Galapagos Islands. (March, 2022, Part III).

Day four of our tour was spent on Isla Santa Cruz, where we mingled with Galapagos Giant Tortoises.  After riding zodiacs into Puerto Ayora, the largest town on the islands, we jumped onto a bus for ride to El Chato 2 Ranch, which bills itself as a “tortuga crossing private ecological reserve”.

No one on the islands is allowed to own a tortoise.  They roam freely and are strongly protected under Ecuadorian law.  The owner of El Chato 2 Ranch was smart enough to fill his sprawling property with watering holes and numerous fruit trees favored by tortoises.  It’s like a private resort for them.  Hence, there are a whole lot of tortoises to see here, and the ranch is a top tourist destination.

After walking the ranch, observing the tortoises, and taking pictures with them, it was back to Puerto Ayora for an hour or so of free time in town.

Stephanie and I had to hunt down more sun screen.  I mentioned in our previous post that having plenty of sun screen is a necessity.  Inexplicably we failed to bring enough.

The grocery store by the pier sells small tubes of sun screen for $15.  I don’t think so.  I realize that prices are higher on the islands, but I’ll wear long clothes every day before I get robbed paying $15 for a $3 tube of sun screen.  After walking away from the pier area and down some side streets, we found a pharmacy that sold a similar size tube of sun screen for $6.50.  Much better.

For reasons I don’t understand we take a zodiac back to the Archipel for lunch.  Since we are returning to town in the afternoon, we suggest having lunch at one of the local restaurants.  Nope, to the Archipel we went.  Why?  Per our naturalist, because that is where chef cooks the food.  The crew was expecting us after all.

This was the only day we did not go snorkeling.  It was also the only day we had a three hour break in the middle of the day.  I’m pretty sure that everyone took a nap.  We certainly did.  Thank God we returned to the Archipel for lunch.

At 3:00 PM we ventured back to Isla Santa Cruz to visit the Centro de Crianza Fausto Llerena (the Galapagos Giant Tortoise breeding center) located in the Estacion Cientifica Charles Darwin (the research center).

Here we saw various types of tortoises at different ages, from very young to full grown adults.  The tortoises are kept segregated by species, each of which corresponds to a separate island.   It was a nice center, but did not take much time to see.

Afterwards we again had a few hours of free time before returning to the Archipel.  So our group walked back into Puerto Ayora, found a bar, and had a few beers.

Isla Floreana was our next stop.  On day five we resumed our normal schedule of walking and snorkeling in both the morning and afternoon.  Our nature walk on Floreana was notable for seeing flamingos in a lagoon and a sea turtle sleeping in the surf.

Actually our naturalist thought the turtle was dead.  It sure looked dead.  But that dead turtle woke up and moved pretty damn quick when one of our group approached it.

Floreana had some of my favorite snorkeling for the week, as it was here that I saw the greatest number of Pacific Green Sea Turtles.

On day six we were on Isla Española at about 8:45 AM when sweat began pouring into my eyes.  I quickly used my shirt to dry my face.  Hmmm, that might not have been the best idea.  The stench of my shirt was worse than the stinging sweat in my eyes.  I made it a point to change shirts at lunch.

The morning walk at Gardner Bay on Española was a great start to what turned out to be my favorite day of the trip.  We spent the morning on a beautiful white sand beach surrounded by sea lions, marine iguanas, and assorted birds.  No trails to walk, no rocks to hop over, no steps to climb.

Later that morning I went snorkeling with sea lions.  One inquisitive sea lion swam past me several times at very close range.  At first I thought he was playing.  But I began to wonder if he wanted me to buzz off.  Not wanting a definitive answer from mister sea lion, I moved on after about five minutes.

Our walk on Suarez Point that afternoon was notable for three reasons: the punishing two plus mile “walk” hopping and moving over large rocks in the blazing sun; awesome views of the ocean and wildlife; and, the unfortunate near heat stroke episode.  This was by far the most demanding and potentially dangerous hike of the trip.  And, in my opinion, the most fascinating.

We started the walk in a protected bay.  Young sea lions playing, marine iguanas resting, and crabs scurrying about covered the sandy beach and nearby rocks.  The “trail” (i.e. marked path over rocks) wound through brush filled with small land birds and led us a beautiful overlook with soaring cliffs, crashing waves, and numerous sea birds.  The “trail” finished after passing through a boobie nesting area.

Isla de San Cristóbal was our stop for the final day and a half of our tour.  Green sand beaches, sea lions, marine iguanas, lava lizards, and land and sea birds were all on display.  Basically a greatest hits parade.

On our final afternoon we headed to Witch Hill.  As our zodiacs neared the beach, the sky was dark, rain was on the horizon, and the sun was shining.  Soon after we landed it proceeded to pour for about 30 minutes.  Nobody cared.  It was our last day, the beach was beautiful, and the sun was shining through the rain.

The only thing we really missed during our week on board Archipel I was quality time viewing the night sky.  Unfortunately there was a near full moon out each night until about 2 AM.  The beauty of the stars was not apparent until after the moon set.

We awoke one night about 3 AM and went out to see the stars.  Bright stars covered the southern sky.  I’ve never seen anything like it.  But as brilliant as the stars were, we were too tired to care.  Five minutes later it was back to bed.

As our trip came to an end we packed up and headed to the airport in San Cristóbal for our Monday afternoon flight to Quito.  Once again our luggage was scanned, this time to ensure no animals, plants, or other protected matter was being taken from the islands.  Our Transit Control Cards were scanned as proof of departure.

Stephanie mentioned that the Galapagos Islands were her best week ever, and it was mine as well.

On Tuesday we have an early wake up call to catch a 6:20 AM flight to Cuenca, Ecuador, our home for the next month.

Garrett and Stephanie

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