The Galapagos continues....

Trip Start Sep 03, 2007
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Trip End Jul 03, 2008


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Where I stayed
The Albatross Hostel
(Quito hotels)

Flag of Ecuador  ,
Friday, April 11, 2008

So youŽve read about our relaxing time on San Isabela. Lots of camping etc. We we still had another few days to kill in the Galapagos and thats not exactly very difficult! We had to spend a night on Santa Cruz, the touristy island, to recover from camping and get clean etc. So what better way to do it than meet up with 5 people we met on San Isabela and have a few drinks and a dance at El Panga nightclub. Yes The Galapagos islands have a nightclub and surprisingly good and luckily not full of tourists... in fact think we were the only ones.

Anyway Santa Cruz was just a stopover and at 2pm the next day, after watching rat executions at the harbour we headed off to San Cristobel. San Cristobel is the most eastern habitated island and the Capital of the Galapagos. Luckily its vibe is a happy medium between the other two islands.

After we arrived we went in pursuit of a cheap hostel Coakroach infested room
Coakroach infested room
 . The Albatross at $8 a night each was the cheapest and even had English sky TV! But luxuries like this come at a price and they were heavy! Our room was about a far from luxury as we could get but luckily, and surprisingly no bed bugs. The room was infested with cockroaches, mozzies and lacked a window. There was i fan which somehow managed to position itself 1 foot away from Caroline and about 5 foot and out of effective range for me! It was a sweat pit. WeŽd decided that within 10 minutes weŽd be moving to San Franisco next door. Caroline managed to only get them down to $10 a night - maybe I could do better.....

Our first day was spent booking up a snorkeling trip to Kicker rock ($40), visiting the exceptionally informative interpretation center and doing some stunning snorkeling. Tijeretas was a fantastic location with seals swimming around us, fish everywhere and birds darting in all over the place. However the best snorkeling was Punta Lido. Here we managed to surf the waves with over 30 Green Turtles! That was awesome.

After I stepped into the haggling game we moved to San Franisco at $8!! (Caroline is arguing that this isnŽt how it really happened!) Here we bumped into Oliver, our Canadian surf dude, and went for dinner and persuaded him to come along snorkeling Cool street sign 1
Cool street sign 1
 .

Next morning up bright and early and loaded onto our boat to Kicker rock - in the pissing rain!!! Luckily by the time we arrived at Isla Lobos the sun was out and conditions were back to perfection! This snorkel site is amazing. We spent a good hour playing with sea lions and watching Marine Iguanas diving under water - canŽt see that anywhere else! 

Our next location was Kicker Rock. This is a site where you can potentially seen sharks and esp hammerheads. Unluckily we werenŽt that lucky. However the sheer experience of diving in the deep blue in potential shark infested water was fantastic.On our return we returned to the first site to swim with the slightly more aggressive sea lions!

Caroline decided to award our budgetness with a meal out in La Playa. Fantastic restaurant.

Our last full day was spent snorkeling again - well for Caroline at least. My ear was playing up and we didnŽt want to risk it before our flight to Quito.

Last morning was sadly spent with a disappointing snorkel and awaiting our flight to Quito.

We are both very sad we left paradise and we didnŽt know then we would be experiencing hail in Quito!!!!
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