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We got up at 5:30 am and got packed up to head to our second island: Santa Cruz. We met Sebastian in the hotel restaurant at 6:30 overlooking the sparkling ocean. The staff had kindly prepared an early breakfast of scrambled eggs, ham, and toast, as well as deliciously refreshing watermelon juice. The fresh juice here was absolutely amazing. At 7:00, the white pickup truck taxi arrived and took us on the short distance to the small airport. Although we felt we could use more time to explore the island, we were excited to begin another new journey. As soon as we arrived at the airport, they hand-checked our luggage "they looking for sea lions and boobies" as Sebastian jokingly said to us. We bought a few postcards and stamps (a bit expensive at $1 each) and were immediately led to the tarmac to board our 5 passenger plane. Craig, Sebastian, and I were the only passengers. It was a fun half hour flight with great views of the ocean and the islands below. Craig thought he even spotted a whale spout in the ocean as we were ascending.
We landed at the "airport island" of Baltra at 9:01. It is an uninhabited island which is dotted with abandoned U.S. military buildings from World War II when the Americans wanted to protect the Panama Canal following the attack on Pearl Harbor. Now the island houses only an airport. Most of the land iguanas which had lived there previously have been relocated for their own safety. There were a few outdoor souvenir shops alongside the gate, but they were very overpriced. We browsed in a few of the shops and I found a place which would stamp our passports with a decorative Galapagos stamp for free. As soon as we were finishing up, Sebastian motioned to alert us that the bus to the ferry was ready to leave. We got on the bus for a 20 minute ride across the island to the canal. On the way, we saw some of the abandoned U.S. military buildings from the bus. As we approached the ferry landing, the road zig-zagged its way down to the water's edge. Here is where we left the bus behind and boarded the small ferry to Santa Cruz. It literally just crossed the narrow canal, and then we got right off again. We were now on our second island, the more populated and commercial island of Santa Cruz. We met our driver (another Angel) who was waiting for us in a pickup truck with three mountain bikes in the back. We drove a short way reaching a higher point on the island. We parked the truck at the top of a hill in front of a small elementary school. We adjusted the bikes, put on our helmets and gloves, fastened the water bottles and got comfortable with our bikes. It was a very pleasant mostly downhill ride. Although it was on unpaved roads made up of dirt and volcanic gravel, it was rather comfortable to ride on. It was quite hot out, but the breeze on the bikes was quite enjoyable. After riding a short time, Sebastian stopped and pointed out a tortoise. There he was, sitting right on the edge of the path in front of us. This was a stunning thing to see just wandering around through the fields. Once again we were living in a nature show. We watched him for a moment and then headed off again. Soon afterwards, we rounded a corner to see a very large tortoise smack dab in the middle of the road drinking from a muddy puddle. He seemed to not know whether to eat or drink first, and tried to do both simultaneously. He had some green vegetation sticking out of his mouth as he drank the water. As he raised his head, he was drooling. It was all rather amusing to watch, but it was also unbelievable to come across this gentle giant just lounging in the road. After continuing on for a short distance, we parked the bikes and Sebastian took us into a lava tube. We had been into lava tubes before in Hawaii, most notably in Maui. But those had been barely tall enough to walk through in some places, and in others we had to crawl or duck. This, in contrast, was HUGE. It was the size of a subway tunnel. There was a large pile of bones as we entered the cave, and they turned out to be tortoise bones. Sadly, some will live for hundreds of years but simply make a mistake one day and fall to their death. We continued our ride to Rancho Primicias, a locally owned farm. The national parks release some tortoises to live on farms. The farmers make sure that they are protected and have enough food, and in return they are allowed to charge an entrance fee to tourists to let them walk through their farmland to view the tortoises. It is a nice grass-roots kind of model where everybody wins. Sebastian paid the entrance charge ($3 per person) and we walked through the farmland and fruit trees until we arrived at a dried up pool. Sebastian said that this is often where the tortoises congregate when it is full of water. We walked to the next pool, and lo and behold, there was a huge male sitting in the bright green algae-filled water. The algae lines on his shell showed that he had previously been deeper in the water. He looked right at us and made a a grunting moan that Sebastian said he had never heard a tortoise make before. Craig caught sight of movement off to the left of the pool, and another enormous male came lumbering into our view. All we could see was the top of his shell cresting a small hill. He then