Galapagos (II) - Cruising Around

For the next 3.5 days, I joined a cruise that would take me to some of the more remote parts of the Galapagos - namely Isla Española and Isla Floreana before dropping me off at the other main island, Santa Cruz.

Our first spot was snorkelling at Isla de Lobos Marinos. We spotted some sea lions playing in the water and quickly swam towards them. Upon spotting us, they swam over and we played together in the water - well, mainly them showing off their skills. It was really fun.

In the afternoon, we stepped foot on the island to spot some of the most interesting birds. For years, I wanted to see the blue-footed boobies and on that excursion we saw loads of them up close. Normally, I am not a bird person, but they look so pretty. We also spotted some Fregates and more sea lions and iguanas lazing around.

The next day, we made landfall on Isla Española in the morning to see the largest albatrosses in the world, as well as the Nazcar Boobies and some blowholes by the coast. In the afternoon, after an uneventful snorkelling gig, we went to what is dubbed the third most beautiful beach in the world, Gardner Bay. It was cloudy, unfortunately, so the colours of the water and white long beach didn't quite come out as nicely, but the place was nonetheless incredibly gorgeous. We walked to both ends of it, took some great snaps with sea lions and enjoyed our time in this amazing place.

On our last full day at sea, we drove to Isla Floreana overnight, and stopped at Post Office Bay in the morning. It's basically just an old barrel on a stick that pirates, whalers and other sailors used to stay in touch with home. You write a postcard, place it in the barrel and hope that someone else who lives close to where the postcard is to be delivered, picks it up and delivers it to the recipient. By the time of writing this, my parents actually received my postcard.

Afterwards, we went on one last snorkelling trip with the highlight of it being a seal lion kissing my GoPro. On our last landing, we saw the Galapagos Flamingos at Cormorant Point, which is one of the very few beaches in the world that has some green sand - not much, though, and it's more of a black than a green beach.

The following morning, we arrived at Santa Cruz, disembarked and went to the Charles Darwin Research Centre, where we spotted the famous Giant Galapagos Turtles. At the end of this cruise, I was very happy as I have so far seen pretty much all the animals I wanted (except the Hammerhead, Galapagos shark and yellow land Iguana).

I really enjoyed the cruise, as it took us to remote places, cool snorkelling spots and allowed me to see Galapagos from a different perspective. And with a small group of just 11 people, it was the perfect size and allowed us to spend lots of time with the animals and get really close to them. I can only highly recommend doing it this way!Read more