Ecuador, Summer 2019 (Part 3 - The Galapagos, Continued)
On the morning of June 29th, we woke up early to get breakfast. Our hotel came with wonderful amenities including a complimentary breakfast. The only downside is the breakfast is only served between 7:00 and 8:30 AM…a little too early if you ask me. Breakfast was simple, starting with a bowl of fruit followed by eggs. Breakfast was like this pretty much our entire stay.
We took a cab into town and walked to the San Francisco Pier to catch a water taxi that would take us a short distance to a dock that serves as the beginning of a trail to Las Grietas, an isolated pool of ocean water located between two cliffs.
The walk to Las Grietas takes about 25 minutes. The hike is rocky and definitely not easy considering we were only wearing sandals.
Las Grietas is a definite “must-see” for most tourists to Santa Cruz. This makes it possible to be surrounded by tons of people. Fortunately, since we went early we were able to avoid any large crowds.
We rented a pair of snorkels and masks back in Puerto Ayora to be able to look at the wildlife below the surface. The water was pretty cold but after a few minutes we got used to it.
There were various amounts of fish, none of which I could identify except for parrot fish. Like most other animals in the Galapagos, the fish in these waters do not seem to have any innate fear of humans. This let me get pretty close to them while trying to take pictures.
Las Grietas is a beautiful and picturesque area. To be completely honest though, there wasn’t a lot to do there other than swim around for a bit. We probably spent less time there than it took us to get there and back.
We took the water taxi back to Puerto Ayora, snapped a few pictures on the dock and went back to our hotel.
At dinner time we stopped at Andrea & Velorio, a restaurant on Charles Darwin Ave. that focuses on traditional Ecuadorian cuisine. The bulk of the other restaurants on the main street of town are tourist fair: burgers, sandwiches, and oddly enough a lot of Italian food, so it was nice to be able to get local food.
After ordering we were greeted by Valerio himself who personally thanked every table for dining with them that evening and told us about how the food at their restaurant was all from local farms and scratch made. He took great pride in his island and in his food and with good reason. We had some of the best food we had on our entire trip here.
After dinner we headed back to the hotel and called it an early night.
We slept in this morning and as a result missed out on breakfast. We honestly didn’t mind since we really felt like we needed the sleep more than the breakfast. The hotel hailed a cab for us and we headed to town to get an early lunch before heading to Tortuga Bay for the day.
The cab dropped us off at the start of a trail that you can hike or bike to the real Tortuga Bay. The walk is about 1.5 miles and is not exactly easy as it has a lot of hills and you have to walk a portion of it on the beach. You have to check in at a little reception desk where they conveniently sell snacks and drinks. I highly advise you buy some water for this hike.
There are essentially two beaches at Tortuga Bay aptly named Tortuga Brava and Tortuga Mansa. Tortuga Brava, which as its name implies in Spanish has some very rough surf and strong currents and people are therefore not allowed to swim here, surfing however is allowed. Don’t ask me to explain that logic. Tortuga Mansa is located in naturally secluded bay which acts as a wave breaker making the water here almost perfectly still.
The water at Tortuga Mansa was really cloudy so I wasn’t really able to see anything with my mask and snorkel so we primarily stayed on the beach and caught some sun.
After our 50 minute hike back, we were left practically exhausted and decided to call it a day and headed back to the hotel after returning my mask and snorkel.
At the hotel, we inquired at the front desk about doing a tour of the highlands of the island. Our hotel works with a lot of taxi drivers that double as tour guides and are happy to show people around the island for a fee. We scheduled a 9:30 AM pick up time for the next morning and headed back to our room to rest for the rest of the night since we had a long day ahead of us tomorrow.
We once again woke up early the next morning in order to take advantage of the breakfast that was included with our stay. Afterwards we quickly got dressed and sat in the lobby waiting for our guide. I use the term “guide” loosely as he was really just one of the taxi drivers the hotel worked closely with who would be taking us around the island. For $35 each I wasn’t expecting much but we certainly got our money’s worth.