stopped to take a rest. We watched the one in the water for a while longer. He opened his mouth wide to expose a pink tongue. Contrasted with the bright green algae covering his face he looked like a Muppet. The tortoise in the distance stood up and started to walk once again. We quietly approached him, and Sebastian said he was one of the largest ones he had seen on a farm like this. He was very photogenic and looked right at me, extending his neck with grass hanging out of his mouth while I photographed him. I found his nostrils to be very cute - two tiny round holes on the front of his head. As we were admiring this beautiful old tortoise, we could hear a loud group of tourists approaching so we retreated. We were very happy that we had some quiet time with the tortoises before their arrival could detract from our visit. Very excited to have seen tortoises in the semi-wild, we started walking back to the entrance of the farm. Along the way we stopped to admire guava, mango, and coffee plants. Sebastian found a dead Galapagos sulfur butterfly, and picked it up to show us its anatomy. He unfurled its tightly wound proboscis which is used for sipping nectar. It was amazing how long it was, and how, even in death, it curled right back up and retracted when he let go of it. We stopped at the small restaurant/snack bar/gift shop at the entrance of the farm. Sebastian showed us some giant tortoise shells on display there. He climbed right inside one and demonstrated how the male's shell has a concave bottom so that it can mount the female for mating. Sebastian's schtick in the tortoise shell was quite amusing, and we joked that if we were skinnier, we would pose in the shells for a Christmas card photo. I saw that they had Inca Kola for sale at the small bar, and I couldn't resist getting one and drinking a toast to Carlos in Peru. Craig and I shared it but we also got a Fanta. We looked at the souvenirs on display, but they were ridiculously priced, even by the standards of the trip so far. Also, we noticed that they were selling keychains made of tortoise shell. They claim that the shells were of tortoises who died of natural causes, which is understandable. But, any time you make a commodity of a product associated with an endangered species, in our opinion, it contributes to the sustained poaching of the animal, so we wanted nothing to do with it. Sebastian cut a fresh passion fruit in half and gave each of us half. Sitting there, digging into the fruit with a spoon, made us feel like we were in Guatemala eating pitaya with the girls. In the end, Craig bought a few additional postcards here before we moved on. We got back on the bikes and started the uphill climb back to the school where we had started. Almost immediately I decided that it was too hot and too difficult to fight up the hills to the starting point. We would be retracing our same path, so it wouldn't be that enjoyable if we were too uncomfortable. Angel had the truck with us, so we loaded up the bikes and rode in the truck. Sebastian said that we should continue our bike ride from our starting point, in the other direction toward Puerto Ayora. By road he said that it was an easy and pleasant ride. This sounded good to us and we decided to take this option instead. It did turn out to be a very nice ride down paved roads and we were enjoying ourselves very much. There was a little bit of traffic, but Angel was always behind us and it was not at all dangerous. We stopped briefly in the small town of Bella Vista and Sebastian bought us chocolate bars with peanuts. He also picked up some sugar wafer cookies and we had a nice break. After our quick snack, we continued down the hilly roadway for the final ride into Puerto Ayora. It was larger than Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, with quite a few cars and many businesses. There was a bike path through town, and we followed it to the Hotel Fernandina. We checked into room 17, which was on the second floor overlooking a small courtyard. We enjoyed the air conditioning for a few minutes while we changed our clothes and quickly freshened up. We needed to meet up with Sebastian for our orientation walk around town. No time to waste; we wanted to absorb everything we could while there. As we started our walk down the cobblestone streets, Sebastian pointed out the very nice World Wildlife Fund building near our hotel. He said that they do a lot of good work in the Galapagos. We walked down to the pier and smelled the strong scent of fish, and then realized why. Fish sellers were cutting up fish on the pier. It had attracted the attention of many pelicans, who seemed more than ready to swoop off with today's catch if someone's attention was distracted for only a moment. The town had a much different feel than Puerto Baquerizo Moreno. It felt like it was really trying to become a resort destination, with many boutiques and galleries, as well as a few trendy restaurants. We ate lunch at La Garrapata, whose logo was a cute smiling little insect-looking critter in a chef's hat. We asked Sebastian what the translation was, and he replied "The Tick." Hmmm...doesn't sound too appetizing when you look at it like that (especially for me, who contracted Lyme disease from a tick bite 3 years ago!) But never judge a book by its