Blogs from Santa Cruz Island, Galápagos, Ecuador, South America - page 10

Raus aus dem Moloch Guayaquil und dank Ueberbuchung in der First Class mit Aerogal nach Galapogos, genauer nach Baltra, der kleinen, Santa Cruz vorgelagerten Flughafen-Insel. Zunaechst wurde jedoch sichergestellt, dass wir keine extrainsularen Samen oder Raubfeinde einschleppen wuerden. In Puerto Ayora, dem Hafenstaedtchen auf Santa Cruz, taten wir uns am spottbilligen Frischfisch guetlich und wandelten erstaunt ueber mit Iguanas verstopfte Gehsteige, vorbei an Mangroven voller gelangweilter Pelikane. Interessant ist, dass ein Dutzend Iguanas ungefaehr so stinkt wie ein Festivalklo am dritten Tag. In der menschenleeren Tortoise-Bay fuhren mir mit einem Kanu auf Entdeckungsreise und sichteten einen Weissspitzen-Riffhai, eine Seeschildkroete beim Luftholen; beim Baden am Strand mussten wir auf Stachelrochen achten. Morgen werden wir an Bord der Princess of Galapagos gehen.... read more

We flew in to Santa Cruz with no accommodation or any plans, just a vague idea that we wanted to see lots and do lots. Within a couple of hours we managed to find a hotel within our budget ($25/night) and had booked ourselves on a day trip to Floreana the next day, two days of diving after Floreana and a three day/two night tour to Isla Isabela to end. Plan. For the rest of the first day we took a stroll through the main road in Peurto Ayora. The sea was crystal clear giving the illusion of a warm Caribbean sea, we soon found out the next day that it isn’t. We’re in the middle of the Pacific and although the water is warmer than British waters, it can still turn you blue! The cool ... read more

We woke up very excited and got trusty Antonio to take us to the airport, got scanned for seeds and plants (not weapons) and got on our flight. The flight took about 2 hours and we were surprised to get a chicken salad during it which was nice. The air hostesses on this flight were top notch 5/6. Not much else happened on this flight apart from getting gassed out by insect repellant just before landing.We landed and were shipped onto a bus with our luggage joining us when we got to the boat. It took about 20 minutes to get from the airport to the dock where we encountered our first taste of animals, sea lions chilling out on a bench, Sally lightfoot crabs, jellyfish and blue footed boobies. A small boat took us to ... read more

The last day of our cruise, so no snorkelling. But we were up early for a 7 am dinghy tour into the mangroves on the north-west coast of Santa Cruz before docking at Balktra just to our north. Bahia Tortuga negra is a range of mangrove swamps populatred by turtles looking for snactuary whilst breeding. We cruised a round for a while but eventually found a little backwater where there were several turtles, then eventually found a mating pair. They were locked together, cruising slowly around the pool, between and around the two pangas. When the sun started to get higher and the heat began to build, the mossies came out - and we'd forgotten to bring the aerogard off the boat. Having said that, they aren't as aggressive as Australian mosquitos, so weren't that much ... read more

When we first arrived in the Galapagos on Wednesday, the plane landed at the main airport on Isla Baltra, a small island just north of Santa Cruz. It's a convoluted process to get from the airport to the main town of Puerto Ayora: the airline bus takes us all for a 10 minute ride to a ferry, where our bags are loaded on board and we make our way across the channel from Baltra to Isla Santa Cruze. There we got a taxi for the 40 minute drive to Puerto Ayora. The first day of our Cruise. We were told by our travel agent to meet the cruise group at Baltra airport at 10:30 am on Friday morning. We assumed the cruise boat was going from somewhere on Baltra. To get there from Puerto Ayora back ... read more