Galapagos Day 1, Baltra and Santa Cruz

Well after a harrowing day of travel complete with missed flight and miracle re-booking, we were SO LUCKY to have arrived in Ecuador with enough time to catch our originally planned flight to the Galapagos. We arrived in Baltra, met our taxi guy and caught a bus to a small channel between Baltra and Santa Cruz. Then we hopped on a rickety wooden boat and ferried to Santa Cruz. Our taxi driver spoke very limited English which meant that Jeremy and I had to lead blindly with our broken, terrible spanish circa sometime in the 1990s. But we were able to manage surprisingly well all limitations considered.

After getting off the ferry, we drove for about 20 minutes and stopped in Santa Rosa (a village on Santa Cruz Island). We stopped at a farm to see the huge Galapagos Tortoises in the wild. Of course J and I had heard a lot about these reptiles, but nothing quite prepares you to see a turtle the size of a dishwasher...that you know is over 100 years old. We took a walk around and ended up seeing like 15 of them. They were so prehistoric looking, and they made these outrageous groaning sounds like some kind of ancient beast....they were really fascinating.

Then right by this farm, was a underground lava tube that we walked and sometimes crawled through. This lava tube was MASSIVE in places...like 30 feet from ground to "ceiling" and was formed when a volcano errupted and as the lava ran down the volcano the outer crust cooled and hardened and the inner lava was still hot enough to keep oozing through. This was really wild to get to see. Everywhere you look you see black or red volcanic stones since that is what makes up the islands. 

On our way out, we had to stop because a giant tortoise was crossing the road. Of course we had to wait because if you ran one of these things over it would seriously mess up your vehicle, not to mention get you arrested!

We arrived in Puerto Ayora (the village on Santa Cruz that we will be our home base for the next 4 days) and checked into our hotel and dive shop. After finishing trying on wet (wet) suits (yuck) we are all set for diving tomorrow and took some time to walk around the village. We saw our first blue footed boobie which has electric blue feet and a large wing span....but the most impressive thing about this bird is that it flies into the air (with beautiful large wings extended) then it tips upside down, tucks in its wings and dive bombs into the ocean for fish. It remains completely underwater and can actually steer itself while underwater!

Then later this evening we walked down to the espanade and walked out onto a pier. The water is so clear we could see colorful fish and bright red crabs from high above on the pier. All of a sudden a sea lion comes out of nowhere and is swimming all around playing and twisting and did I mention this place was amazing yet?

Can't wait to see what tomorrow has in store!

XOXO