Galapagos - Santa Cruz

The ferry early morning departed at 7am and took about two hours.

Again on arrival I looked for a recommended cafe “1835 Coffee Lab”, which was 10 minutes walking distance from the pier, and relaxed there for a bit. My hostel was really just up the street, so went there around midday and checked in. Connected to the hostel was a travel agency with the same name “Galápagos Dreams”. Got setteled in their office updated with some information on what to do and headed towards the pier again. 

Las Grietas was a kind of lagoon formed by volcanic rocks with partly sweet and salty water, in which you could swim or snorkel without a guide. So I rented snorkel gear, took a water taxi to the other side of the pier and walked the 20 minute path passing beaches, salinas and cactus trees. Luckily there was nearly nobody and so I spent almost an hour snorkeling, but only saw some colorful fishes. It was anyway fun just doing something by myself without time pressure. 

On my way back I stopped again at the coffee lab to hang out. Before Andreas arrived from San Cristobal after his dive and we wanted to go out for dinner, I had to organize my ferries between the islands. In my shared room I got my money to pay when a girl from Israel told me about her amazing experience on Pinzon Island snorkeling with sharks and sea lions at the same time. I was flashed, could still change plans, to extend my stay for one more night and do the extra tour. Ok, I was in for another $130 plus one more night for $20 at the hostel. The hotel on Isabela Island was flexible and the ferry ticket still changeable, so organized everything and finally could get ready for dinner. 

Andreas and I chose a simple place at the main road for Quesadillas and Burger...simply hungry I would say.

Pick up 7.15 worked out quite well, but then turned in to a self organized approach. My pick up lady was kind of lost not reaching the boat guy and also not finding the other people. She first wanted me to believe that the boat had technical problems, then tried to convince me for another tour. I insisted on my tour and knew from another guy at my hostel that he also was going to Floreana the same day, when suddenly a group of people walked along the road and I recognized the guy. I pushed the lady to ask them knowing this was my only chance. Tours are generally limited and all leave at the same time, either I was on for this tour and not at all. Luckily the guide named Yazmany agreed to take me, warmly welcomed me on the best tour and off we went with the beautiful and modern boat named “Meine Steffi”, that was painted in one of my favorite colors turquoise! I found out later, that his ex-girlfriends name was Steffi from Munich and he had named his boat after her, how sweet.

The 1.200 hourse powers brought us to Floreana within 1,5 hours. Young group of people except some older Chinese, but they were as always quiet.

We all got off the boat and since it was cloudy, the walk up the highlands was easy. At first we were explained the history of the island, which was habituated by the Germans the first time in 1929. Before that so many turtles had been eaten and thus almost disappeared from here. For this reason they created this turtle sanctuary, that took care of the population of turtles. I am really bad at remembering every detail of historical information, but Yazmany was fun to listen and he enjoyed entertaining us. 

We walked through the park of different aged turtles and up to a view point close to the only natural fresh water spring on the island. Very interesting, but I was also waiting for the snorkeling coming up after lunch.

We walked another 20 minutes digesting our lunch up to a beach called “Loberia”, which meant “many sea lions”. It was more full of other animals than sea lions. Watching the waves out at shore and seeing all these rocks along the beach made me again feel uncomfortable. Yazmany gave us a good and confident feeling with him leading us. We lined up and crossed the rocks through a small channel towards the area that was safe to swim. Shortly after being kind of comfortable the first turtle appeared....then many many more, circling around us. Some sting rays were on the ocean bottom of the little blurry water, but still visible.

We were amazed by the amount of turtles, that seemed to just didn’t bother about us being around. Although the waves were splashing in, we could go with the flow and enjoy gliding with the turtles.

After an hour almost already feeling cold we swam back to the beach and got back on the boat, that took us to Santa Cruz again. 

It was a long day with lots of great new experiences, so Andreas and I agreed on a soon dinner when we accidentally ran into eachother on the street. There was only this one main road, so quite easy to find eachother.

Delicious tuna sashimi and beers when my room mate Anastacia joined and we hung out a bit...even in our hostel a bit, still early to bed for to be fit for the tour next day :).

The first stop at a rocky beach on the West side of Santa Cruz wasn’t that much of a highlight since the currents were strong and only a sea lion and a stingray appeared once. We saw some iguanas swimming at the beach, fun to watch, but soon after we took the boat towards the Pinzon Island passing the “rock with no name”. We were dropped off at one point to swim along the rocks towards a bay. 

Not many words needed for this exceptional highlight....sooo many colorful fishes so close, a turtle gliding along with us and then suddenly a 1,5 meter shark showed up for again only me right in front, but disappeared quite fast.

Close to the bay and then also inside we saw stingrays on the bottom, but because shallow so close. One after another baby sea lion joined us and created a playground of juveniles, taking a leave from my hands and poking at my finns, swimming all around us having lots of fun. 

Towards the end another 1,5 to 2 meter shark swam just right in front of my face, sooo quick and a bit scary with it’s mouth slightly open, that I couldn’t react turning my camera on. Anyway memories remain more present without a single picture ;).

Back on the boat a freshly prepared yellow finn tuna with side dishes and dessert was waiting for us before we made our way back.

What a day and being sooo lucky to see all of these precious creatures in one spot!  Nothing else could I imagine to be better than that!!

Back in town after freshing up I was asked by my Floreana tour guide Yazmany to join him on his birthday for drinks with friends. I was happy that he had asked. A swiss girl, some locals, Yazmany and me ordered one round of 3 for $10 dollar Mojitos, later also Andreas joined. Fun evening and late, but worth the lack of sleep :)!