Greg and Stu are up and out the door by 7am. They have almost an hour van ride before arriving at the starting point for the trek up Sierra Negra the oldest volcano on Isabela, which you can only do with a guide. A five hour, 18km hike follows that. They have a guide named Simon who is originally from England, so his English is passable. 😉

I don’t know all of the details but will try to relate what I heard from Stu and Greg. They tell me that it is much much cooler up the volcano than it is down at sea level. No, this does not mean it was easy, but easier than I had imagined.

The first hour of the hike is a fairly gentle uphill slope and the vegetation changes dramatically as they ascend.

After that they reach the crater and are told that it is 10km across and about 100m deep. This makes this the shallowest caldera on Isabela. A massive crater, the second largest on earth I have read.

This volcano is the most active in the Galapagos and had an eruption less than a year ago. June 26, 2018!! Not very long ago.

Here are some amazing photos from the top. I really like the 3rd one that shows the silhouettes of the hikers along the ridge.

The hike done, the guys picked up some beer from the local market to enjoy before heading to the beach for a well earned dip. We found them showered and napped ready for happy hour. 😉

Today the guys are climbing a volcano and Leslie and I are kayaking with the penguins. The volcano hike is about 18km!! It is so hot in town I am sure I would melt doing that. It is not my idea of fun 😉 I was glad that Leslie declined as well and we could at least get into the water to cool down. No beautiful ocean on the volcano.

The boys are picked up at 7am and Leslie and have a leisurely morning. We meet at 8:30 stroll into town and decide to try a different coffee shop today to get a different perspective. We order cappuccinos. They arrive very quickly, so we are suspicious. Yep, it is a push a button kind of machine that makes pre-sweetened cappuccino. Not the best, but not the worst.

We begin a conversation with a young woman who, as it turns out grew up in the next community from Greg and Leslie. She is having a breakfast that looks good, so we order the same to share. This comes with coffee, so we figure that it is a 2 coffee morning and order an extra as the breakfast comes with 1. Mistake! Not good coffee. I added milk and then added sugar and still couldn’t choke it down. Oh well, lesson learned. The food was very good however.

After breaky we head to the kayak shop to book the tour for low tide this afternoon. I am fortunate and able to launder most of my red money. 🙂 They accept it but wonder about the story behind it. We tell them that the ocean plucked me up and sucked me in. Hahaha pretty true!!

We saw a couple of interesting outdoor showers on our walk today.

We arrive to get geared up and head to the port beach to meet our guide and assistant. Our guide speaks very little English, but his assistant is from the US and translates what he is saying. There are only 5 participants. Two women from Chicago and one of the women’s son. He is studying in Cuenca.

We are paddling to Las Tintoreras Islet which is just outside Puerto Villamil. These are, as everything here, created by lava flows.

As we kayak past the harbour to the beginning of Las Tintoreras we get to some rocks with a number of penguins. The tour is called “Paddle to the Penguins” so we are expecting to see some 😉

This island, Santa Isabella is the only place in the world that has penguins north of the equator. Here we are still south of the equator, but it does cross Santa Isabella a bit farther north.

Next we see some Blue Footed Boobies performing some of their mating rituals. They caress each other with their beaks.

We paddle at a nice easy pace and some of the penguins jump into the water to swim, so we follow them. Shortly after they are swimming very close to our guide’s kayak. They are even pecking at it and an other kayak. Not at all afraid. None of the animals that we have encountered are afraid of us. They allow us to observe them for as long as we want. Not like this anywhere else that we have been.

We enter a small cove with only one entrance. In here we see quite a number of turtles. I was very fortunate to have a very close up encounter with one of them. It popped up for air and then went down to the bottom again.

We finish our paddle by surfing in on the incoming tide. Very fun and a very welcomed assist at the end.

That was our day today. I will post some info on the volcano walk next. 😉

Oh my god, what a day we had. We purchased our tickets for Los Tuneles yesterday from Carlo at one of the many tour offices in town. He started with the standard $120 per person and quickly agreed to $95. We have heard from quite a few people that we have met while travelling that this tour is amazing. We are looking forward to it.

We are to be picked up at our hostal by 11:20, taken to the office for gear and then to the port to board the boat. We meet our Naturalist Guide David and 3 other people who will also be on the tour.

We have 3 stops on this tour. The first stop is quite a large bay formed by lava flows. David our guide heads out and finds things and shows them to us.

