Monday 11 January, 2016

Guayaquil (pronounced ‘Whayakill’) to Santa Cruz (Island), Galapagos Islands

We were up early to have our bags packed and ready to be collected before breakfast so they could be quarantine inspected before we left the hotel (organised by Scenic so that we didn’t have to be at the airport hours early). 

After breakfast on to bus and out to airport for flight to Baltra (Galapagos Islands) which was an American Airforce and Naval base during WW2 – still building remnants to be seen.

At Baltra airport, on Nth Seymour Island, our hand luggage was checked to ensure no unprocessed food is bought onto the islands.  The Equadorians are very mindful of the heritage area of Galapagos and take bio-security very seriously indeed. The plane was fumigated before we landed.

From the airport a bus trip to the Itabaca Channel and a short 300m ferry ride to Santa Cruz Island, then another bus trip across the island to La Pinta our home for the next 3 days. The landscape at Baltra around the airport is like a desert with very sparse vegetation and prickly pear. The Galapagos Islands were created by volcanic activity and thus the ground is very rocky and even though they straddle the Equator, they don’t get much rain.

Part-way across Santa Cruz we stopped off and visited a farm (ranch) where the owners are reducing their cattle herd and concentrating on tourism because their lushly-grassed property has a concentration of Galapagos tortoises – the largest land tortoise in the world.  While there we also saw a tiny yellow bird with a red-capped head called a golden warbler, which co-habited with the tortoises to remove bugs from them. 

This area is more mountainous and has a good rainfall – thankfully not when we were there, but there was much evidence of a good healthy few days of heavy rain which washed away parts of a path beside the road!   

On the way to the boat we drove through two towns, Cero Dragon, and Puerto Ayora, a coast town which was bustling with commerce and people. At the harbour we saw two sea lions curled around each other on the end of a wharf. The pelicans here are light brown in colour, and smaller than ones we see at home in Aus.

  

We travelled by Zodiac boats, called ‘panga’ to our ship, the La Pinta, where we had the boat safety drill, talk about the cruise, then dinner and bed.

   

Tomorrow we have a number of activities including snorkelling, boat rides, beach walks.