Santa Cruz, Galapagos
Ecuador
Stepping off the plane on Santa Cruz Island, I did not expect to see a dry, barren landscape punctuated by short trees and prickly pear cacti. It felt more like the desert than an island. The sky was blue and the weather was warm, the latter of which we hadn't experienced in several weeks (it would also be the most blue sky we saw for the next 5 days). It didn't take long to spot two giant lizards lying on a rock, while another tourist pointed out a shark in the aquamarine water. I hoped it would be the first of many animal sightings.
Puerto Ayora, the main town on Santa Cruz, wasn't much to look at while driving through it. The malecon was clearly the place to be, filled with overpriced restaurants, souvenir stores and tour agents. Almost immediately we spotted the town's famous non-human residents. Sea lions lounged lazily by the water (except one that barked angrily at me before posing dramatically for photos), red rock crabs scurried away, brown pelicans didn't seem to notice us at all, and marine iguanas showed up in all sorts of places. At first I was fascinated by these jet black lizards, but they became so commonplace that I gave up photographing them pretty quickly.
Day 1 was very chill, mainly talking to tour agents and wandering around town. I would have visited the Charles Darwin Research Centre if I could have figured out how the entry system worked. After being scolded by 2 different tour guides for 2 different infractions, I made a hasty exit. After the day trippers left, Puerto Ayora became a ghost town, making me wonder how all the restaurants stayed in business with no customers to serve.
Our first official tour was the Bay Tour, which explored a small area of coastline near Puerto Ayora. The boat dropped us off at Playa de los Perros (Dogs' Beach), where we hiked past tall cacti along a path composed of black lava rocks. We briefly stopped at a lookout over Canal de Tiburones, a.k.a. Shark Canal. Despite our best efforts, we did not spot any sharks in the murky water below. There was also a quick visit to Canal del Amor (Love Canal), filled with bright blue water due to the presence of blue-green algae. When I think of love, I don’t think of algae.
On the other side of this stretch of land was the namesake beach, filled with more volcanic rocks. Red rock crabs and marine iguanas abounded, but more exciting for us was our first sighting of blue-footed boobies. They were high up on the rocks and their most intriguing feature, their feet, weren't easy to see from far away. The colour, we were told, was due to the accumulation of collagen in the bodies as a result of their high plankton diet. There are also red-footed boobies around the Galapagos, which we hoped to see at some point.
Back near the boat we were given the opportunity to snorkel in the freezing water. Unfortunately the conditions weren't ideal and visibility was limited to an arm's length. We did manage to stumble upon a large turtle, its silhouette the only feature we could make out.
The final stop was a short walk to Las Grietas (The Cracks), one of the big selling points of the tour. The walk took us past a bright pink salt marsh, the colour due to the presence of various types of algae. Apparently the shrimp feed on the algae, turning them pink, then the flamingos feed on the shrimp, turning them pink. What would happen if humans ate the flamingos?? The grieta is a deep, water-filled rock fissure filled with refreshingly clear water that we could snorkel in. There were a few types of tropical fish hanging around but it definitely wasn't abundant with sea life. The attraction was the rock formation of the grieta itself, which I couldn't enjoy for too long due to the piercingly cold temperature of the water.
After lunch back on solid land, we hired mountain bikes, stuck them on the back of the local bus, and headed uphill towards the middle of the island. Rain fell most of the afternoon, making it a miserable day for bike riding. Our destination was a tortoise reserve, but we missed the turnoff due to the rain. In the end it wasn't so bad, as we came across 3 tortoises walking down the middle of the quiet road. As soon as we stopped to take photos they would retract their head, making an amusing vacuum sound as they expelled the air in their lungs to fit their head into their shell.