David is also taking GoPro video. I have grabbed some stills from his video. Here are some of what we saw in this first spot.

After this first stop we move to another spot. The water here is clearer and just a tad cooler. Definitely not cold. I didn’t get any additional shots here with my GoPro clone.

Our next stop was a walk on the lava. This area, like all of the Galapagos Islands was created by volcanic activity. The landscape that we are walking on is surreal. Such rough rock with archways and tunnels that are filled with water. So much life swimming all around and under us. Here our guide finds a pair of Blue Footed Boobies. These are mates. The male is on the right and the female on the left. There are slight differences in the birds. The eyes are a telltale sign of their sex. The females eyes are larger and darker, the male have a ligher coloured iris. The blue feet are due to their diet of sardines. The bluer the feet on the male, the more attractive a mate it is. This indicates that he is well fed and stronger. He will be a better provider for the chicks. These birds mate for 1 season. They separate after the chicks leave the nest, according to our guide David. There are 9 of us standing within 10 feet of this pair, they are not bothered at all by our presence.

The Captain manoeuvres his boat through these lava rocks with such skill. He backs the boat up to a number of penguins that are also just sitting on the rocks.

David has a special place that he would like to take our photos. It is an arch over the water.

As we are having photos done here it is like turtle rush hour happening in the water below. We lost count but I would estimate that about a dozen swam past us. Most veered to the right at the arch, but one veered left. The water to the left was an amazing clear spot. When I saw the turtle got that way I went to watch for it. It came by and I caught these photos with my cell phone while it was inside my plastic dry bag. Pretty amazing. 😉

It is time to leave this place but I don’t want to go. It is so amazing.

On our way back we make a photo stop at this incredible rock. I forget it’s name. It is the home to some Nazca Boobies. They are also called Masked Boobies. They are white with some black around their eyes. These birds are sitting on the top of this rock so they are more difficult to see. This rock had some serious wave action happening. Captain needed skill here too!!

What a FABULOUS DAY!!!

Today we are moving to the largest but least populated island in the archipelago. It is another early morning as the “frerry” leaves at 7am. We need to go through the checks at the port to ensure that we are not bringing anything onto Santa Isabella that could harm the flora or fauna.

We have approximately a 2 hour ride to the island. This boat is mostly enclosed. We are asked to put on our life jackets and told that there is a roll of black plastic bags hanging on the side if we are feeling seasick.

One of our fellow passengers needed to use them. Thankfully not us.

After a short taxi ride to our accommodation we are off to explore. This is a much quieter island than the others. The pace is very laid back. I am liking this. It is stunningly beautiful!

There is a great pier here with a nice covered area. We get some great shots of the pelicans from here.

We are walking down the street when we see a man followed by a horse. We think it is his horse. The horse makes a uturn and the man keeps walking. Seem that is wasn’t his horse. So there is a horse wandering around town 😉

Later I was in the lobby of our hospedaje and see a man driving a motorcycle with a young girl on the back. The girl has a rope in her hand. Next I see the other end is attached to the wandering horse!! Hahaha.

One of the shops has this cool turtle table.

I believe coconut drinks are also very popular here.

Here are a few more shots of the little town of Puerto Villamil. Notice the windows of the cool church. They are Galapagos birds. The other is a couple of Canadian birds. 🙂

We book a snorkeling tour to a place called Los Túneles for tomorrow. A very colourful guy name Carlo has us laughing as we make a deal.

Looking forward to tomorrow!!

Here are some photos of the great place we are staying.  We both have rooms with a kitchen, living area huge king sized bed, with another single bed and a large eating area.  The outdoor area is just amazing.  It is a covered patio that provides great shade and often has a wonderful breeze flowing through. 

Today we are walking to Tortuga Bay.  It is located about 2.5 km west of the town of Puerto Ayora.  A bit further if you are coming from the town center, but the beginning of the path is very close to our hostal. 

The path begins with a large set of steps.  At the top is a park ranger station where we need to sign in.  I think they are would like to track how many visitors they get each day.  Here you can also buy drinks, so Stu and I pick up another bottle of water.  We do have water, but it is a very warm day and it will not go to waste.  The ranger gives us some information on the path and tells us to walk slowly to enjoy seeing and hearing the finches along the way.  Also to see the many lizards that will cross our path.

