Galapagos (Part III) - Hanging Around

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Day 746 (14.04.09)

So we'd stayed around in the Galapagos to try and do some diving here but that hadn't worked out to plan giving us a couple of days at our leisure to enjoy the sights of Santa Cruz Island. Most of the day cruises we could take would only take us to see things that we'd already experienced on our cruise so we searched out some other options.

After a quiet morning we teamed up with Ryan from our cruise and made our way to Tortuga bay. Around 45 minutes walk from town through cactus forest, Bahia Tortuga is a large expanse of white sand beach and, probably due to the walk, there are very few people there.

We walked along the beach until we found a pool tucked behind a rocky spit and plonked ourselves down on the sands beside it. After a wander where we saw a large pile of sunbathing marine iguanas sneezing out the salt from their underwater excursions we returned to find two sealion pups playing happily in the pool. They weren't at all put off by some goggled tourists swimming along with them so we were well entertained for the rest of the afternoon.

We'd found a street filled with cheap eateries so filled up for dinner at one of these places before having a few drinks at the Limon y Cafe bar, one of the only bars in town.

Day 747 (15.04.09)

We met up with our friend Mark who'd been over to Isabela island for a couple of days and we already had an itinerary planned for the day! Hopping on a 60 cent water taxi we took the short ride over to Finch Bay where we could walk to Las Grietas, a steep sided gorge with a lagoon for swimming.

The walk took us past a small bay, some salt lakes and over a lava boulder path until we arrived at the lagoon feeling very hot and more than ready for the cool waters of the lagoon. It was a beautiful place for a swim, very refreshing and even better that we managed to time our visit between two fairly large groups of school kids! With our goggles on we also managed to spot several large blue parrot fish who'd somehow found their way in.

After some lunch back in the port we made our way back to Tortuga Bay for another afternoon of sun, sand and swimming. Today we were joined in our pool by a marine iguana, lots of fishing pelicans, another little sealion and a beautiful colour-changing octpous. Well worth the walk out there.

An evening meal at our now favourite Tropicana restaurant and some cards completed what had been an unforgettable holiday within a holiday in the Galapagos.

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