galapagos islands!

what a special and memorable trip!  we spent ten days on the galapagos islands and very much enjoyed our visit.  i apologize now for what is likely to be a very long post.....this blog has in part also become my journal of sorts, so settle in!

the archipelago of the galapagos are comprised of 13 major islands, 6 small islands and loads of little islets. five of the islands are inhabited (although one of the five is the isla baltra which is nearly kissing santa cruz island and has the airport that services santa cruz so i lump baltra with santa cruz).  the galapagos are not your typical tropical paradise (though we did see some very beautiful beaches) and much of the islands are dry with sparse vegetation.  most who come here come to see the creatures, many of which are found nowhere else in the world.  and you certainly don't have to be a biologist to appreciate a place where the animals dominate everything and seem to be completely nonplussed by the humans buzzing around them.....if they regard the humans at all.  the islands are just dripping with land, bird and aquatic species as well as unique plants.

most who visit the galapagos take a cruise which typically travels at night and lands at a new island each day. this is in fact the only way to visit most of the islands and certainly visiting these uninhabited and wild islands is a unique experience.  for a variety of reasons (cost, not knowing if the kids could handle being cooped up on a boat, a mild aversion to group travel, etc) we decided to do a DIY land based galapagos adventure.  we stayed on three of the four inhabited islands and i gotta say that save for a few exceptions (and we are admittedly not birders so there is probably a host of birds that weren't even on our radar) we saw all the species we wanted to see.

isla santa cruz-
our first three days in the galapagos were spent on the isla santa cruz.  this island is the largest and most developed and almost every visitor to the islands lands here (even those who then head off on a cruise).  not surprisingly the harbor is full of cruise boats.

our first stop was to visit the charles darwin research station. there are a couple hundred scientists and volunteers currently involved in research and conservation efforts here.  (as an aside there is a great radiolab podcast that i listened to that is worth your time if you are interested in the galapagos. check it out here:  http://www.radiolab.org/story/galapagos/ )   the research center was a great place to start as the kids were able to learn about charles darwin and his importance to the galapagos as well as concepts such as 'natural selection', and 'adaptation'.  outside of the visitor center there are also several enclosures for a few select species as the research center also has a breeding center.
this is a land iguana we saw at the research center breeding enclosures, and though we saw loads of marine iguanas this ended up being the only land iguana we encountered.

our second stop was the fish market. even if you are not going to buy fish the spectacle is worth stopping for.  the ladies of the fish market slice up the daily catch with sea lions at their feet and pelicans on hand for scraps.  but really why wouldn't you buy the fish when tuna is only $3/lb?!!!.....we had a delicious dinner of pan fried tuna steaks with garlic and lime!

on our second day we went to this place called las gritas.  it is a very cool fissure with a channel for snorkeling.  the snorkeling wasn't spectacular but the setting was really cool.  and when you are done snorkeling you can jump off the rocks!

the rest of the day we spent on a small beach that had a little better snorkeling but mostly the kids just had fun playing in the sand and water....and hanging with the pelicans.

we also shared the beach with a number of those famous little finches....

we went to dinner that night on binford street which turns into an outdoor restaurant every night.  lobster season just opened on september 1st so todd had himself a lobster.  and riley ordered a seafood cazuela which was this amazing stew of seafood, plantains and spices! (we had a version of this when we got back to guayaquil which was just as good....we are fans of the cazuela!)

our third day todd went scuba diving.  he really really wanted to see hammerhead sharks....and he did! the other highlight was some really big rays and a large school of barracuda.  (all underwater photos are from the dive master's camera).

turtle!

shark!

while todd was diving, the kids and i headed up to el chato tortoise reserve which is where you can see the giant tortoises in the wild. the reserve is in the highlands, which gets a fair bit of rain so we came prepared with rain jackets.  i just love these ancient creatures!

also on the reserve were these lava tunnels....and truthfully if they weren't on the reserve i wouldn't have made the effort cause they pale in comparison to the ape caves of washington.

for the remainder of our day the kids and i walked out to tortuga bay (named because sea turtles lay eggs here) and this was one of the most beautiful beaches i have every seen.  the sand was so white and soft it felt like we were walking on powdered sugar! (we even came back here to show the beach to todd on a day when we had a few hours to kill between our ferry's to the other islands)

isla isabela-
this ended up being our favorite island.  it is the largest island in terms of size, but the population is smaller than on either santa cruz or san cristobal.  we took a 2 hour boat from santa cruz (we were worried about the crossing for the kids as we had heard stories of rough seas but we thankfully had a calm day).

the very small town has this wonderful sleepy island feel. we found a sweet little hostel on the beach called caleta iguana hotel....but more commonly known as 'casa rosada' for obvious reasons.

