First glimpse of Galapagos

March 25,2021

We have been here only a week and I have lots of things to tell you. So far we have visited San Cristobal Island. The flora and fauna are really stunning. Species that are only in this island. Let’s start with some of the highlights.

Sea Lions

Sea lion is one of the most emblematic animals of the Galapagos, with a height of 1.50m to 2.50m and can weight up to 250k. They have the capacity of using their strong frontal fins to gallop inland and climb the rocky shores of the islands. Their body is so flexible that they can bend their head completely to the back. -They are yoga masters – They live in colonies and the biggest one is in San Cristobal for sure. In the afternoon close to the naval building you could see at least a couple hundreds.

From the time just entering the bay we saw them on the buoys, on the back platform of a boat, and swimming around. Once we were anchored, they came to play around the boat almost every night.

In the town you can find them “walking around” and in some unpredicted places. I’m sure we will see more, but for now enjoy this video

Diving at Kicker Rock and Roca Ballena

Kicker Rock or Leon dormido is just a 40min boat ride from Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, the only sleepy town in Sao Cristobal. “It’s one of the best sites to see the hammerhead sharks, Black tipped and White tipped reef sharks plus Galapagos Sharks” we were told. It sounded just like what we were looking for so we quickly signed up for the tour that was schedule for the next day.

We had an excellent day, not only saw the hammerheads, (yes plural, plenty of them) but also Galapagos Sharks, White tip sharks, turtles and Eagle Rays. We also had a large school of Black stripped Samela fish around us, and I mean all the way around, it was so dense and we were just in the middle only the bubbles help me to get some direction. and a couple of turtles and Eagle rays. Our dive guide was really kind to share with us some of his videos. Look at video (To be posted whenever we get some internet.)

On the way back we stoped in a bay to have lunch on the boat and walk on the beach, called Manglecito, all part of the tour. It was a nice short walk on a white beach with some mangrove on the side as well.

We did another couple of dives on the south, it is a new site just authorised for diving. The sea life there is very different. Eagle rays, the biggest scorpion fish that I’ve seen and lots of reef fish. The reef fish in Galapagos often are the same species as found in the Caribbean but they are huge here. We found the visibility very limited compare to the Caribbean waters but our guide told us we had a good day.

Watch carefully to see the scorpion fish!!! It is always difficult to be spotted

We were all supposed to meet at the fisherman pier at 7am. Guess what we were the first there, no one else had showed up and we even thought we had miss-understood and we were on the wrong place but no we were on the right place. People started to arrive at 7:30am and around 9am several groups of divers, us included, were distributed around the bay with bags to start collecting the garbage.

Visibility was not the best but we were in the water for more than an hour collecting pieces of engine, fuel filters, a T-shirt, a fin, lots of pieces of ropes, plastic and so on. We also had to get help from the boat that was with us as there was a big long hose with some tube attached to get out of the water.

At the same time as we were diving, we got to see a couple of stingrays, a huge hermit crab, lots of fish and two sea lions went passed by at full speed by my side. I think they were swimming together and when they saw me they just split so I had one in each side. They are so quick.

Have a look at this Link to see the summary of the event. A total 2239 kilos of garbage collected in 3 different bays.

It was a great experience to be able to participate in taking care of the sea that we love. The following day, Jason called us to thanks us and to presented us with a certificate.

Cycling day

Walking in town we read a sign about cycling only downhill or something like that. Of course that caught our attention. So we started asking around and in fact you can rent some bikes and because all the taxis are 4×4 pickup type they put the bikes on the back and bring you up hill, so you only need to cycle downhill. No need for extra guide or extra park fees. So really easy to make a decision.

We took the bikes in the morning and tour around the full day. We started with the taxi ride who took us 12 km and  700meters altitude to Lagoon ” El Junco”. It is the only freshwater lake in the Galapagos and it was formed by the collapsed caldera of a volcano. It is the one of the few places where the frigate birds come to clean their feathers. When we were in Antigua and Barbuda last year (Check the Barbuda post here) we went to visit a sanctuary full of them and we learned these birds are not waterproof, if they fall in the water they drown, that is why it is so special to see them here actually touching the water.

We did the tour around the lagoon catching some blackberries on the way and enjoying the wonderful views. Up to then the weather was great, but it didn’t last the full day.

After we took the bikes for an 11km ride mostly downhill on an uneven terrain road. It had been raining so the road wasn’t fully dry. For a mountain biker probably a dream, for me a big challenge as my experience with bikes is more on the paved, flat roads. Cedric enjoyed the ride all the way, whereas me, I struggled. I couldn’t really give up. We didn’t cross any other cyclist or any cars just a couple of pedestrians passed by. And to add to the challenge the weather was getting grey and started raining, not very hard but raining enough to get us a bit wet. My main worry was to keep going down on that road if the rain was to get stronger. It could suddenly convert into a muddy slippery road. That image got me motivated to go faster and make sure we could get to a safer ground before the conditions got worse. The last kilometre was easier paved, steep road and going downhill and back to sunny sky. By the time we arrived to the Centro Galapaguera we were dry again.

This galapaguera was built to improve the status of the island’s tortoise population, Geochelone chatamensis, within an environment with conditions similar to its natural state. The place is 1415 m2 corral and consist of: a visitor centre and a breeding centre part. There are different enclosures with groups of tortoises according to the age. They only go outside of those after they are two years old so they are bigger and stronger to be on their own. On the walking path up to the enclosures and back you find the big tortoises walking freely.

The next stop with the bike was another 2km downhill to Puerto Chino. A beautiful white sandy beach secluded beach. Just wonderful.

By the end of our beach time we were pickup by our 4×4 driver who brought as back down to town. It was pouring, no visibility, even for the car not an easy ride. We were so happy the rain was not a couple hours before.

Look at these pictures, that was the rain we avoided at the top, the bay had brown water for a couple of days after that.

We still had time left with the bikes so we went around in town to find some late lunch. But we couldn’t find anything, so we wen to a small kiosk by the beach we had visited before. Great fruit juices, ceviche, bolon just enough to have more energy to go visit “La Loberia”

La loberia, is a coral beach, not very far from the airport in San Cristobal. Its name is due to the big amount of sea lions that stay normally in the beach or by the rock there. However, on our visit we only saw one. We thought he was being very friendly and trying to play swimming around us, but we understood later that he was actually trying to tell us to move away. It was a male and they are territorial. Females and babies are more playful.

Instead of plenty sea lions we found plenty mosquitoes probably due to the rain.

Back in town we finally found them, apparently after the construction of the airport they don’t hang out so much in La Loberia, they stay close to the naval base closer to town.

What a day to ride a bike!!!

Can you believe it only has been a week in Galapagos? We will be here at least for another 3 weeks so I’m very excited about what we still about to see. I’ll keep you updated!!