Okey, WOW!! If you haven't concider visiting these islands, please do it now! You can visit three of the main island by yourself and do daytrips to the smaller ones if you are travelling on a budget. We will have to wait our retirement days to go on the cruises :) I am totally amazed of these islands, paradise would be the right word to describe them.
Day 2
Santa Cruz looks much nicer what we had heard about it. Marine life = amazing, absolutely speachless! We dove to Gordon Rocks today with Galapagos Travellers. Very profession diveshop, good equipments, check dive, make-your-own-burger-lunch and super friendly and helpful staff. On our first dive we came across freezing cold currents (+18°), at least 20 hammerhead sharks, mantaray and few turtles. I'm not even going to write how many different fish we saw :) I was totally just one big smile the whole girl.
Santa Cruz looks much nicer what we had heard about it. Marine life = amazing, absolutely speachless! We dove to Gordon Rocks today with Galapagos Travellers. Very profession diveshop, good equipments, check dive, make-your-own-burger-lunch and super friendly and helpful staff. On our first dive we came across freezing cold currents (+18°), at least 20 hammerhead sharks, mantaray and few turtles. I'm not even going to write how many different fish we saw :) I was totally just one big smile the whole girl.
Between the dives we got to go snorkle with the sealions. It was more like underwater ballet! I was just diving under the surface and they came so close to play with me. Second dive was as good as the first one. Turtles came so close so we could really see how beautiful they are. One point there was 7 hammerheads below me and 2 mantas above, I didn't know which way to look! After the dive we headed straight to Tortuga Bay to check the white sandy beach and land iguanas.
Day 3
We changed island to Isabela, but before that we went to see giant tortoises and lava tunnels with John and Julia. They have been sailing for the past 6 years, never leaving the boat! Started from Turkey, they literally have been every where :) that is a proper hardcore travelling!
Day 5
We did the lava tunnel snorkling tour today and it was great! Actually there is no words for it, we saw so much marine life, snorkled close to the mangroves and lava fornations which looked like caves and tunnels. 7 white tipped reef sharks, 20 seaturtles, 9 colden rays, 2 spotted eaglerays, huge stingray, blue parrotfish, penguins, fur sealions, yellow seahorse,.. Could not keep track :D it was magnificent but cold as hell! And I was the only one with long wetsuit.
Isabela definitely has the beaches to lie in, tortoises to ran in to on the roads, zillions of iguanas lying in lavarocks and sealions taking it easy on the pier. Can't compare to Santa Cruz, both has their highlights.
Day 7
What a disaster day! Very badly slept night because there were so many ants in our room, plus San Cristobal felt so much hotter than Isabela. We had booked diving but in the morning they just told us that the boat is broken, can't go today. But somehow our divemaster and two other divers were going anyway.. For us it was too late to find another diveshop. So we rented bikes and started cycling towards the other side of the island, Puerto Chino. After 9km straight forward uphill I got flat tier. We had came to a blows with Rob already miles ago so he had gone by himself. So there I was, middle of San Cristobal island alone with my broken bike, no phone or money. It rains only like 10/365 days in here, and one of the days were today. I seriously thought of screaming my head off! I walked few kilometers with my bike hoping Rob would have stopped. No he hadn't. So I just junked my bike on a pole hoping it would be there still when I return.. I hitchhiked a ride to see how far Rob had gone. We needed one more hour a silent treatment before we made a truce.
After checking El junco, freshwater lake, I got a ride from a local couple to the tortoise breeding centre and then I walked rest to the beach. It was more than 1pm at that point, we didn't have any water left or food. And we were starving! Luckily one tourist group had plenty of leftovers and they were kind enough to give us plates. I can't tell you how happy I was for that plate and glass of soda! I have been told so many times that - there is no such thing as a free lunch! But today there was :D
Afternoon went well, swim was so refreshing and we took taxi back and he kindly picked my bike also. We walked to La Loberia beach, tens and tens of sealions :) For dinner it all went wrong again. I must warn all vegeterians, it is not easy to find decent food in Ecuador!! We asked about vegeterian burgers. When the plates came, there was 2cm steak in between the buns. When we waved the waiter back he said - oh, you wanted vegeterian version? Obviously we were not clear enough.. He took the plates and came back in 30s. Same burger just the steak been taken out. No extras, same price. Why am I vegeterian again?
Very good day indeed! We decided to have stressfree day without doing anything. Just lied on a beach like other sealions ;) and snorkled with them also, few of them were so playful. Afternoon we walked otherside of the town to Cerro Tijeretas, saw all the way to Leon Dormido (famous divesite what we missed yesterday) and that bay for snorkling! Wau!! Landscape of the bottom was incredible, lava formations, rocks, tunnels, caves, walls,.. And water was so clear also! Perfect day of ending our trip in Galapagos :) we have afternoon flight tomorrow back to the real life!