With that info we are off.  The path is nicely paved with tiles made from lava rock.  It is easy to walk on.  There are hills and valleys with bits of shade here and there.  Leslie and take advantage of the shady spots to rest for a bit.  Greg and Stu as always are way ahead of us. 

There is an interesting cactus/tree on this island.  It is called the Galapagos Opuntia.

“The Opuntia Species are very important in the Galapagos ecosystem.  The pads and fruits are a source of food for iguanas and tortoises.  The height and shape of these species varies depending on the species and the habitat.  For instance, the tallest Opuntia are found in Santa Cruz.  The cactus finches are dependant upon the cactus fruits, seeds and flowers”

We arrive to this view!!!  Oh my god!!  Sooo beautiful.  This is Playa Brava.  The waves and current are very strong here and swimming is not recommended.  It is OK for surfers however.  There are a couple of brave souls out frolicking in the surf.

Our plan is to continue walking west on this long stretch of beach to reach a lagoon on the other side of the point.  We have heard that this is suitable for swimming. 

At the end of this stretch of beach we come to a small tidal lagoon that is separated from the ocean by a reef of lava rock.  Inside this lagoon there are Marine Iguanas and some fish that may find themselves trapped until the next high tide.  There are a number of people here but no shade, so we carry on a bit further until we reach the larger lagoon. 

This one has trees lining the shore that provide shade.  The park has erected poles with little branches for people to hang their belongings on.  Looks like a bag tree.  Very handy.

We all have a swim here.  Greg and Leslie brought their snorkels but don’t see much. 

There is a water taxi that for $10 per person will take you back to Puerto Ayora.   It is a very warm day and I would like to ride rather than do the walk back.  We see a boat enter the lagoon, so Stu and I walk over to the point on the lava rock wall that the boat will nose into to pick up passengers.  It turns out that this boat is a charter for a tour group and doesn’t have room for us.  The Captain tells us that another boat will be here in at 2:30.  That is an hour from now.  We had hoped to be back in time to see the fishermen bring in their catch and all the pelican commotion that entails.  That is about 3pm.  We don’t want to wait an hour and decide to start walking back.  Greg and Leslie are still in the water and think we have taken the boat back.  😊

I knew I could do this walk back, but I didn’t WANT to.  The temperature is in the mid 30’s.  Stu is walking much faster than the nice pace Leslie and I do.  I still stop in the shady places, but for less time.  Not long into the walk I tell Stu that we should skip the fishermen today as we will be back for a couple nights before we fly home.  That slows our pace a bit. 

The walk closes at 5.  As we leave we see many many people just beginning.  A lot of them don’t know what is a head of them as they don’t seem prepared for the heat.

I am just as soaked as when I came out of the water.  We reach the end of the path and head down the stairs.

Back to our little oasis and into the shower.  We are enjoying the patio when Leslie arrives.  She is surprised to hear that we didn’t take the boat and now knows why no one waved back when they waved good bye.  😊  Greg has gone to the fishermen, which Leslie declined.

Greg arrives a bit later and we hear that there were no fishermen today.  Good call on the deferral!! 

Back to the Fish Street tonight.  Stu and Leslie share a fish call a Bruja.  It is white and orange.  We find a place that has one that is a good size for 2.  Greg has calamari and I have a skewer of tuna, shrimp, calamari and peppers.  Another great meal.

Our host Sebastian has arranged for a driver to pick us up and take us for a shot hike at Los Gemelos and  to the El Chato Ecological Reserve.  Vincent picks us up at 10 and we are off to the highland area of the island.  We come first to Los Gemelos.

Here is the bike rack.

We walk for a short time and come upon a huge crater.  We assume that it was created by a volcanic eruption, a huge explosion.  We learn from one of the signs that this is not the case.

“Geologists call them collapsed craters.  Most of the islands are made by magma flows from inside the earth that pushed and uplifted land over the ocean.  This spectacular landscape was formed because under the ground you are stepping on, magma flowed until the volcanic activity came to an end.  When the liquid rock cooled down and contracted, unstable zones were left.  As time went by the collapsed and built the holes or craters you are looking at.  Even apparent destruction can create beauty.”

We see these signs along the road.

We carry on to El Chato to see the tortoises.  As we get out of the truck cab in the parking lot we see a HUGE Yucca plant.  On the pointy spines there are eggs.  Leslie recalls reading that they do this to protect people from the very sharp spines on the plant.  Looks kind of like a firework exploding.  😉

Along with the tortoises this location has “lava tunnels”.  These are also formed by flowing lava, leaving the tunnel once the lava stopped flowing.

