Galápagos Part 1: Santa Cruz

The Galápagos Islands are often referred to as “las islas encantadas” - the enchanted islands - and I can’t think of a better way to describe this magical place. Sparkling turquoise sea, white sand, rugged landscapes, volcanoes... and that’s before I even mention the wildlife! The Galápagos is home to some of the most amazing and unique creatures on Earth, many of which cannot be found anywhere else. It’s an incredible place.

I hadn’t originally planned to visit the Galápagos: partly because it’s meant to be very expensive but mainly because I hate the idea of cruises. I suffer from seasickness and I like to have freedom and flexibility when I travel, so being stuck at sea for several days in a confined space is my idea of a nightmare. The only time I ever stepped foot on a cruise-liner I got stuck on it for 12 hours following a swine flu scare, and then quarantined at home for a week, which didn't help me warm to them!

Anyway, my initial reservations quickly faded when I met an Australian couple in Colombia, who had travelled to the Galápagos independently, i.e. they’d just taken a flight to one of the islands and then organised day trips to the other islands. This sounded a lot more appealing: you get to return to dry land every night and you have your own space and flexibility to see what you want to see, at your own pace. It’s also considerably cheaper than a cruise. So after reading up on it a bit more I decided to take the plunge! It would have felt crazy to be so close by and not take the opportunity to visit.

On leaving Cuenca I headed down to Guayaquil to catch the plane over to the islands. My base for the first few days was Santa Cruz, which is the most central and highly populated island. 

After checking into my hostel I headed straight to the Charles Darwin Research Station: a conservation centre where they study and breed giant tortoises, iguanas etc. There I got chatting to a local guy called Lenin, who took me down to Playa de la Estación - a small rocky beach next to the centre - to see Marine Iguanas in the wild. As interesting as the Charles Darwin station was, it’s obviously much cooler to see animals in the wild so this was my first bit of excitement. The iguanas were hanging out on the rocks beside the sea, trying to soak up some sun, or clambering on top of each other to keep warm. There were hundreds of them! The majority are a very dark black so they were completely camouflaged against the black volcanic rocks and it would be very easy to tread on one if you weren’t careful! One of the wonderful things about these islands is that since the animals have evolved in relative isolation from humans, they have never built up a fear of us, so it’s possible to get very close to them. 

Marine Iguana

Lenin ended up showing me around the island the next day. We headed up to the highlands first, to see giant tortoises in the wild. This was one of the highlights of the whole trip! We saw so many of them, lumbering around, taking a mud bath and just generally watching the world go by. Some of the biggest ones were over 100 years old and they wheezed as they breathed, like old men. They’re fascinating creatures. They hardly move at all, so it becomes disproportionately exciting when you see one actually do something! I sat and watched one eating grass for about 15 minutes! 

Tortoise Friend

Hungry Tortoise

Whilst in the highlands we also went on a walk through a lava tunnel. There are many of these all over the island: underground tunnels formed when a stream of lava flows out of a volcano. It was an unusual sight - colourful and very quiet. We then made a quick stop at Los Gemelos (“the twins”): two sinkhole craters formed by collapsing lava tunnels.

Next we took a water taxi over the the other side of the bay, and went to Las Grietas: a swimming hole located in a lava crevasse. You can jump leap from the top of the rocks into the water, 20m below. I left Lenin to do that (backwards) and just stuck to swimming and snorkelling! The water was crystal clear so you could see right to the bottom and we saw quite a few fish once we got far enough away from where people were dive bombing! 

Las Grietas

After a quick lunch break we made our final trip of the day, to the beautiful Tortuga Bay. It was a 40-minute walk through some scrub-land, to get to this pristine white sandy beach, with turquoise waters (well, they would have been if it hadn't been so overcast). There were loads more marine iguanas here. We sat on the rocks as the tide came in and watched hundreds of red Sally Lightfoot crabs crawling in over the rocks, a sea-lion swimming past and many birds including mockingbirds, frigate-birds and pelicans flying overhead.

Not bad for the first 24 hours in the Galápagos!

Marine Iguana going for a paddle

Sally Lightfoot Crab

Birds on the beach

Lenin at Tortuga Bay