Spoiling ourselves on the Galapagos Islands
Trip Start
Sep 03, 2007
1
79
106
Trip End
Jul 03, 2008
Galapagos Islands,
Ecuador
Thursday, March 27, 2008
After much umming and ahhing and the fact that we had our bags stolen in Cuenca, as you will have read in the last entry, we decided that we would come to the Galapagos islands from some R&R. Our main objection to coming was the costs. The flights cost $350 and the entrance fee is $110. However we´d been told by lots of people that this was not something to miss we thought what the hell lets prove it can be done cheaply.
Day 1
We arrived in Baltra on the 27th at 10.30am very excited at the 2 weeks that were ahead of us fully aware that we´d been very lucky to be here. With such large expectations of the Galapagos islands we were wondering if it would live up to them. Within 20 minutes we were already seeing sealions sunbathing, Blue Footed boobies diving and pelicans chilling on the river banks.
We caught the bus to Port Ayora, which we were both surprised at how large it was. Our first job was to find somewhere to stay cheaply. Obviously this is where lots of Americans and big tours come so accomadation can be a bit OTT. But with our Canadian Surf dude Oliver we knew we could get some where cheap. When you expectations are low and extras are not high on your demand list then hostel Gloria might fill the bill. Our room at $14 a night was not the Hilton or a hostel international. The room was located behind a souvinir shop and a lady breast feeding a child. (This seemed to be a perminent feature!) The room itself was basic but we took it. Later that night we regretted it when the electricity didn´t work (which meant no fan in the 35degree heat) and the shower turned out to be more a visable feature than a practical one.
Marine Iguana - won´t see that anywhere else
Don´t worry for us. Caroline complained and we got moved to a slightly better room the next night. Our first day in Galapagos was spent walking about in awe of what we saw. Any journey would take 3 times the normal time needed as we kept stopping to take pictures of the local animal community, some of which are included in this blog entry. We immediately hired some snorkles and headed out to the bay. Even just off the shore of the main town we saw some amazing fish, the eagle spotted ray being the highlight.
Avoiding our room led us to spend the night in the Limon Cafe bar where we managed to find a trusty Irish man, John to go drinking with and some random German girl who we already drunk before we got there.
Day 2
After our horrendous night in the horrible Gloria hostel we decided that today would be a Darwin and beach day. The Charles Darwin centre is about a km to the east of the town. The centre is basically as tortoise breeding centre trying to replenish the populations on the island. Here you can actually go right up to the animals and take some really close up and invading photos. If your a fat Ecuadorian you can then sit on their backs and get a lovely British couple (us) to shout at you! The centre also has land iguanas and some bird life. We couldn´t get over the size of the tortoises, these islands are the only place you can find giant ones and wow they are cool.
In the afternoon we headed to Tortuga bay about a 3 km walk from the town centre but definitely worth the walk.
Iguana Sign
Caroline wanted to fit in with the surfers so she took a boogie board along for good measure. Tortuga bay is an amazingly white beach that streches about a kilometre and has no one on it. I think the walk deters the more package orientated tourists so we made full use of our own beach space. Day 3
Today we headed to Santa Isabela, the largest island and the best for camping which is essential to our budget restraints. The ferry across cost us $30 and leaves at 2pm. With the morning to spare we headed to Los Grietas for a swim. Las G is a canyon water pool about a km from the town. To get there you take a water taxi across the bay (50 cents) and then follow the signs. Luckily we did it early enough to get the place pretty much to ourselves (picture on the blog). There is nothing nicer than diving into this crystal water when it is amazingly hot outside.
Anyhow at 2pm off to Santa Isabela on the 2 hour ferry. We apparantly got lucky and had some smart speed boat with drinks etc, most other people were cramed on their ferries. When we arrived in Santa Isabela we both knew this was what we had been imagining. The town is small with sandy streets. There are shack restaurants around a small village sqaure. We stayed at the Hostel Jungle purely because is would let us use our tent which we had been lugging, or more accurately I had been lugging round SA. Using our own tent it only cost us $2 each a night so we were on target to come in way below our budget. We met up with some fellow travellers and tucked into a BBQ, followed by an evening swim in the sea.
From now on I´m just going to write the things we did as the rest of the time we did nothing but read in hammocks, have BBQ´s and drink!
Snorkling (free)
We went snorkeling a couple of times at Concha Perla next to the ferry pier.
Our Israeli friends
Here we managed to see Turtles (everytime we went we saw them and they are just like the turtles in Nemo), penquins swimming, sealions swimming, puffer fish, tigger fish and millions of other colourful fish.Volcan Sierra Negra and Volcan Chico ($20)
This was a walk up to the second largest crater in the world. The crater is 10 km across and truely quite impressive! The walk to the crater is about 1 hour and despite the walk being easy and very obvious you need a guide. We then moved on to Volcan Chico which was another hour or so further on. To get there we walked round the lip of the crater. Volcan Chico is a lot smaller but the visual effect of the place is a lot more interesting. You are a lot closer to the action. Steam and heat still ooze from holes and there are very visual lava flows. The walk is not too difficult but for our good friends the Irsaelis 2 hours was a bit much.
Wall of tears and beach walks (free)
The beach was about 20m from our tent so it became a daily occurance for Caroline (and sometimes I) to take a stroll along the beach at 7am after being woken by either the screaming family that ran the hostel or the builders. At the end of the beach there are some rocks that host numerous marine Iguanas and on 1 visit a Manta Ray (we got within a metre of it) and a surfing seal. Very cool.
We did the national park walk to the wall of tears. The group consitsted of us, an Aussie guy (Dangerous Dave), a Canadian couple (Mike and Stacey) and our faithful Israelis. None of us knew what the wall of tears was when we left and by the looks on peoples faces not sure they were that impressed as it was just a wall!!! However we did manage to go inside a lava tunnel and watch turtles swimming in the sea. So despite is raining all the way home it was still worth it.
Hostel Jungle ($2 a night)
This place is mad and made all the better by the people we met there especially Kobi and Gill our forementioned Israelis. If anyone does there country proud then its these two jokers. We spent 4 nights with these guys and the nights basically were spent with us cooking in, drinking and watching them argue with the hostel owners. Gill reminded Caroline of Borat so she was in constant giggles laughing at him most of the time not with him. Kobi was a comical Israeli princess desperate to get home. Every night we would take it turns to cook with the barest ingredients, always finding our meal for 4 would have doubled by the time we would serve it up as more travllers come and chilled in the hostel.