Our driver’s name was Walter. We had ridden with him a few times into town from our hotel. He’s a peculiar gentleman with a little routine he greets a lot of his passengers with as soon as you board his cab where he pretends to be an airline pilot. He’s a very nice guy and knows a lot of about the island so he turned out to be a wonderful guide.
The first stop on our tour was Los Gemelos, two enormous craters that formed when the volcanic activity on the island subsided leaving large hollow underground tunnels throughout the island. The largest of these tunnels eventually collapsed in on themselves under the intense weight and pressure and formed the massive craters that we can see today. The walk around both of them is not very long but it sure is beautiful.
Walter waited for us while we hiked around the craters and was ready to take us to our next stop: Rancho Chato, a “ranch” where the tortoises of the island live in their natural habitat. This ranch is also home to a few lava tunnels that one is able to walk through. We paid the $5 per person fee to enter and began on our way. The tunnels aren’t particularly impressive but they are fairly neat nonetheless to walk through them. They did give me an uneasy “The Descent” vibe though. Fortunately there were no humanoid monsters down there waiting for us however.
The signs around the entrance say to maintain a distance of three meters (roughly 10 feet) from the tortoises. This wasn’t always easy however as the tortoises had a habit of settling down right in the middle of the paths we’re supposed to stay on. There’s also significant quantities of tortoise droppings to avoid stepping on. They’re pretty big so it’s hard to miss them.
After finishing the circuit around the ranch we got back in Walter’s truck where he would take us to Rancho Primicias, another tortoise ranch with another, longer lava tunnel formation. On the way to the next ranch, Walter pulled over and insisted to take this picture of us:
It was a strange gesture but at the end of the day it actually came out as a really cute picture and I’m glad we took it.
We made it to the lava tunnels outside Primicias and were told by Walter that it gets pretty narrow at one point. This set of tunnels runs about 400 meters (a quarter of a mile). Around the 300 meter mark you have to get on your hands and knees (or stomach in my case) to crawl through the tunnel.
Upon beginning our descent, Walter left us to drive the truck to where one emerges from the tunnels. We shot videos of both of us climbing down the lowest part of the tunnels but honestly neither of us looked flattering in them so they were promptly deleted.
We drove to Rancho Primicias where we, once again, paid a $5 entry fee per person. There was a little area where hollowed out giant tortoise shells were on display for people to get into to take pictures. Walter once again insisted that we take photos there. Again, a little strange but I must admit, the pictures came out very cute. He has quite the eye for this kind of thing.
We once again made the rounds through the ranch and observed the tortoises in their natural habitat from as safe a distance as we could. Whenever one gets close they immediately curl into their shells and hiss at you. This definitely kept me from wanting to get close but sometimes you didn’t have much of a choice if you wanted to stay anywhere near the path.
We got back in Walter’s truck and headed to the southeastern part of the island to Playa El Garrapatero. This is one of the most picturesque beaches I’ve ever seen. It looks like something straight out of a postcard.
We told Walter to come back for us in two hours. The walk to the beach is about 15 minutes and it was definitely the easiest hike we’ve had so far on this island. Audrey laid on the beach to work on her tan while I tried to look for pictures of underwater creatures to photograph. It seems like other than our scuba trip I was destined to fail at ocean photography as the water was very murky at this beach as well. Too much sand was getting kicked up by the waves making it difficult to see beyond my outstretched hand.
When it was getting close to the time we told for Walter to come back for us, we dried off, put our shoes back on and walked back just as Walter was arriving to pick us up. He drove us back to our hotel where we bought a bunch of snacks from the convenience store next door and hunkered down watching the Blacklist for the rest of the night.
The next day we only had one thing on the agenda: watch the Women’s World Cup semifinal between the United States and England.
We went to Il Giardino where we had had dinner a few nights earlier and sat at the bar to watch the game. The weather was fairly dreary and it made me feel better about not having any real plans on our last full day in the Galapagos.
The US ended up winning 2-1. After the game the weather finally started to clear up a bit so we walked back to the Charles Darwin Research Station.
We stopped at the beach and just watched as the rough seas rocked the cruise ships that were anchored in the bay. It was a peaceful and serene way to spend the rest of the afternoon as the sun began to set.
