Blogs from Santa Cruz Island, Galápagos, Ecuador, South America - page 14

Advertisement


Hoi hoi, Hier dan eindelijk weer een berichtje en ditmaal niet meer vanaf het zuidelijk, maar vanaf het noordelijk halfrond. Jawel, we zijn de evenaar overgestoken en bevinden ons nu in land nummero uno qua cocaïneproductie, oftewel Colombia. Maar voordat ik me uitwijd over dit mooie warme land met idemdito mensen eerst terug naar het paradijs Galapagos genaamd. Na een paar dagen te hebben doorgebracht op het meest touristische eiland Santa Cruz kropen we aan boord van de luxe catamaran de Comoran II. Een touragent die zijn vak verstond had onze deze 6-daagse trip aangesmeerd. We gingen eigenlijk voor een 3-daagse en voor de helft voor het geld, maar onder het mum van we zijn hier maar 1x gingen we met de beste man in zee. Aan boord werden we verwelkomd door een vriendelijke bemanning en ... read more
Strand Santa Cruz
Kloof waar je heerlijk in kunt zwemmen
Verse vis


As there are so many fab photos and stuff to tell about the Galapagos Islands, we´ve split the blog in two and this is part 1, in which we visit Santa Cruz, South Plaza and Santa Fe. We were very, very excited about the Galapagos trip and we have to say that we weren´t let down, it is an experience like no other if you are a fan of wildlife. As the many species on the island do not consider humans as predators (as the islands were only discovered relatively recently in the grand scheme of things) they are not afraid to be in close proximity with humans and do not tend to act aggressively. Therefore, we were able to get really close to many species we had never seen before or had only seen in ... read more
Pelican ho!
Sea turtle surfaces
A sea of sea lions


After saying a sad farewell to the "Guantanamera" Stace and I checked into a cute little hostel on Isla Santa Cruz. This is the most populated of the islands and has plenty of little shops, restaurants and tourists. We went straight out to book a dive trip for the following day. My stomach had been dodgy since the second day on the boat but fortunately I didn´t miss any of the activities, managing to do all the land and sea excursions without incident (sometimes only just!). Again I was lucky I wasn´t feeling too bad on the day of our dive. We were really keen to dive at Gordon Rocks, the most famous dive site in the Galapagos and one of the most famous in the world as it is a favourite haunt for hammerhead sharks. ... read more
Room with a View, Isla Isabella
Sea Star, Isla Isabella
Spotted Ray, Isla Isabella


Where to start? It´s been a while between entries for a few reasons: 1) We were in the Galapagos Islands on a cruise boat for 8 days so (blissfully) no internet there and well 2) For the other week we have been just cruising the islands, diving, snorkelling and along the way I have managed to spend a lot of time in the bano/loo with a dodgy stomach bug. So, there´s a bit to recount, therefore prepare yourselves for some really long, long-winded reading in your sneaky lunch hour.... Let me just start with AMAZING, AMAZING and AMAZING! The Galapagos Islands were more than I could have ever dreamed. The wildlife we literally came face to face with was unsurpassable and the islands themselves so different and unique in their own way. Our journey didn´t start ... read more
Waved Albatross
Marine Iguana
Stace & the Sea Lion


Our only day without snorkeling... All day on Puerto Ayora with giant tortoises! In the morning we went up to the highlands to a "farm" to see the tortoises. They weren't in captivity, and they could go in and out of the national park, they're just more protected. We saw a couple within the farm and then also some in the national park in the actual wild. They are huge! Just like in the pictures. Massive! Some of the younger ones were smaller, but still big! They can live 150-200 years and they walk 15 km over a couple of months to the beach to lay their eggs, but then they return to the highlands to live. Before lunch we had some time to explore Puerto Ayora. We walked into town away from the tourist strip ... read more
Huge!
Giant Tortoise!
That's Right


Having decided to stay for 10 days in the galapagos, I devoted 4 of those to learning to dive, with a very gorgeous diving instructor - James, and his flirtatious little side kick - Christian. The four days were pretty standard, some theory, some practical under water, and lots of giggles, mostly involving the guys attempting to throw me off the boat (usually unsuccessfully). When it all ended I was $400 less well off with a padi open water diving qualification which meant of course that I wanted to go diving some more. Throughout the holiday I had been hearing about people seeing whale sharks in the area, but at the more difficult diving sites. There were also a lot of sighting of hammer head sharks, galapagos sharks and white tips, so there was lots of ... read more

South America » Ecuador » Galápagos » Santa Cruz Island April 22nd 2009

The night before coming to the Galapagos I stopped of in Guayaquil and there I met a lovely girl from Brighton called Jenny, who helped me sort my ticket and was also coming to the Galapagos the following day. As I passed on the mass of information that scott gave me, she ended up staying in the same hostel, and same room over here, along with 2 of her friends; Charlie from wales, and Kristina from Norway. Anyway, we all went on a day tour upto the highlands on santa Cruz to see the lava tunnels, more giant turtles and a large inactive crater. Firstly we went to see more turtles, but this time at a farm. The best part about the farm was the ability to get inside some of the turtle shells on display ... read more
charlie needing help to get out
Kristina
Jenny

South America » Ecuador » Galápagos » Santa Cruz Island April 20th 2009

Today was a pretty lazy day including a mass of internet action and blogging. But I did find time to make it to Las Grietas, a huge split in the rocks with a pool between them - sadly not so filled with fish, but very beautiful all the same. It took 20 mins to walk there, across a very vaguely sign posted rock path, which i managed to get lost on route home hehe. On the way I went past some interesting salt lakes, and managed to spot a heron (I think). Anyway, once there it was very scenic, snorkeling was quite fun, although i broke several nails crossing the rocks (what a traumatic thing to happen), and it was quite dark in places which freaked me out a bit - not sure how Im going ... read more
P4190113
P4190114
P4190115

South America » Ecuador » Galápagos » Santa Cruz Island April 15th 2009

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 ... read more
Las Grietas
Beautiful Bahia Tortuga
Iguanas

South America » Ecuador » Galápagos » Santa Cruz Island April 11th 2009

Whilst in Ecuador we took the opportunity to take a trip to the Galapagos Islands. Nothing prepared us for the amazing wildlife, both in terms of its diversity and proximity. Of the 13 islands that make up the archipelago we stayed on one of the largest islands Santa Cruz in Puerto Ayora from where we took day trips to the surrounding islands. On our flight over to the Galapagos islands we got to sit upfront in the cockpit which was a surprise and all thanks to the lady who sold the tickets to us the day before. She had mentioned that her husband was a pilot which Sima had grasped but the rest was lost in translation! We soon realised why the islands are the second biggest marine reserve in the World by the incredible marine ... read more
01 Our destination on the plane radar
02 Sima enjoys the views from the cockpit
03 Duncan is shown what all the guages do




Tot: 0.155s; Tpl: 0.008s; cc: 5; qc: 80; dbt: 0.1087s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.2mb