Santa Cruz, Galápagos, Ecuador
05/06/2023
Having seen a lot of Ecuador in a brief period of time, our trip was far from over. As a matter of fact, we had four days of exploring the Galápagos Islands ahead of us, filled with numerous encounters of beautiful animals. But I am getting ahead of myself. First we had to get there.
So after breakfast in a hotel next to Quito Airport, we drove over to the departure terminal and took a plane to “Galápagos Ecologic Airport” on Seymour. To be frank, I am unsure how ecological an airport can be, no matter how many solar panels you stuff on the roof, but whatever. Greenwashing is an art as much as it is a science.
Upon arrival we had to undergo another bag check and got our passport stamped once more to enter the islands. Everything was incredibly stressed and unnecessarily strict. Picture the vigilance of Mona Lisa Guards in the Louvre just to make sure no-one strayed even 1 meter off the demarcated lines. Moreover, we got an individual babysitter to accompany us during our first day.
Having exited the airport, they then crammed all new arrivals into a bus and drove us down to a pier where a smaller boat transferred us across the narrow strait over to Santa Cruz. We got in a car with our babysitter and drove to “Rancho Primicias – Giant Tortoise Reserve“. There, in torrential rain, we would see our first giant tortoises roaming around. Fortunately, we got lent rubber boots and rain ponchos.
After seeing these fascinating, beautiful and in fact very big animals, it was back to rushing to the next spot. You must know – Galápagos is not an island group for relaxation. Instead, everything is planned and clocked to the minute like Deutsche Bahn’s wet dream. So when we were rushing to the boat 3 minutes late, it was already taking off and we had to jump over quite quickly to not get left behind. At that point it dawned on us that the rush was going to become the rule rather than the exception, but we still had hopes for some time at the beach or pool or something like that (foreshadowing 😉 ).
The boat was an old coffin ship that had difficulty passing the big waves coming in from the ocean, despite only riding near the shore. They did have life vests, though, and if something had happened I am sure a friendly sea turtle would have been happy to serve as a floatie. In any case, we arrived at the beach about half an hour later and got off to see our first sea lion chillaxing right next to us, completely undisturbed by the 15-20 people hopping off the boat next to it.
I hadn’t walked 10 metres before encountering the next oddity – a bird sitting on a cactus right next to me. The special thing was not the particular beauty of the bird, nor it being able to sit on a cactus, but the immediate proximity of it to me without it flying away. It was truly special and explained by our babysitter with the fact that the animals on the islands were never hunted by humans, thus not seeing us as a danger.
Note that this picture was taken with a 24-105mm wide angle lens, not my telezoom.
We set up camp on the beach and did go for a relaxing swim. I will reveal to you now that this was going to be our only relaxed swim during our time on Galápagos. But I digress. We felt the urge to explore the other side of the peninsula after our babysitter had told us there were going to be countless animals. First, we spotted Iguanas in the sand, then everywhere. About half of the people walking the path almost stepped on them as they just did not move at all.
Not even a minute later, a pelican landed and I had barely enough time to get my camera ready before it took off again. I like pelicans because they make great protective cases for my camera gear (the photographers amongst you will get it).
We walked up to the edge of the shore, getting a beautiful view onto the black volcanic rocks and green vegetation holding back the bright blue ocean. We also saw a sea lion and a turtle swimming out to the ocean, though without my tele zoom lens ready I couldn’t get a close-up.
With the national park – so basically 99% of surface on the islands – closing at 4 or 5pm for some reason and it already being late, our guide rushed us back to our coffin boat. But before boarding I made sure to take some pictures of our first encounter with blue-footed boobies. The German name is “Blaufußtölpel”, which I find matching since it translates to “blue-footed dolt / fool”. Have a look at the dude and decide for yourself. And don’t worry, there will be even dorkier pictures over the next days.
¡Hasta pronto!