From England to Ecuador and beyond

From England to Ecuador and beyond

Friday 11 April 2014

Galapagos day 3 - Santa Cruz

Written Monday 7 April

One 2 hour boat trip later and we're in Santa Cruz, the next big island along. The journey was a living hell, almost barfed like 10 times. Our tiny 20-person boat was batling ginormous waves for the entire trip and the boom as the boat hit the water after being hoisted upwards by the force of the ocean was incredible. Stomach was very much in panic mode and then two poor little girls started chundering right across from me - BLEURGH. Not ideal but managed to make it to the pier without vomming, just. The gleaming turquoise water made the journey totally worth it though, and as we strolled along the waterfront we saw iguanas chilling on the rocks - another one of my big five!

Hopped on a sort of bus which took us up to the highlands where we'll be camping tonight (I know, I know...but I have 3 bloody weeks of it in the States, not too sure why I thought this was a good idea at the time...).


The reserve is beautiful though, very green and we're completely immersed in nature, which is an important concept here: Galapagos, modelo de armonia entre seres humanos y con la naturaleza - or Galapagos, a model of harmony between mankind and nature. And it's so true, all of the wildlife here is unbelievably tame, mainly because many of the animals have no natural predators so they have nothing to be afraid of.

After lunching (homecooked spag bol!) and chilling in the hammocks, we visted a tortoise reserve to observe them in the wild. Will be honest, they weren't as big as I thought they would be so was a little disappointed, but got some decent photos at least - and another one of the big five ticked off! Some were as much as 100 years old, pretty crazy.


Next we hit the lava tunnels which consisted of fumbling over jagged rocks in the dark and crawling through a gap in the rocks just half a metre high to reach the other side...interesting experience although probably not one I'd have chosen to do! Back to the farm and currently swaying in a hammock listening to Bastille as I write, life is good. Kind of wish we'd bought some wine for the evening but I'm trying to detox while travelling, at least where alcohol is concerned - we'll see how long that lasts! So, suspended in a hammock listening to a (very) loud chorus of insects on an organic farm and campsite in the Galapagos Islands, over and out!