Day 85 - 87 Galapagos - San Cristobal Island

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After a few days at Puerto Ayora resting and resetting, and visited Floreana Island, its time to move to my last island before heading back to the mainland.

So it was another speedboat trip of about 70 Km to the southwest of Santa Cruz Is.  Before we left Puerto Ayora, I have a final encounter of the little red Encantada, must be in the harbour as part of her continuous itinerary.

The boat trip over to San Cristolal was quite rough, quite a few of the passengers were wet with sprays.

Passing Santa Fe Island

And San Cristobal Island harbour did not come too early.......

There were quite a few sea lions playing around the pier, these animals can takeover the water front here at night time.

After meeting up with Val and Fabien, my fellow travelers on Encantada and at Puerto Ayora, who were there a day earlier, we went for a walk to the Loberia Beaches on the southern side.

As we walked pass the airport, I checked with Aerogal counter to confirm my flight for Guayaquil on the mainland in 3 days time.  Yep, despite all the confusions before taking off from the mainland, the flight that I booked indeed would be leaving from San Cristobal airport, despite the airport code on the tickets said GPS, which is for the airport on Baltra Island. Perfect!

Loberia Beach put on her show of sea birds and playful sea lions.  We walked along sandy beaches, then some lava rocks for some distance.

Back in town, the World Cup craze is back on again, as Ecuador plays Honduras in the early evening...and the streets were again deserted, save those shops with open TV screens.

And the sea lions are making their presence felt along the harbour front.....

And they are not shy about making themselves comfortable...

And the next morning too..

After sorting out the booking for a snorkeling tour to the locally famous, "Kicker Rock" or Leon Dormido, it was time to set out for the Cerro Tijeretas Walk, along the northern coast, a short distance from town.

After finding my way to the entrance, signed in ( no fees ), I weaved my way through some concrete walk paths to the top of a hill overlooking a small bay with turquoise clear water, an idyllic spot popular for snorkeling and playing with sea lions.

And one can see Kicker Rock ( my destination for tomorrow ) in the distance..

Further from there, after descending from the hill into a lava rock laced coast.  One has to scramble from rock to rock constantly, a path that is marked by the occasional white wooden marker.

And I disturbed the peace of this Pelican, so bye bye...

And Iguana claw marks

A statue of Darwin

Town center and harbour - Puerto Baquerizo Moreno

Our boat left the harbor just after 9 a.m. for an adventurous trip to Kicker Rock, two volcanic rocks looking like a sleeping lion, about a 20 Km boat trip from the pier.

A Blue-footed Booby

A Frigate on the hunt

Being in the middle of the sea, the wavy water took a little to getting used to, and it was a lot calmer in the channel. Unfortunately, due to the cloudy conditions, the visibility in the water isn't good.

Nevertheless, we had some good sightings of  marine lives, including some baby sharks.

A sealion dashing by.

Lunch was had at a nearby beach, but there weren't anything worth writing about....

Our lunch spot

The backside of Kicker Rock

After nearly a fortnight in the Galapagos Islands, it is now the final night, packing up for the mainland, leaving tomorrow.

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Day 81 - 84 Galapagos - Santa Cruz & Floreana Islands

Previous Post: Galapagos - From high sea to World Cup craze

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After an amazing 6 days on the little red boat Encantada, and 80 days on the road since I left Sydney, it is now time to slow down, take stock and have a rest, before the final journey home.

So here I was, in Puerto Ayora, the major town in the Galapagos, on Santa Cruz Island, and I  was planning to explore the surrounding islands in a leisurely pace over the next few days.

Puerto Ayora seems to be the major transport hubs of the archipelago, it has ferries to a few of the majors islands, Floeana, San Cristobal and Isabella, and I intended to use these to explore.

