Galapagos day 1

No need to say that we were very excited about our 5 days at the Galapagos islands.

In our mind this was certainly one of the highlights of the trip and for this reason we had also booked the whole tour through an agency well in advance (this is quite unusual for us as we tend to be “solo” travellers as we don’t like to be bound by a tight schedule, but simply improvise as and when).

Now we can safely say that the Galapagos met our expectations and did not disappoint us, the agency, unfortunately, let us down.

But lets proceed with the right order.

We landed at the Baltra airport, north of Santa Cruz island at 10 am after been sprayed during our flight to ensure we would not bring any non endemic animal to the island.

The Ecuadorian authorities take conservation very seriously and this is very reassuring. For this reason we didn’t mind paying the $100 fee at landing which we are told is once again used mainly for conservation of the National Park.

Education both of local people and tourists plays a big part in conservation. You are constantly reminded, on TV, magazines, roads and even on the benches where you sit, that looking after the nature is everybody’s responsibility.

As the bus drove us from the north of the Santa Cruz island to Porto Ayora in the south we noticed that the presence of men on the island is limited to the bare minimum (one road, nothing else)

In Puerto Ayora we jumped on a small speed boat, with 15 other local passengers, for a 3 hr ride to Isla San Cristobal.

I can definitely say that if hell exists, the punishment must pretty much resemble like that ride on that boat.
This is the best smile I can fake on the boat

For the first hr on the boat we felt sea sick, after 1 hr we met some heavy currents and the boat begun to jump from one wave to another with us jumping and landing on our seats praying for our lives. We used life vests as pillow to soften te landing.

When eventually we touched land again, like the pope, I kissed the ground.

Elena, which is clearly more resilient, felt immediately better as we were greeted by 2 sea lions sleeping at the pier.

We soon realised that this was not luck but just the norm in San Cristobal. Sea lions own the town, literally, human being co-habit with them, and in actual fact the night belongs to them hands down.

Sea lions sleeping everywhere on the beach and in the road

On the bench.....

.....and guess who is sleeping in there?