Galapagos

I just returned from an AMAZING week in Galapagos. It went something like this:

On Sunday, we boarded AeroGal, flew from Quito to Guayaquil, and then to Baltra Island. Baltra Island is a tiny island that has an airport, and a base for the Navy. From the airport, we took a bus, to a ferry, which took us across a canal to Santa Cruz island, where we got on another bus, that drove us to the other side of Santa Cruz, where we got on a panga (which is like a dinghy) which took us to our cruise ship where we were staying for the week, Coral 1. From Coral 1 we got back on the panga, and went back to shore, where we got on another bus that took us to the Charles Darwin Research Station. That is where we first got to see Giant Tortoises (Tortuga). Our naturalist guide took us through the station to see all the different places with tortugas, including the babies, and Lonesome George. There is good news for Lonesome George though! Currently, he has three eggs, that may or may not turn into little George babies. We will just have to wait and see. Instead of getting back on the bus to leave the station, we walked through the town to do some shopping and such. Then we got back on the panga, and went back to the boat, concluding our first day.

On Monday we disembarked at Española Island. Españonla is one of the best places in Galapagos to see sea lions, Blue Footed Boobies, Nazca Boobies, marine iguana, and albatross. Also, on Española, you can find the blowhole, which creates a great picture opportunity. When we got back from Española we went swimming off the back of our boat, although I didn´t swim for long because the current was much stronger than I was in that area. Later on we went to Gardner Bay, which is on Española, and went snorkeling for the first time. They didn´t do any sort of teaching for how to snorkel, so it took me some time to figure it out, but from then on I had a great time! The snorkeling was beautiful, on the first day, my favorite thing that I saw was many different kinds of parrotfish. We were also able to walk on the beach there, which was covered by sea lions.

On Tuesday, we went to Floreana Island. Floreana is the last island in Galapagos where flamingos can be found. We did find them. Not close enough for good pictures, but close enough for us to see. We went snorkeling there also, which was where we saw our first shark - a white tipped reef shark. After lunch, we went to Champion Island, which is very close to Floreana, for deep water snorkeling. Deep water snorkeling was terrifying at first, and then amazing. And that was where we saw our first sea turtle. In the afternoon, we went back onto Floreana to go to the Floreana Post Office. The Post Office was created in the days of whaling ships. Men would leave letters for their families there, and the next person who came by was honor bound to take them back to deliver them if the address was anywhere near where they lived. The post office is still functional, although it is being used in the same way today. You can put in a postcard, and whenever a group comes through, you go through to see what the addresses are, and if you can, you take a letter to deliver in person. After we saw the post office we went snorkeling again. This time we saw dozens of sea turtles, and rays, as well as playing with sea lions in the water, all in all, making it an amazing day.

Wednesday we started off by going to North Seymour Island. This is a great place to find Frigate Birds, as there are many nesting areas there. There are a lot of nests for Blue Footed Boobies as well, and we saw many adorable baby birds. On Wednesday, some of the other people that had been on our cruise ship with us departed. While they were doing that, we went back to the beach at Baltra Island for some relaxation. In the afternoon, we went back to Santa Cruz Island to see land iguanas.

Thursday we went to Rabida Island in the morning. Rabida is the only island with a red sand beach. And we were able to go snorkeling there. In the afternoon, we went to Egas Port on Santiago Island, which has a black sand beach. There we saw adorable baby sea lions, penguins, tons of marine iguanas, and Darwin´s Toilet, which is a formation in the rocks on the coast. We also saw fur sea lions there, which is the second species of sea lion in Galapagos.

Friday we went to Fernandina Island in the morning. We saw three sea lions right away that had been born that morning and were tiny and incredibly cute. Fernandina Island is composed in large part of lava, so it was a really good chance to see two different kinds of lava. We were taking a group picture at one point when Eugenia, one of our ACLAS directors, lost her hat to the wind. It flew down into a crack in the lava. We had a rescue mission that was unsuccessful, but our guide told us he would get it when they came back the next week, so it won´t stay there forever. Afterwards, we went deep water snorkeling again and saw five sea turtles, and beautiful sea stars. In the afternoon, we went to Tagus Cove on Isabela Island. First we took a panga ride around the cove to see penguins, and then we took a hike up to the view point of Darwin Lake, which involves 170 stairs or so. Also that night on the boat, we celebrated crossing the Equator.

Saturday morning we went to Bartoleme Island in the morning. We were going up about 380 stairs to see the very famous and beautiful view of Pinnacle Rock. It was amazing, but it was a good thing we did that in the morning because the afternoon would have been too hot. When we came back down we went snorkeling where we saw a lot of beautiful fish, sea stars, rays, and a shark. We were very excited to see the shark as it was only our second one. In the afternoon, we went to Black Turtle Cove on Santa Cruz, where we rode in the pangas to see sea turtles. There were lots of them, and they were all very beautiful. We all tried to take good pictures but I´m not sure how many turned out.

Finally, there was this morning, Sunday morning. We woke up early, and disembarked at Santa Cruz again, where we took a bus to the highlands where we were able to see more tortugas on a wildlife reserve. We were all dressed for the sun still, but instead, it rained, so we made ponchos out of blue plastic trash bags. We were all looking very stylish in our trash bags, shorts, and rubber boots that we had to wear there. It was a lot of fun though. Then we boarded the plane and came home. All in all, it was an amazing week and I can´t wait to go back someday!