We are up early again today. No time snaffus today. Carlos Sr. drives us to the port again where we wait with many other people for a number of “ferries” to take us to Santa Cruz and others to other destinations. While signing in Greg notices that the most of the other passengers on this ferry are Germans. We re given boarding passes, pass through a baggage check then to the end of the pier to wait for our ferry.

We are asked to go down the gangway and deposit our checked bags and then return to the pier. They load all of the checked luggage into the bow of the boat. After the luggage is loaded they call us by name to board the boat. It is not a ferry in our North American definition, but a cabin cruiser that has the capacity of 25 passengers.

We have seats near the stern where there should be some airflow. When we start out it is a bit cloudy, but along the way the sun comes through and really starts to heat up. After just over 2 hours we arrive in Puerto Ayora, the main town of Santa Cruz. It is just after 9am and we haven’t had coffee. Before heading to our accommodation we head to a coffee shop near by. We enjoy some good coffee before we catch a cab for the short ride to El Bambu.

We discover that the German group is a group that holidays together every year. There are 15 of them and they range in age from 22 to 76.

All checked in, we head out to explore our new environment. This is how you carry your child on a bicycle here.

Puerto Ayora is the home to the Charles Darwin Research Center. We make our way there. It is a very warm day and there is a beach near the center so we are prepared for a swim.

Along the “Ruta de la Tortuga” we find many enclosures with tortoises at many different ages. They separate them from the island that they came from. The DNA from each island species is different.

There is also a Santa Fe Iguana here. This big guy in endemic to a very small island near to Santa Cruz.

After the research center we continue on the path that leads to the beach. On this path we find a passle of Marine Iguanas. These guys are only found in the Galapagos Islands. They dive and feed on algae in the sea.

We arrive at the beach and discover that it is really a surf beach. There are quite a few brave souls out in the surf.

We skip the swim here and make our way back into town. Here we come across the fishermen bringing in and cleaning their catch. Pelicans and a single sea lion were clamouring for the scraps. We just caught the end of this show. 😉 We have been told that the fishermen only fish every other day. Perhaps we can be here earlier in a couple of days.