Tina's Travel News: Galapagos... at last!

Today as I was taking a walk along my local beach back home, I sat and watched the choppy waves break on the shore and my thoughts went back to the Galapagos islands and the wonderful experience of being so close to the animals who showed no fear of humans.

I've decided my ideal holiday must contain a mix of local people, culture and history as well as nature and animals which is why I loved East Africa so much and it remains my bestest ever holiday.

This combined trip to Peru, Bolivia and Galapagos has become my second all time favourite trip for the same reasons.

So onto the Galapagos or more specifically, Baltra Island, Santa Cruz island and finally the boat that took us around to many more of the islands. Baltra is where they have built the airport and is totally uninhabited. So to get to our final destination of the cruise boat from our hotel in Quito, we took a bus to Quito's national airport, a plane for the 2 hour flight to Baltra Island, a courtesy bus to the ferry, a ferry across to Santa Cruz island, a 45mins bus trip south to Port Ayorta and finally a rubber dinghy onto our boat! That day was definitely our version of Planes, Trains and Automobiles for sure!

Baltra Island on the right and Santa Cruz on the left

We had a couple of hours to explore Santa Cruz and Port Ayorta before our cruise started so we made our way to the Charles Darwin Research Centre but in fairness, our first encounter with Galapagos wildlife was on the way when we saw a land turtle on the side of the road eating.

Having a road side snack

Faces only mothers could love - part 1

Faces, mothers, love - part 2

you know the drill - part 3

Our boat was a 16 berth smaller boat and our cabin was minute so my roomie and I had to strategically position ourselves to get to and from the bathroom if we were in the cabin at the same time. At this point I want to make a point. Our boat was probably too small. There are massive boats with 100 people on them. That would be far too big. If you are planning a trip, pick something in between.. maybe capable of carrying 25-30. That way, you have room on board and you are not battling with a tonne of other people when being transported on and off the islands.

Yes, the water in the harbour REALLY is that clean and blue

First marine iguana spotted making its way past our moored boat

The islands and animal encounters were stunning. We did wet and dry landings. We snorkeled. We walked on red sand, black sand, yellow sand, white powdery sand, black rocks, saw bright red plants, totally bare islands and lush green ones. The variety of landscapes from island to island is truly amazing.

nesting oyster catcher that we nearly stepped on... and it didn't move

snorkeling discovery

amazing starfish

do not disturb

amazing crabs

that's right, a blue footed boobie.

fly catcher

even our guide got excited at having spotted a red breasted fly catcher

this frigate bird hitched a on our boat for a while

another boobie

we had to step over these Galapagos Sharks to get back on board our boat

pelicans safely on our rubber dinghy to avoid the sharks

do not disturb... am eating!

The animals were equally amazing. It seemed they had no fear. We walked right by seals, crabs, birds, turtles, iguanas and the biggest reaction from the animals seemed to be a casual "who you lookin' at?" from each species. In the water there were amazing star fish and tropicals and we even had visits from the Galapagos sharks which was interesting because they were between us in the rubber dinghy and our boat. That was an interesting boarding.

The islands we visited were Rabida, Santiago, Bartolome, Sombrero Chino and North Seymour.

The Darwin - our boat

hiking around the islands

sunning himself on our path

waiting to board our boat again

We cruised for 3 nights and at the end of it, I changed my itinerary to stay an extra 3 days on Santa Cruz rather than return to Quito with the group. The initial plan was to do day cruises but to tell you the truth, I'm really not a seafarer and being doped up to the eyeballs to make it through the 3 nights without loosing any dinner or lunch made me feel I needed to detox on land... which I noted was swaying for the first day before I got my land legs again.

I walked around the town, went back to the Darwin Research centre, shopped and made it to Tortuga Bay where there is a turtle santuary... they come on land and lay eggs on the beach in the sand dunes so there is heaps to do on land too. I even went to the local fish market to watch the workers battle the pelicans for the catch of the day. Btw... that IS a seal patiently lying at the guys feet.

fish market with wildlife

Folks, this was another dream come true for me and I can't recommend The Galapagos highly enough. There are gasps around every corner from the Galapagos hawk the flew over to us and just sat within a couple of metres checking our or group, to a bunch of sea turtles sitting at the water's edge having a rest to the showy frigate bird that didn't seem to mind becoming our groups pin-up bird.