and drizzly so it meant beach days weren’t exactly going to be popping.
So with this in mind we had a slow start and went over to the dock to catch a $1pp taxi boat over to Las Grietas. We did see a turtle on our way over to the other side of the island which was cool.
The walk to Las Grietas was paved and not massively interesting. It did cross over some mangroves and Playa los alemanes where some optimistic beach goers were trying to seize the day, despite the grey weather.
At the Las Grietas entrance we waited a short while for a mandatory guide to show us through (every hour it seemed) which cost $10.
The walk through to the swimming areas was cool, the volcanic rock and minimal foliage landscape was becoming familiar to us as we went around the islands.
There are lots of lizards all over the place. Luke really likes them and therefore has a million photos of them on his phone.
Timing this at lunchtime meant the swimming area was more or less empty. The canyon was certainly pretty and the brackish water gave an interesting blue colour to the water.
The water was pretty cold so we couldn’t spend a massive amount of time here but the views under the surface were cool. Not many fish are knocking around but I guess we are now spoiled.
There was a smaller pool at the back of the canyon entrance which Luke had a short walk through on the slippery rocks before turning around.
Back in town we walked over to the Charles Darwin Scientific Station. Again this cost $10 for a guide around the area which showed us various flora such as the giant cactus tree.
The main attraction for us was the baby Tortuga. Given the introduced predators on the island and the less than secure way the giant animals lay their eggs (a hole somewhere with rather soft shells for months) most are brought into the wildlife centre to be hatched and released. But they are very cute.
There was a classic Galapagos giant saddleback in the centre that was showcasing some of the natural evolution traits at work; long neck used for reaching higher foliage to eat, curved underside for romping the ladies without being fatally turtle rolled on his back and the amazing shape of the shell.
We also got to meet the infamous lonesome George, last of the Pinta Island giant tortoises.
Once the short walking tour was done we had a quick peruse of the museum part.
On our way back to the hotel we stopped by the nearby beach, home to the classic array of crabs and iguanas.
This evening we decided to cook some pasta, which ended up being one of the most expensive homemade pasta dishes we’ve ever done. All in for 4 portions, it cost about £10 for the basic veggie pasta dish.
Wednesday 23rd August - Day 323
Once again the weather wasn’t so great for a beach day but we went for it anyway. We hiked over to Tortuga bay, about an hour's walk from town and across some interesting island terrain.
The initial path to the beach is well laid out where we could watch the lizards and birds scuttle around.
On the beach there were a ton of marine Iguanas soaking up what little sun there was. Hilariously someone had taken the initiative to draw a no go zone around them.
Tortuga beach was quite nice but the weather didn’t do it any favours. There were plenty of people, mainly kids, running around so we parked up at the end near the mangroves and relaxed for a bit.
We tried snorkelling but the hotel snorkels sucked (not a $5 well spent) and visibility was terrible. It was cold as well so Nicola made the executive decision to not get her head wet.
Not a sunny beach day but we made the most of it for an hour or so.
Once bored we went back to the hotel, spent the afternoon researching Patagonia and had the rest of the leftover pasta.
We had a final walk into town and along the pier at night to watch the sharks.
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