cover or a restaurant by its name. The meal was very good. It was their lunch plate which consisted of cream of squash soup, grilled wahoo fish, and a deliciously moist banana cake. We discussed our options for the afternoon. The original plan was to go to the Charles Darwin Research Station and then proceed on to Tortuga Bay. Sebastian was afraid that this wouldn't give us enough time to explore Tortuga Bay, and said that most people's only complaints about the trip is that they don't get enough time there. We did not want to miss out on that so he gave us the option of postponing the Charles Darwin Research Station until tomorrow. He said we could go tomorrow in between kayaking and a hike. He seemed confident that we could fit it all in, so that sounded good to us. Angel picked us up at the restaurant and drove us the short drive to the entrance of the Tortuga Bay trail. We signed into the log book, and Sebastian bought us each a frozen fruit ice cream treat. There were many choices and we chose naranjilla. It was refreshing and we started down the trail, which was a meticulously maintained and gorgeous brick walkway. We saw numerous lava lizards and birds as we walked down the path. Our ice creams melted faster than we could eat them so we had to be careful not to wear it. Sebastian pointed out the opuntia cactus, which is a variety of prickly pear. Only on Santa Cruz does this plant start out as a cactus, and then evolve into a tree as it matures. After so many years, segments of the cactus fuse together and develop bark. They lose their spines and the result is a tree stalk with paddle shaped spiny leaves growing out of the top. We shook our heads in wonder; only in the Galapagos would a cactus evolve into a tree! We also saw some interesting birds, such as mockingbirds and the finches that helped Darwin to formulate his theory of evolution. We arrived at the ocean at around 4:00. Since you are supposed to be back at the entrance to sign out by 6, we were very glad that we hadn't tried to fit in the Darwin Research Station today. As it was, we wouldn't have a whole lot of time here and we knew we would wish we had even more time. The beach was pristine white sand which was as soft as baby powder. There was no debris of any kind (sea weed, pebbles, etc.) and it was absolutely gorgeous. We had never seen anything like it. Sebastian had some errands to do so he took his leave, and we were on our own to explore. We saw some interesting tracks in the sand, small footprints with a line right down the center. We headed to the left-hand side of the beach first. There was a little rocky area and we got to see a marine iguana up close. As it walked, we realized that a marine iguana had made those interesting tracks. The line down the center was made by a dragging iguana tail. I got close to him and took some photos, and he didn't react to my presence at all. When you looked closely at the nearby rocks, you could see that they were alive with juvenile Sally Lightfoot crabs. They tended to scatter and hide as you approached them. We walked down the beach a little ways and came upon a brightly colored adult Sally Lightfoot. I put my camera on video mode and slowly approached it. It was not disturbed by me, and I was able to get a close-up video of it busily eating. The beach turned out to be a lot more vast than it looked. We realized that we had better get a move on. Sebastian had told us that there was a nice lagoon at the far end of the beach, and we headed off towards it. The sand was delightful to walk on and we enjoyed our walk. As we neared the far end of the beach, we ran into none other than Sebastian himself. He pointed out a large male and female marine iguana sprawled out on the sand trying to soak up some of the warmth. They looked like dinosaurs. We said goodbye to Sebastian and continued around the corner to the lagoon. It was a very nice area surrounded by mangroves. The water was quite still. There was only one other couple swimming here. We were losing daylight and wanted to get a quick swim in before it was time to head back. The water was shallow and quite warm, and we floated around watching fish jump up breaking the surface in the beautifully lit lagoon in the waning daylight. After a brief 15 minutes, we needed to start heading back. Everyone was heading back just ahead of us. We reached the brick path at 5:30 and walked at a very brisk pace, checking out in the logbook just three minutes after the 6 pm deadline. As we walked back, we saw some joggers just heading out on the path. We thought that the beach closes at 6, but perhaps people are still allowed to be on the path after that. But by now the sun was starting to set. Sebastian had called Angel to meet us with the truck at 6 pm. We waited for a few minutes in the parking lot, but saw no sign of him, so we decided to find our own way back to town. It was actually just a short walk, and Craig's instinct led him right downtown. In fact, just as we were wondering whether we had reached the main strip, we saw Sebastian crossing the street at the corner and said hello. Sebastian had said that Santa Cruz, as the most touristy town we would visit, had the widest variety of souvenirs, so we wanted to do a little bit of shopping before we ate dinner. I fell in love with a T-shirt