Ecuador 2022: Galapagos Part 1

Ecuador 2022:

Galapagos Part 1

The next part of our trip, and the one I was most interested in, took us to the Galapagos Islands. The only way to get there is to fly from mainland Ecuador as the islands are a very protected national park.  

Nel's ridiculous hat aside, it was an easy travel day. The highlight for me was the dog checking luggage when we landed in Baltra. They lined up all our luggage and then had the pup walk all over every bag checking for primarily plants and seeds, etc. When he was satisfied, the officer threw a ball into the crowd and the little guy mingled with us for a few minutes. Awesome.

From the airport, it was buses and boats to get to our destination of Santa Cruz, but not before a stop for lunch at Rancho El Chato with the islands most famous residents, the giant tortoises. 

We spent the rest of the evening checking out the decent-sized town of Santa Cruz. There were plenty of activities and restaurants. 

We decided to book a diving and snorkeling trip for the next day. I was the only one diving from my group, but there was a couple of Israeli military members doing their year-long walkabout (or whatever they call it) that joined us that would be diving as well.

Our dive master - great stach! The dive ultimately turned out to be amazing, but started out kind of sketchy. The four of us diving jumped in and I headed to the bottom as instructed. The Israeli girl wasn't an experienced diver, and the conditions were terrible where they dropped us in, so she couldn't get down. I was left alone at the bottom about 40 feet down, surrounded by a dozen or so sleeping sharks no more than 10 feet away and all around me, for about 15 minutes. Finally, another dive group came along the bottom and were shocked to see me there just chillin. They made sure I was alright, and then I was finally joined by my dive master and friend. The rest of the dive was amazing and full of aquatic life. 

 

After we dove and snorkeled for a while, the crew dropped us in the water in the middle of dozens of young sea lions. It was amazing! I would describe it as a mass of curious juveniles that wanted to play with us and nibble - mostly our fins, thank goodness. It was one of he highlights of the entire trip.

We spent another couple days in Santa Cruz before moving on to the island of San Cristobal. 

Getting around Santa Cruz is super easy. These white trucks are everywhere, and work like taxis. Just flag one down and they'll take you anywhere you want to go for $1.50.