the view from our breakfast table every morning

the hostel turned out to be aptly named as there were marine iguanas everywhere! todd had a bit of a photographic love affair with these creatures.....we have loads of marine iguana pictures but this a small sampling.

we snorkeled right off the pier at the end of the boardwalk called concha de perla and saw big sea turtles for the first time! even the sea turtles are giant! they are much bigger here than the ones we saw in hawaii.

on isabela we took a couple of day tours.  the first was a mellow few hour tour to an area called los tintoreras.  we walked about with our guide, juan carlos, and learned about the lava rocks and the lichen that grows on it.

our guide juan carlos

most notably we saw some galapagos penguins here (who knew there were penguins at the equator!) and also some white tipped reef sharks in the shallows.

shark!

we also snorkeled and saw lots of fish and turtles and rays. and of course sea lions relaxing wherever they see fit.

our last day on isabela we went on an all day tour to a place called los tuneles.  our very favorite place to snorkel on kauai was called tunnels beach so we thought that was auspicious.  it turned out to be amazing. we took a 45min boat ride to the west side of the island where there is an area of partially submerged lava tunnels.  here we snorkeled and swam with sharks, and turtles together! we also saw a little sea horse which todd was really excited about. (again underwater pics are from our guide).

riley and i diving down to check out the turtle

warming themselves on the rocks.....

we then went to another area that isn't great for snorkeling but is a nesting site for the blue footed booby......they really do have blue feet!!

on the ride back we had to get over some pretty big surf which felt a bit like a roller coaster!

riley was having much more fun on the roller coaster waves than it appears by his expression

.....not long after that picture was taken a barracuda (identified by our guide sitting next to me) jumped out of the water and into our boat smacking me in the face. once todd was assured i was okay....and it felt like i had been punched in the face!...he proceeded to laugh and sing 'barracuda gonna knock you out' for the rest of the day.


isla san cristobal-
our last three days were spent on the island of san cristobal.  we had a double ferry day as you can't go directly from isabela to san cristobal. you must take a boat back to santa cruz and then another one to san cristobal (each about 2 hours). again we got lucky with calm seas and the boat rides were both fine.
san cristobal is actually the political seat of the galapagos but is smaller in population compared to santa cruz.

for me this island was synonymous with sea lions.....they were everywhere.  they are certainly present on all the islands we visited but seemed to dominate the scene on san cristobal.  i took a particular shine to these simultaneously lazy (they take napping to a whole new level!) and playful creatures.

on our second day we ventured out to an area called la loberia where a lazy sea lion colony naps on the beach.

there is a trail leading up to these cliffs with amazing views of the waves crashing into the rocks below and also a few birds we hadn't seen previously.

we also snorkeled here and immediately on getting in the water we saw a group of five sea turtles swimming around!

in the afternoon we walked to an area called las tijeretas.  there is a very well designed and informative interpretive center (that was strangely built by spain) that was well worth the visit. behind the center is a trail that leads down to a bay with good snorkeling.  this ended up being so spectacular as a group of sea lions played in the water with us!  the sea lions are so curious about you, they swim straight at your mask blowing bubbles in your face and then at the last minute dive down and swim under you...as if inspecting the rest of you!!  it almost as if they are asking 'why are you so clumsy? are you injured? why can't you swim and play?', but they are not at all afraid of you.  they were tumbling and chewing on each other in the water....it looked like watching a couple puppies play.  i floated and watched them for a very long time....so delightful!

our last full day on san cristobal we took another tour out to leon dormido...sometimes called kicker rock to the english speakers.  it looks from a distance like a sleeping lion which is how it was named.

we first stopped at a nearby beach to relax.  the clouds over the island were so interesting!

leon dormido rock is about an hour boat ride away from port. it is a massive and imposing vertical of sheer walled rock. there is a split and a channel through the split that can be snorkeled thru.

once in the water you can see the drop off into the deep blue is as dramatic under the water as it is above.
this was a very unique place and i have never snorkeled the likes of it before.

lucy about to step off the boat to snorkel leon dormido

here we saw green sea turtles, a big graceful eagle ray, another group of sea lions who swam all around us and way down deep we saw the famous galapagos shark!  it was a magical day!

we celebrated our last evening in the galapagos with a passion fruit mojito....what a tasty creation!

the next morning we flew back to guyaquil (on mainland ecuador) from the san cristobal airport.  we all sort of stuck out our lower lips and pouted while boarding the plane...so sad to leave.

the galapagos can be hard to justify when you are traveling on a budget, but we felt it was worth the price of admission....and the price is not cheap!.  we visited the galapagos in about as budget manner as one can and still we spent in 10 days nearly as much as it costs to travel on the mainland for a full month!  of course, as you can see from this post we loved it!

now we are headed back towards the mountains as the adventure continues.  amazingly we are now over half-way through the trip and only have two and half month to go.......hasta luego!!