Blogs from Santa Cruz Island, Galápagos, Ecuador, South America

Wow! ….the Journey begins…. The big blue marble we live on contains a plethora of incredible and unique places to visit. Whether it is the topography, the natural wonders, the flora or the fauna, our earth never seems to disappoint. Scientists love to research and speculate how our planet became the way it is in the present day. Of the many places to visit, the Galápagos Islands is an absolute must for those searching for a truly mesmerizing look at species not seen elsewhere. The mention of the Galápagos also brings forward one of the more interesting scientists of the last few centuries…a chap named Darwin. His five-year journey on the HMS Beagle resulted in basically throwing the scientific world on its ear a few decades later when he published the famous “On the Origin of ... read more

Arrived at Galapagos Seymour Airport on Baltra Island, mid morning and transferred to our Motor Yacht,'Yollita 2'. No one told us what happened to Yollita 1 and we didn't really want to know. Whilst putting on life jackets to board our Panga (motorised rib dinghy) to take us to the yacht, which would take us to the north coast of Santa Cruz island, we saw Galapagos Sea Lions, Sally Lightfoot Crabs, and Frigate birds. Yollita was a large motor yacht with 8 double guest cabins and a crew of 8. Our cabin was spacious although fairly basic, but with a good bathroom including large shower. After a decent lunch, we set off in the Pangas for our first exploration of the beach (Bachus beach) and some beach snorkel practice. Saw Red footed Boobies, frigate birds, marine ... read more

Having already arrived in Santa Cruz, it was a very calm night on the boat, but some of us stayed up a bit too late so nearly everyone was quite tired. After the usual 07:00 breakfast we left for our dry-landing onto Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz which is on the opposite of the island from where we landed by plane on Monday. Today was our Giant Tortoise day, but our first stop after being bundled into a mini-bus, was to walk around a couple of old volcanic craters within Galapagos National Park where Fabian explained some details of the flora. As we drove up from the port Fabian told us to look out for tortoises as they make their way up from the lowlands to the highlands.. After the crater walk we were driven to a ... read more

Today was our last trip with Hernan who was leaving the ship after the morning excursion. We were up at 6 am - our bodies awoke an hour too early! - and it was pitch black. We dressed and said our morning prayers as the sun rose, then joined the group for breakfast as usual. We piled into the Zodiacs and went to Black Turtle Cove on the north shore of Santa Cruz island. En route we saw Golden Rays gliding and leaping out of the water. These manta rays leap high above the sea and land on their backs. This is because they have parasites on their backs and this is the way to rid themselves of them. (We did not imagine that we would experience this phenomenon so emphatically the next day.) On ... read more

Up at the crack of dawn to catch the early morning flight from Quito to Baltra Airport via an hour stopover at Guayaquil Airport. Guayaquil is the largest and most populous town in Ecuador. As we flew over the Andean mountain range we saw perched on plateaux large towns linked to each other by single roads. These roads seem relatively modern from the air and one can only imagine that the earlier townsfolk must have walked up and down mountain paths to communicate with each other. Eventually we arrived at Baltra where we passed through immigration and each paid our $100 nature park entrance fee. The Galapagos Islands are one big nature reserve and movement around the islands is very tightly controlled. Food security was exceedingly strict as we found out during our trip. Stray ... read more