There are many tortoises here.  They roam freely.  As we approach (always keeping a save distance) they often hiss at us.  Just a little warning.

After we have wandered the property we return to the information center.  They have 3 tortoise shells on display.  These were from very old tortoises who have passed away.  We are encouraged to try them on.  Mine had the top shell separated from the bottom which made it much easier to get into that the single shell that Greg got into.

We return to our hostal by 1pm.

After a bite to eat we decide to go to a place called La Grietas.  We have heard it is very beautiful and we would like to have a swim.

We start with a short water taxi across the bay.  We are to follow a path, then past the first beach and keep going for a while.  The path changes from boardwalk, to large lava rocks and at times muck.  Stu and Greg are way ahead of Leslie and I.  At times we are wondering if we are on the right path???

It is much father than I was imagining.  When we arrive is not at all what I was expecting.  I did read that there were 40m high stone walls, but I did not envision what we saw.  It was very beautiful, but it was also very crowded.  We find that the translation of griestas is “crack”

Leslie and I decide not to go down into the grotto but walk back to the first beach that we passed.  The guys are going in.  We will wait for them at the beach.

We meet this guy on our way back to the beach.

For dinner we go back to the “Fish Street”. Another fabulous meal. It is also Election Night. The streets are teaming with locals out supporting their candidates.

We make our way to the pier where they light up the water so that you can see the fish swimming below. We quite a number of small reef sharks and a few playful sea lions.

Another great day!

There is a street near to our hostal that is lined with food vendors.  We have heard that is has some excellent food so we walk to the main street to find it.  When we get there we are amazed.  The whole street is lined with restaurants.  In the evening they fill the street with tables and display their wares on tables at the curb.  They all have people standing in front trying to convince you that their food is the best.  The street is about 2 blocks long and walking from one end to the other is like running the gauntlet.

After a bit of discussion we choose our place.  We order a seafood platter for 4 and cut a deal for $50 for the 4 of us.

A single young woman sits at the end of our table.  She is from Denmark and has been travelling with a friend who recently left for home.  She is here making the most of her last few days.  Diving & snorkeling.

The Ecuardorian election is tomorrow. There is an alcohol prohibition for about 72 hours. Our host sells us 2 Inca Colas (which taste like Cream Soda) and pours us beer in dark glasses so that we don’t draw attention. 🙂

She had also been to Banos and as she is Danish we ask her if she went to the Danish restaurant while in Banos.  She did, she says “the woman was just awful.  I was in a hurry to take a tour and just wanted a coffee.  She kept talking and didn’t make my coffee.”  Too funny, so similar to our experience.

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.

It is Friday, the day for our boat tour around the island of San Cristobal.  We are having a bit of trouble with time since we arrived here.  Normally when we change time zones our cell phones pick up the new time and we are good to go.  Not here.  The phones are not picking up this time zone.  My fit bit, which also tells me time is also wrong as it syncs to my phone!  Leslie and I set our phones to manual time update and set them to the local time.  For this early morning we had to set an alarm for 6am.  No problem.  We woke up in the morning and I checked my fit bit.  Wholly crap it is 6:15!!  We have 5 minutes to get our stuff together as Carlos Sr. is driving us to the port.  We scramble, get stuff ready, Stu heads out and I will be just a minute.  Almost immediately he comes back into the room with an odd look on his face (he’d seen the clock in the common room), at that moment I look at the time on my phone.  ARGH!!  5:20.  In my drowsiness  forgot that my fit bit was an hour early.  Now fully dressed we climbed back into bed to see if we can grab a few more zzzzz’s. 

We arrive at the port, find a nearby restaurant for some breakfast before we go to the tour office for our gear.  We get fitted out with short wet suits and fins as we all have our own snorkels.  The other people on our tour are also geared up and we meet our naturalist guide Angel and head to the boat.  We meet the Captain and helper or First Mate. 

We head out to our first stop.  Kicker Rock or Leon Dormido is described as one of the most spectacular landmarks in the Galapagos Islands.  It is two volcanic rock towers 140 meters tall.

