Ecuador // Galapagos // Santa Cruz
The boat ride to Santa Cruz was possibly the worst of my life (until swimming with great whites in South Africa!). The water was so so so choppy and our bodies were literally thrown about the cabin for half of the ride. The other half was spent listening to the other people on the boat puke and trying not to puke ourselves. It was not fun. Looking back at the itinerary we received for the trip I can't help but laugh at the description that was included for this boat ride:
"After bidding a fond farewell to Isabela, we board a fast boat for a scenic ride to Santa Cruz Island"
Fast, yes. Scenic? I wouldn't know.
After safely landing on Santa Cruz, we said goodbye to most of our group and headed to El Chato Reserve where several subspecies of Galapagos giant tortoise live. We hiked around the reserve for a bit, gawking at these huge and amazing creatures.
The next day we headed back to the sea in our kayaks and paddled around Divine Bay and Punta Estrada. We saw some blue-footed boobies and tons of little crabs and fish. It was beautiful.
That afternoon we hiked to Tortuga Bay, a beautiful and absolutely pristine white sand beach. There were tons of land and marine iguanas, herons, fishes, and even some baby black tipped sharks!
The next day was unfortunately our last day on the islands. We had to fly out to the mainland that afternoon but we had some time in the morning to visit the Charles Darwin Research Station.
We learned about many of the endemic species we saw on our trip and about the ongoing conservation efforts in the Galapagos. We also got to see alll the baby tortoises!
Click here to watch the video Dennis edited from our trip!!