depicting Darwin in a Che Guevara hat that said "The Evolution Revolution: Galapagos" but they only had small sizes. I was quite disappointed. Craig was in search of a map to add to his collection in his cubicle at work, and we found one that he liked. We also found some carved wooden tortoises and sea lions in a different shop. We stopped into a kiosk where a woman was selling her husband's carvings. Some were made of gorgeous wood. She was very friendly and we chatted with her and bought some small tortoise carvings for our nephews. Then we went into a gallery where master craftsmen had carved gorgeous furniture out of single blocks of wood. There were large chairs shaped like tortoises - it was absolutely beautiful and creative work. After we were shopped out, we decided to go to The Rock for dinner. They had some intriguing items on the menu and they had a lot of customers. Unfortunately, our timing was poor and there were no small tables available. We decided to wait at the bar. Craig got a Brahma beer and I couldn't resist a strawberry milkshake. We checked our cash supply and realized that after our shopping trip, we only had $38. We had no credit cards on us either, as we had only taken what we thought we would need for a short trip to the beach. We were at the far end of the strip and the hotel was a still a little walk away. We studied the menu and wanted to carefully budget our money, but the menu was fancy and we didn't have enough money for what we really wanted. We did not want to simpy eat something, we wanted a nice dinner. Then they tried to serve us at the bar, but Craig insisted that we wanted a table. This only solidified our desire for a nice dinner, and not simply some bar food. After a while a small table opened up and we were seated. Craig decided to take one for the team and head back to the hotel to get more money, so that we were free to order whatever we wanted and didn't have to ration the number of drinks we got, etc. We placed our order and then he hurried out. I noticed that there was Smirnoff Ice in their fridge, and happily ordered one. I wrote in the journal while waiting for Craig to return. He ran practically the whole way. On the way he noticed that a store next to our hotel also had the Evolution Revolution T-shirts and went in to check sizes because he wanted to surprise me with one. But they only had small sizes as well. He got the money at the hotel and ran back just as heavy rain was starting to pour down. He arrived wet and out of breath but recovered quickly enough and before the food arrived. Now we could enjoy our dinner without worry. For an appetizer we had calamari, which was fresh and delicious. Then we each had the special three pepper tuna with "Rock potatoes" and vegetables. The tuna was cut into little pink-in-the-middle medallions, drizzled in a tangy, fruity, peppery sauce and exquisitely displayed on a square white plate with al dente vegetables and potato wedges. It was delicious, and there was so much food that I couldn't finish my portion. There was definitely no room for dessert. The ambiance was fun for people-watching, but overall Puerto Ayora seemed out of place. It seemed like it was a little Caribbean spring break town plunked down in the Galapagos. Bars advertised body shots, tourists, young and old (but mostly young) got very drunk, and all seemed to have an 11:00 curfew to get back to their boats for the night. We certainly preferred the sleepy laid-back charm of Puerto Baquerizo Moreno on San Cristobal even if this meal was top-notch. All the while, the rain was still pouring down. We drew out our dinner and even hade another drink as we waited for a lull in which we could make the walk back to the hotel. Of course there were no cabs around in the constant downpours. 11:00 came and went and many of the tourists ran through the torrential rains to get back to the pier. We eventually consolidated all of our purchases into plastic bags and bit the bullet. It was rather amusing; as soon as we stepped out the door, we were drenched. It was like walking through a raging waterfall. Water was flooding the cobblestone streets and we were soon ankle deep in it. We were in hysterics; it was like Singin' in the Rain. We giggled as we made the long walk back. Along the way we saw numerous people just having fun with the weather. We passed a restaurant where one guy was standing in the runoff from the awnings, pretending to take a shower. Craig went up to him and pretended to shampoo his hair. After clearly too many drinks, everyone got a big kick out of that. We made it back to the hotel and the room felt freezing. We wrung out our clothes and hung them up wherever we could to dry. We then had to mop up all the puddles on the floor since we came in totally drenched. Most of our stuff had survived fine, but Craig's brand new map was wet around the edges. He took special care to try to dry it flat. The rain continued for at least another hour, and seemed to get even harder as we were finally heading to bed. We were happy that we hadn't tried to wait it out, or we'd have been out way too late and had more drinks. I started to write in the journal but found that I was way too tired, and we went to bed at midnight. |
             
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