Galapagos Cruise I: Santa Cruz

Since the cruise would only start at noon, we had a surprisingly delicious breakfast and then walked from town down a cactus-lined path to Tortuga Bay. This was not only a beautiful white sand beach but also our first encounter with local fauna - Iguanas, pelicans, blue footed boobies. After a stop at Nymph Laguna on the way back, we then boarded the cruise ship which would be our home for the next four nights. A comfortable catamaran with eight cabins, a cozy common room and a sun deck (which we could only use on the last day due to weather:/).
After our first yummy lunch on board, we rode back to Puerto Ayora to visit the Darwin Tortoise Breeding Center to see the namesake tortoises in all forms up close (we had in fact already seen a few from the road driving thru the island the day before). In general, what surprised us most is that wildlife abounds everywhere on the islands, even in the middle of the city. In the way back into town, we saw sea lions, crabs and pelicans just lying on the streets.Read more