Galápagos - San Cristobal

The morning of departure I had to get to the airport quite early for the controls that had to be passed through for Galápagos. Luckily I was early because the first check was a payment of $20 and baggage check. Then I could check in and by then many more people had arrived, so I was in time and could have breakfast in peace after security control.

3 hours later I arrived at San Cristobal airport passing through customs paying another $100 and finally took a taxi for $2 to my hostel. Private room and bathroom for $28 and in walking distance of everything. So I walked to the Fresco Café close by, had lunch and talked to the lady a bit about what to do here. Since I had my snorkeling tour tomorrow, I headed to the beach close by to relax. I met a German guy and two girls from Australia, so hung out at the beach until after sunset. We went for dinner to a recommended local place, which was cheap with $4 compared to all other places where you payed at least $12 for a meal. Close to the pier was a little beach, that was the hangout place for sea lions. We sat at a bar, had a beer and listened to the funny noises they made, from coughing to barking, really fun to listen.

Encountering the first animals

After a short breakfast at Fresco Cafe I was picked up at 8am from my hostel. Before I got on board the boat the first stop was a dive shop to try my wetsuit and snorkel gear, which I then took with me.

The boat departed and after 45 minutes passed a peninsula with birds followed by a nice beach with sea lions for a short rest. We got back on board and were served lunch before we finally headed to Kicker Rock for snorkeling. As always I felt nervous if the mask would be good and the current low. Luckily the water around the rock was calm, still it took me five minutes to get used to it crossing the channel between two rocks. The calmer I was the more I got to see....first I noticed lots of fishes, topped by a turtle and sea lion, finally the highlight when I spotted a shark beneath me, it was a Galápagos shark, grey and a round head. Apparently only I saw it because the others didn’t mention anything. Lucky me! We got back after about an hour, but didn’t feel like it.

The boat took us back to shore. In the meanwhile I got to talk to a girl, that was half Korean, but lived in California. Her name was Sara as well and even our middle and last names were very similar. We got along really well and went off board together.

We went for a coffee and a bit through town until we agreed to meet for dinner at 7pm.

Before that Andreas had arrived on the island, which I had met in Cotopaxi. We had a beer at the beach and went for dinner together with Sara, delicious Seafood at the Seafood House. Expensive but worth it.

Sara and I had found this place for Yoga after we had spoken about doing that anyway next morning. But now we found a teacher and went there, again close by, at 6.30am. Andreas joined us for breakfast after. But shortly after Sara and I wanted to have a special free treat...snorkeling with sea lions! A beach or kind of lagoon close by was ideal for swimming with them. So we took a walk of 20 minutes and put on our rented snorkel. The water was perfect except of a few little jellyfish, that didn’t harm. Quickly we were surrounded by two young sea lions that played with us, swimming at us, even poking us. They were wild, but so curious, amazing...So much fun!