When we eventually found Rancho Primicias Giant Tortoise Reserve, down a very bumpy dirt road, we unexpectedly joined a tour with a couple of other families and were taken around the site. A breeding program had been established to help reduce the dwindling numbers of tortoises, where the young are kept at the centre until the age of 5-6 years. Before humans arrived in Galapagos, 65% of the babies would survive. After humans, that number drops to less than 10%, a depressing statistic. Our guide imparted many fascinating facts about the tortoises, who were roaming freely around the open range park. Most had planted themselves in the mud, cooling down in the heat of the day (the heat being a balmy 25 degrees). The largest one, estimated to be 130 years old (they can live up to 200) was up and about, slowly making his way across the grass. Guava trees overran the site, which our guide picked fresh for us to munch on. The tortoises seemed to enjoy them too.
Also at the reserve was a lava tunnel, created a long time ago when there was volcanic activity on the island. The tunnel was several hundred metres long and ranged from about 12 metres to 1 metre in height (we had to crawl through these shorter sections). There wasn't much to look at but it was interesting all the same.
Back on our bikes we made the difficult ascent on the dirt road before hitting the main highway. A dedicated bike lane along with a solid downhill gradient conveniently carried us the 20 km back to town, much of it through a misty drizzle. Arriving in Puerto Ayora we ran straight into a street festival celebrating Inti Raymi, an important holiday for the indigenous people to recognise the winter solstice. Pumping music, lively dancing, costumes, masks and a marching band paraded down the street, watched on by hundreds of people. If we weren't cold, wet and hungry, we would have stopped to take in the spectacle.
The next day was all about being in the water. We were eager to explore one of the smaller Galapagos islands on a day trip, and Pinzon was recommended as the best island for snorkelling. On the boat trip there we stopped at tiny Daphne Island, which looked more like a large rock than anything else. As soon as we jumped in the water, two playful sea lions swam in circles around us, which was far more entertaining than seeing them lying on the concrete sidewalks in town. We followed the colourful rock wall along the coast, watching fish of all sizes swim in and out of the crevices in the slightly murky water. The only other animal of note was a small shark, resting on a rock shelf far below us.
Stop number 2 was a beach back on Santa Cruz Island. Rocks studded the sand close to shore, where large schools of small fish darted in all directions. Someone pointed out a well-camouflaged rock fish, while another found an octopus curled up in a crevice. Our guide had told us tales of dolphins, turtles and sharks, but we saw none of these. Lunch was eaten in the boat by the beach, where we watched pelicans diving down into the water trying to catch fish. Smaller birds then sat on the pelicans' heads, attempting to steal the fish from the pelicans’ mouths.
Finally we arrived at Pinzon Island, the reason we joined the tour. It looked like more of an island than Daphne, but just as inhospitable. It took a lot of courage to jump into the freezing water when we were already cold, knowing that it wasn't going to be warm when we got out, but it was completely worth it. We snorkelled around a large rock pile in the clearest water we had seen today. It didn't take long to spot our first turtle, then a second, then several more, swimming around us like we weren't there. Tropical fish floated along in the current, while needlefish seemed to hover in place. We were guided towards a mangrove section, where a dozen or more whitetip sharks (tintoreras) swam perilously close to us. I was terrified at first, not helped by our guide's warning to stay perfectly still when they neared combined with an upbringing in Australia that teaches you to be afraid of any and all sharks. But after a while I became fascinated by them and calmly watched as they glided by. Nearer to the boat were baby Galapagos sharks, so small that it was impossible to be afraid of them. Another couple in our group saw stingrays, but unfortunately we missed them. I was glad we had chosen this island for our day trip.
Our last adventure on Santa Cruz was Playa Tortuga, a 3 km walk along a paved path. The first section of the beach was unswimmable due to strong currents, but the flat shore with the gentle lapping waves made it one of the better beaches I had seen here. Further along was a not-so-picturesque bay where swimming was permitted, although hardly anyone was in the water. Overall, Santa Cruz had offered us more than we could have imagined, and we couldn’t wait to see what the other islands had in store for us.
