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A Traveler, not a Tourist, in Gorgeous Galapagos16 Ways to Discover the Real Galapagos Story and Photos by Vivienne Mackie PART 3: THE NEXT 8 WAYS TO TOUR GALAPAGOS
In Stephen’s Bay about three hours to the northeast of Puerto Baquerizo, Leon Dormido (Sleeping Lion), also known as Kicker Rock, is a cathedral of tuff rising in the ocean, with sheer cliffs hosting many birds, especially various boobies, frigates and tropicbirds. We circled the rock and traversed the narrow channel between it, the rather rough waters a favored snorkeling spot for some, as often sharks are seen. Closer to the town is Isla Lobos, a small island of black basaltic rocks colonized by sealions. So long as you have a Galapagos National Park guide with you on the boat you can get off and walk the trail on the island, so close to sealions that you could touch them if you were allowed, and within staring distance of huge black marine iguanas. The guide allowed us to swim in the shallow waters of the channel between the island and San Cristobel, a wonderful experience as the shimmering blue water is warm and fish swim without fear. A group of sealion pups came to investigate 10. Speed over the waters in a fibra boat. To get from San Cristobel to Santa Cruz go in a fibra for fun. At the small jetty, a water taxi first takes all the luggage, then returns for people and chugs across the harbor to the fibra. These motorboats with a canopy, holding around 10 people, bounce and bump over the waves, spray flying up into your face, and you get a good idea of the size of the sea as the island fades into the distance. The trip takes about three hours, unless you stop at the island of Santa Fe on the way (to disembark, you must have a National Park guide with you).
Santa Fe’s shallow lagoon is a contrast in colors: white sand, black rocks, brown and green cactus trees, and stunning turquoise blue water. It also boasts many sealions, sea turtles, sharks, and stingrays. A short walk (with the guide) leads past opuntia cactus trees, a favorite food of land iguanas, which are found here. One whitish species is found only here on Santa Fe, but is sometimes chocolate brown when molting. We see some, quietly sunning on the rocks. The other species is yellow-brown. On the other side of the island are huge groups of marine iguanas, but here the two types of iguanas don’t seem to mix. However, on another island close by, Plaza Sur (South) there are Hybrid iguanas (marine and land iguanas mate). This is the only island where they are found. Plaza Sur was a fascinating stop on our boat cruise. A large colony 12. Playing in Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz’s port town. This is the biggest town on Galapagos with the most tourist facilities, but it still retains a lot of charm. It overlooks Academy Bay, with a small municipal wharf at one end, and a small cove, Pelican Bay, used by local fishermen.
At the end of Pelican Bay, a small roofed shelter hosts the fish market some afternoons. Local fishermen set out tables, where they gut the catch and put the fish into large metal basins. We saw wahoo and tuna, among others. Kids play around the market and many birds hover. You can’t help laughing at the antics of the birds; blue-footed boobies and pelicans especially are much in evidence, hopping closer and closer to piles of off-cuts, hardly moving off when the fisherman shoos them away. 14. Walk through a lava tunnel. Lava tubes, or tunnels, from a few hundred yards long to a few thousand, are a curiosity on Santa Cruz. We had Diego as a guide to visit a tunnel on a private farm. You go down steep 15. Ponder at Post Office Bay on Floreana.
16. Take a Cruise Of course, while on the islands you can always take some sort of cruise. We thought smaller was better, so used the “Free Enterprise”, a Where you go and what you see will depend on your itinerary but most trips give you a good sampling. Each of the islands is different, but all share certain features. This is what our sampling looked like. At Bachas Beach (on the north of Santa Cruz) we saw flamingoes, and sea turtle tracks on the sands and depressions where they dig their nests. Next, Plaza Sur and Santa Fe (see earlier); after a night of rough sailing we arrived at Floreana, with the famous Post Office Bay, more flamingoes and turtles at Punta More Information: www.galapagos.org (Galapagos Conservancy) |
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JustSayGO Travel Show
9. Take a day boat trip to Leon Dormido and Isla Lobos.
us, a truly magical experience, but we were mindful that the protective adult would be close behind and got back into our boat!
