Day 11: Santa Cruz Island

The first portion of today’s itinerary was once again traveling. We woke up early for a leisurely morning and breakfast overlooking the ocean. The fried plantains were, not surprisingly, delicious (think banana-flavored Krispy Kreme donuts). Add some chocolate drizzle, put them on a stick, and bam. State Fair food. Martin and Jonathan picked us up at 8:00 am to head to the airport.

Our 2nd floor cabana

Morning views

There are two ways to get between the islands. By boat, or by air. Most people take the boat ride (which is longer and usually involves choppy waters). We presume it is the cheaper option for larger groups. But we are obviously the jet set. Upon our arrival, the entire airport had eight people inside when we arrived — including staff and passengers. Like our inbound flight, we weighed our bags, then waited for the plane to arrive. Since the Isabella airport is much smaller than the San Cristobal airport, and only goes between the islands, there was no lounge this time. Alas, we survived.

Yup, that’s pretty much the entire airport

When we were ready to board, Martin said hi to the pilot, Marcello. The Galapagos are very small, and everyone knows each other. Marcello is Martin’s sister’s best friend’s cousin from when they were little. Hence, Martin calls him Marcellito.

Now boarding group everyone

Boarded and ready

The other passengers on our flight were a family of five. The oldest kid (probably about 13) got to be the co-pilot. The flight only took about 30 minutes and we landed at Baltra Airport.

On the way to Baltra… Las Tintoreras in view

Wait, who is flying the plane right now?

While the airport is on Baltra island (a remnant of the US Military base), the main attractions are on Santa Cruz Island. So, from the airport, everybody takes a bus to the pier. While waiting in line, we saw Ariana – the guide from our Kicker Rock excursion from Day 9 — who was waiting for a ~30 person EF Education tour to arrive.

We loaded on the bus, which left once it was full. Since Baltra has flights to and from the mainland, it is much more busy than Isabella. The bus filled fast and we were on the way. The only delays occurred when the driver had to stop, exit the bus, and shoo the land iguanas off the road.

The next step in our travel adventure was a boat ride across the canal from Baltra to Santa Cruz Island. The boat is a large water taxi to ferry us across. We arrived about 5 minutes later. As we were disembarking, we spotted a Santa Cruz Brewing Company sticker with Darwin’s face in the middle. Let’s go there later!

Get in losers, we’re going ferrying!!!

We officially made it to Santa Cruz! Our driver, Higinio, picked us up. We immediately drove south toward the highlands. First stop was a quick viewing of Los Gemelos, a collapsed lava tube causing what looks like a big crater.

From there we drove a little further to El Rancho El Chato, a giant tortoise reserve. Unlike yesterday’s breeding center, where the tortoises are in captivity before they are released into the wild, these tortoises are wild and free to roam wherever they want. They are also a different species since this is a different island and tortoises are fully terrestrial. Before heading out on the reserve, we had lunch at the reserve’s restaurant/gift shop. They were selling a local beer called Reptillia. We picked the one with the tortoise on the label, obviously. As we ate, we overlooked the grounds and could see a few tortoises hanging around.

After lunch, we stopped at the botas hut to switch our shoes to rain boots. The trail can get muddy and/or wet, so the boots were much appreciated. As soon as we started on the trail, we saw a giant tortoise right next to the path. As we walked, we continued to see and admire the several tortoises of varying ages and sizes.

Giant tortoise!

Look, you’re on the flag

This trail has some of the poisonous apple trees that are also on Isabela. Technically, they aren’t really poisonous – but they will make you itchy. There was a family with two little girls near us. When their guide told them not to touch or eat the apples, one of the girls said, “when you tell me not to do it, it makes me want to do it more.” Good luck with that one.

Tortoise friends

Giant tortoise close up

Martin led us to a section that had mandarin trees. We picked the ripe ones that were reachable and had a fresh, sweet, trail treat as tortoises wandered around us.

Teamwork!

Delicious mandarins

From there, we walked through three lava tubes. They were big enough to stand up nearly the entire time. Plus, Martin is about the same height as Matt (maybe a little taller) so he has tall appreciation for him. It also helps when Martin enters lava caves first, Matt knows he can fit.

Entering the cave

Matt (mostly) fits!

The end of the last lava tube exits right back where we started – conveniently near the gift shop. We didn’t see anything particularly interesting in the shop, but we did become one with the turtles by getting into their shells.

Humans in a tortoise shell. Tortoise power.

We got back in the car and drove to the next stop – the Darwin Research Station. On the way, we passed by cattle farms that produce very good yogurt and cheese (according to Martin). When we arrived, we followed the outdoor loop with various exhibits along the way. There is also another tortoise breeding center here, so we got to see some more baby giant tortoises.

We passed by the buildings where the actual research takes place, but couldn’t go inside. It is their place of work after all. The published papers are available online for your reading pleasure. We were able to go into one last exhibit with tortoise shells, a whale jaw (huuuugge) and of course, a Darwin life-size diorama. Here, we did give in to the gift shop and bought shirts. As a bonus, the cost is fully a donation to research (yeah, science!).

The research station was the last scheduled activity of the day. Higinio dropped our bags off at the hotel, so we were able to walk to town. Along the way, Martin pointed out the shops and restaurants he recommends. We made it to the hotel and checked in. We took a moment to admire our giant room, then promptly left to check out those shops.

Blue-footed Jo

We did some souvenir shopping, but agreed we were solid in the magnet department. We did make a point of going to Darwin and Wolf, a trendy, high-quality beach clothing store that Martin recommended. It was designed to feel like you are underwater and smelled great. We focused on the sale section where Matt found red swim trunks with a map of the islands on them and Jo found a cute blue-footed boobie purse (not on sale, but worth it). Darwin and Wolf are the names of two islets where lots of sharks are found. A portion of every purchase helps protect the sharks.

Our new favorite store, Darwin + Wolf

Shopping was officially done, and we still had time to check out the aforementioned Santa Cruz Brewery (with Darwin on the label). We walked through the boardwalk to get there, then found a table on the open air top level. At first we sat in the back, but once some Norway World Cup fans cleared out, we upgraded to a prime location with a nice breeze and a great view of the harbor and street below.

View from the boardwalk

We looked over the menu of drafts beers, and decided that picking one is silly when you can get a flight of nearly all of them (except the Gringo, obviously). We tried everything, ranked our favorites, and agreed on a trade (extra tart cherry to Jo, extra porter to Matt).

Try all the beers! For science!

Before dinner, we made a stop back at the room to get ready. We met Martin in the lobby and walked over together. Dinner was great, but the real excitement was after dinner. Martin suggested we walk back to the pier as you can sometimes see sharks. He was spot-on. We found a sting ray and about six baby blacktip sharks swimming and eating little fish in the low tide.

Dinner decked out for Darwin and World Cup

There are baby sharks (do do do do) in there

On the way back to the hotel, we made a detour to a connivence store to get ice cream bars that we had been eyeing all day. Overall, it was a pretty great last day in the Galapagos. Tomorrow we rewind the route (drive to dock, ferry to Baltra, bus to the airport) to fly to Quito to start Part 3: Cloud Forest.