Puerto Ayora

Marina Iguanas running around the waterfront

At the centre of Santa Cruz Island, Val, Fabien ( my French fellow travelers on Encantada ) and I shared a taxi to explore a couple of sink holes.  The taxi driver was very trusting, he left us at the location, without any payments, went back to town and returned a few hours later at the appointed time, to pick us up.

a Los Gemelos small sink hole

Los Gemelos big sink hole

Rain Forests surrounding Los Gemelos

There are also a few interesting sights walking along the water front, but none more interesting than the sea lions and pelicans hanging around the fishermen's washing table for a feed, trying to pop their heads behind the fishermen, to pinch a piece of fish.

The Darwin Research Station and Lonesome George are possibly the most famous attractions near Puerto Ayora ( within walking distance ), but to be honest, it is somewhat run down, and for the average tourists, only ready attractions are some tortoises and colourful land iguanas in a kept environment.  Unfortunately, the famous Lonesome George, possibly 100+ years old, the last member of the Pinta Island Tortoises, also passed away two years ago.

A bright coloured land iguana

The old place for Lonesome George.

Here is the story behind Lonesome George; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lonesome_George and the unsuccessful attempt to find a mate for him.  He was the last member of a subspecies of Galapagos Tortoises on the Pinta Island.

The few days at Puerto Ayora was primarily for resting, and there is a long stretch of beaches on the western side, reachable for a 30 minutes walk, the white sands of Tortuga Bay. 

And the many beautiful opuntia cactus trees along the walk to Tortuga Bay beaches.

After successfully withdrawing some greenbacks from the ATM, I ran into a student parade on the streets of Puerto Ayora.  My first reaction was, gosh, not another political protest and possibly locking up the township for the next few days.......

Then the joyful nature of the group, laid my worries aside, it was a local school festival of some sort.  Now it is time to walk down to the street, and get some food........there it was, a street only a short walk from the waterfront, filled with food stalls after sundown...

Offering fresh seafoods at very reasonable prices among other local cuisines

A visit to the Galapagos wouldn't be complete, without learning more of the  of the recent documentary Galapagos Affair; Satan came to Eden, based on the real but intrigue life stories of the few early eccentric European inhabitants on Floreana Island.

So it was a matter of braving a 2 hour 60Km boat trip, but not before passing through the strict quarantine checks at the piers on both sides of the trip.

Quarantine check-ponts at the pier for all inter-island trips. The queue can be long if left to the last minute.

After arriving at Floreana, we were met with a few lazying iguanas and sea lions in front of its sleepy fishing village. The small settlement supplement their livelihoods with a truck tour of the island, complete with a 3 course lunch, for the daily boat load of visitors.

The tour started in a bit of chaos.  After boarding the truck, then we were told to alight, to walk to the beach for snorkeling first, because the truck had some mechanical issues.  But as soon as we were at the beach, the truck reappeared, apparently all fixed....all in a space of less then 15 minutes !!

After a 30 minutes trip up the mountains of Floreana on the truck, we then walked through a small rain forest, to ostensibly the original settlement of the characters featured in the documentary, Galapagos Affair; Satan came to Eden.

And here it is, the life saving and sometime, point of conflict during water droughts on the island back then, the only fresh water spring on the island, 

Over the next couple of hours, we were shown the various sheltering and hiding places for buccaneers on this island dating back to the early Spanish presence since 300+ years ago.

Possibly an imitation of the stone heads on Easter Island

Aside from the early few European inhabitants in Galapagos Affair; Satan came to Eden, the island's present settlers only arrived about 40 years ago.  In fact most of the settlements in the Galapagos really only flourish after it was declared a National Park, when tourists started to arrive in the late 1960s.

There is this Post Office Box at Post Office Bay which we did not get to, it used to be an informal postal "service" for these remote islands along the seafarer routes, where mails can be dropped and collected as when boats arrived and left.  Read here.

We also visited a semi-abandoned Tortoise breeding centre. It was setup in an attempt to resurrect an extinct subspecies by cross breeding two different subspecies, but failed.  No off-springs were ever produced.  Now, the tortoises are left in an enclosed ground, for them to see out their years.

This unfortunate one was caught on top of a stone, unmovable. Saved by our guide.

After lunch was served at the local village, we tried to do some snorkeling at the black sand beach by the pier, but the condition was poor, not much can be seen except a couple of curios marine iguanas.

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