We arrive, put on our fins and snorkels and into the water we go.  This is very very deep water.  We see many many fish right away.  Lots and lots of life under this water.  I am using a new full face mask type  snorkel.  I tried it out yesterday at the beach and it worked just fine.  I was feeing a bit uncomfortable with the depth of the water and trying to keep up with the group that I could not really see, through the passage between the two rocks.  As I made my way through the rocks I just headed back to the boat feeling a bit claustrophobic.  There is another split in the rock that the rest of the tour went into.  From my vantage point on the boat the water coming through looked like a tsunami coming through.  The water level rising significantly and our people bobbing on the top.  The guide was calling to them, that they were going to far.  I was a bit concerned, but once they were all safely back on board they told me that the didn’t feel the swells as much as I saw them.

Our next stop is for photo’s only.  This is called Cerro Brujo.  There is an arch here and when the boat positions itself you can see Kicker Rock through the arch. At one point all we could see from one side of the boat were guys butts, all taking their shots through the arch,

We go next to Bahia Sardina.  Here we beach the boat and walk on the sand through some volcanic rocks to where we can see a few Blue Footed Boobies, Frigate Birds (males have a bright red expandable sack at their throat) and Pelicans.

On our way again we head to Punta Pitt.  Here the captain puts out a fishing line to see if we can catch lunch.  😊  This is a great spot for catching tuna we are told.  Sadly we did not catch anything today.  It sounds like they are lucky here a couple times a week.

Leslie and I dressed to protect.

We now head to our last stop where we will have lunch and do some snorkeling.  This is Bahia Rosa Blanca.  We beach the boat again and Angel and the Captain serve pre-prepared lunch boxes.  The other day we all said we would like fish for lunch.  So did the other 8 tour participants it seems.  The lunch is grilled tuna, rice, potato and salad.  Very good.  They also served us fruit a couple of times along the way.

After lunch we leave the boat with our shoes for a bit of a hike to a lagoon for some snorkeling.  The path is rough large lava rock.  They all were solidly in place but at times it was difficult to tell.  On the way to the lagoon, we passed 2 smaller lagoons.  These had among others some small white tipped reef sharks.  These sharks will not harm us.  At the larger lagoon we put on our fins and masks and get into the water.  The visibility is a bit murky but we do see a number of fish.  I used my gopro clone to capture a turtle.

I am taking photos with a tiny go-proish camera. It is very bright out and I cannot see the tiny screen so I have no idea what I am getting. Here are some of the accidentally cool shots. 😉

We are offered beach time for an hour here.  There is no shade and this Galapagos sun is relentless.  Non of us were interested in baking on the beach.  As you can see by what I am wearing I am trying to avoid as much sun as possible.

We head back a bit earlier due to the cancellation of beach time.  We have 3 young Swiss guys onboard, a young Spanish Couple, another Spanish man and the four of us.  The Swiss guys are on the last day of their holiday and must be packing a lot into it.  They are pooped and manage to sleep sitting up in this fast moving, bobbing boat.  A true feat!!

We arrive back in port a bit early.  Not a bad thing.  A very exhausting day  😊

Today we are going to the Interpretation Center. 

On our way there we see this construction spot in the middle of an intersection.  This is how a work zone is identified here.

Here there is a lot of information on the islands and their history.  From the Interpretation Center there is a bit of a hike to a series of viewpoints or miradors.  The pathway is very well maintained and is constructed with lava rock that is so abundant here as these islands are all formed by volcanic activity.  We see many lizards along the way.

Once we arrive to the first mirador we have fabulous views of the ocean and a small bay down below.  This bay has a small pier so that swimmers can get in and out of the water.  This is not a sandy beach but one of rough jagged volcanic rock.

From this viewpoint we can see sea lions and turtles swimming along side the humans.  The sea lions are almost playful with people.

We see this little bird that has flatten itself down on the path.  It sits there with it’s mouth open.  The inside of it’s mouth is red.  Leslie wonders if it is trying to catch insects by imitating a flower.  It sounds like a logical explanation to me.  Moments later it flies up into the trees.

We end up the walk at a beautiful beach. We all deserve a swim as it is very warm. Here sea lions and turtles are swimming very near to us. A sea lion came within a couple of meters of Leslie. They seem so comfortable with the humans. Very cool!!!

It is very common to sea lions everywhere.  There are signs telling everyone to stay at least 6 meters away from them.  Not all obey that rule.  Pelicans are also a common sight.  Such large interesting birds.