of sealions lie around on the small stone jetty and disembarking off the panga (dingy) can be a problem---the guides clap their hands and eventually the sealions move off. The island has many opuntia cactus trees and is carpeted with sesuvium, an endemic plant, which is bright red May-December. We followed our guide, Franklin, eying the iguanas---land, marine and hybrid. One group of land iguanas entertained us for a while as they clambered around a fallen opuntia trying to get to the juiciest leaves, sometimes slipping to a lower leaf or onto the ground.
The malecon (seafront walk), with lights and posts that resemble ships’ masks, runs along the front by the wharf, right next to black rocks and mangroves. Look over and you’ll see red-orange Sally Lightfoot crabs scuttling around on the rocks and swarming along the walls. Many iguanas are on the rocks too, but also on the concrete walkway. You’ll be walking and suddenly see an iguana right in front of you. Shopping is fun, with a wide choice of curios (best to have cash. A few places take credit cards, but charge an extra fee). One shop is in an old boat, redone and painted bright red. Town also has many restaurants, cafes and bars, where you can while away a couple of hours, sipping a beer and people watching. Most locals don’t have a car, so the pick-up taxis are well used. Many people do have scooters or motorbikes and we often saw a whole family packed onto one bike. We also saw one guy on a motorbike with a dog perched on the seat behind him---the dog’s obviously done that many times before as its balance was very good, so good that it could even turn sideways and bark at another dog on the sidewalk.
steps into a hole in the ground and then walk about 1km through the tunnel, like a narrow, elongated cave. There are dim electric lights at scattered points along the way but you still need a flashlight for the darker parts in between, as the ground is sometimes rather rough and/or slippery. At one place you have to crawl for about 2 meters through a low overhang. It’s amazing to think how this rock-lined tunnel was formed and to realize you’re walking where once hot lava flowed. Piles of bones at the entrance and exit are from animals that fell down, but in our group there were many jokes about the Lava Tunnel Monster! We also went through another tunnel on the island of Floreana, part of the boat cruise.
At this historic site a man named Hathaway erected a wooden barrel in 1793. It was used as a “post office” by passing ships, first by whalers and later by visiting yachts and tourists, who picked up any mail left there and took it to post at a real post office. Nowadays, there are many wooden signs and barrels with a collection of undelivered mail in a sealed plastic bag. I chose 3 postcards from the collection and posted them when I returned home. I left a postcard there, addressed to myself, so we’ll test how long this mail delivery will take.
20-person boat, which was perfect for three days and nights. We had two National Parks guides on board, both wonderfully informative and helpful. The crew is friendly and the food good---just hope that you don’t get seasick. We cruised to a number of islands and climbed down onto the panga (dingy) to ferry us over to the island for land excursions. Sometimes we had a dry landing (step from the panga on to some kind of stone or rock jetty), sometimes a wet landing (the panga gets close to a beach and you wade onshore), which could be a little treacherous if the waves were rough. Hint: put your cameras in a special plastic bag in case you slip and fall in, something many of our group did. Sailing on the open seas here makes you realize how incredibly difficult those journeys of the early explorers must have been. Hugging the coast or riding the waves on the open seas, always with the wind in your face and blowing your hair, is an exhilarating experience. If 
you’re lucky, you’ll see whales and/or dolphins. Our wonderful experience was a pod of a couple hundred dolphins swimming with the boat for about 20 minutes. They glided in the bow waters, shining and glimmering as they jumped out of the foamy water.
Cormorant, and magnificent snorkeling at Devil’s Crown, a ring of rocks remaining from a collapsed crater. Then north to North Seymour (nesting frigates, blue-footed boobies, sealions), and finally Baltra to disembark and catch our plane to Quito. After all this, you’ll be exhilarated, stimulated, as there is nothing quite like exploring the trail of Darwin through the islands with the odd creatures that populate this isolated world filling every niche around you.