A room with a view, Cactus trees, Cranes and Mockingbirds

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Saturday 6^th December 2014



Arriving back to Santa Cruz was a case of coming back to the reality of hostel accommodation; check out our photo of the view from the bedroom window. It is a bit different to the Albemarle Hotel on Isabela! The room, however, was clean, cheap and had air con, so no complaints. On Saturday we hiked to Tortuga Bay, about four kilometres, so eight kilometres round trip. The camino that leads to the bay is simply a granite-built pathway, so the only way to get there is either to walk or get a boat and then swim ashore. It was a lovely walk through an Opuntias and Mangrove forest that stretches for miles. The Opuntias are cactus trees. This is the only place on earth where cacti grow as trees, rather than plants. They have evolved this way because they needed to be very tall and strong, growing as they do, directly on to bare granite rock, with their roots clinging into crevices, rather than in soil. A pretty yellow finch, called a Cactus Finch, one of “Darwin´s Finches”, feeds on the lichen that grows exclusively on the Opuntias.



Tortuga Bay is stunningly wild and beautiful; it is the largest sandy beach in the whole Galapagos archipelago. We love the fact that despite its huge expanse of golden sand, no roads will ever be built to it, no hotels, beach bars, nothing. It is national park, a protected area, where the sand dunes are strictly off-limits to humans. The dunes are where the turtles lay their eggs. The rocks are where the marine iguanas lay their eggs, so designated areas are off limits to us too, and rightly so. The bay is fringed by white and red mangroves, so it provides a haven for young rays and sharks as well as turtles and iguana. We took our snorkels but didn´t use them. The sea was too rough and a bit chilly. It was the surfer’s time to enjoy the waves. We just enjoyed the beach, had a quick dip in the sea and watched the large cranes and pelicans fishing. We took a picnic, so spent several glorious hours there. Mockingbirds were running all over the beach digging in the sand.



On our return to town we did a little detour to see a lagoon called “Las Ninfas” at the foot of a steep granite cliff near the harbour. The lagoon is freshwater, fed from the highlands. The harbour is, of course, salt water, and there is a channel where the two meet. Young rays and sharks come in to the lagoon at high tide for protection. There is one fish, the Silver Snapper, who is called the King of Las Ninfas, because he has evolved to be able to live in both salt and fresh water, so the lagoon is a breeding ground for this adaptable fish. Our detour to the lagoon added another kilometre, so we clocked up about nine all together and we reckoned that earned us a good meal out and a few beers! We drink beer because we cannot afford the wine here, where a cheap bottle of Chilean plonk costs $30; we are suffering from “wine withdrawal” symptoms. The beer is also expensive e.g. a $1 bottle of beer, which costs $1.80 in Quito, costs between $3 and $6 here, usually the latter. The Galapagos is expensive, due to its location 1,000 kilometres off the mainland, but we knew it would be. Despite this we wouldn´t swap the last two weeks for anything.



Sunday 7^th December 2014



This morning we re-visited the Darwin Centre to say “Adios” to the Giant Tortoises there and then visited the beach to see the Marine Iguanas for the last time. This afternoon we spent packing the bags and just chilling around the hostel. We also got online and booked up Christmas. People keep asking “Where you be for Christmas?” and our reply has been “We don´t know!” Well, now we do! We have noticed when looking online, that places are starting to get rather booked up over the Festive Season, so we thought we had better make a decision. We have booked a hotel from 24^th – 27^th December on the Isla del Sol, the Island of the Sun, on Lake Titicaca, just over the border from Peru, in Bolivia. So, sometime between flying to Peru on 15^th December and Christmas Eve, we need to get buses and a boat to the Isla del Sol, the legendary birthplace of the Inca Nation. In between, we shall visit Machu Pitchu, as well as the Sacred Valley near Cusco, the floating reed islands near Puno on the Peruvian side of the lake and Copacabana in Bolivia, where we can get a boat for the two hour crossing to the island; so a busy festive season for us, but without the Christmas shopping!



Monday 8^th December 2014



The journey back to Quito took nine hours, firstly a jeep, then a boat, then a plane and then a taxi in the rush hour, getting us to our hostel at about 6.30 p.m. We were pleased to find that the rucksack that we had left behind was still where we left it (chained up in the hostel basement). We re-packed both rucksacks, chained them in the basement and just packed our two small backpacks for our four day trip to Baños de Agua Santa in the central Andes region, where we are heading tomorrow morning, until Saturday.



We were rather sad to leave the Galapagos; we could have stayed there a long time. We have so many treasured memories of our encounters with the animals there as well as thousands of photos, which we can peruse at leisure again and again back home…



“<em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">To be able to enjoy one´s past life is to live twice” the Roman poet Martial, 40 A.D.



Martial believed that one of the most valuable gifts that we have is our ability to collect memories, and that travelling is one of the best ways to accumulate them. How true!

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Photos

White Crane
on Tortuga Beach

Cactus Finch
"Pinzone Amarillo" in Spanish

Grey Crane and Pelican
Rival fishermen perched on the mangroves

Tortuga Bay
Wild and beautifully unspoilt

Giant Finch in the mangroves
He has the most beautiful birdsong

Las Ninfas
Home of the Silver Snapper

Room with a view!
Not quite the Albemarle, and such a view, not for the fist time!