Galapagos (III) - Last Stop: Santa Cruz

Having said goodbye to my fellow travellers on the cruise (almost all of them just did the cruise, which I find a bit sad as Galapagos has so much more to offer than just 4 days), I took the morning easy before heading to Playa Tortuga Bay, which is a huge and long stretch of white sand - no sea lions here, though.

As I had nothing else planned that day, I just sat down on the beach, read my book, thought about the cool cruise and simply enjoyed having an afternoon off. I was also getting ready for the next day, which I was hoping would be the icing of the cake of my time here in the Galapagos.

I was hoping it, because that next day, I woke up early to go diving at Gordon Rocks, which is said to be one of the best spots in the Galapagos to see schools of Hammernead Sharks. The only thing I was worried about was underwater visibility, which so far on the Galapagos has not been great for me.

So spirits were high as we drove out with the boat. At that point, I didn't even care that the water would be cold (like 18-20 degrees) and I had to wear not one, but two wetsuits, gloves, shoes and a hoodie. The first dive was not yet at Gordon Rocks and visibility unfortunately was terrible, so we hardly saw anything. It was a good one for me, though, to remind myself how to dive and it really was the first time diving in such temperatures. We also went down to 29m, by far the lowest | have ever been.

Then came the second dive. All geared up, we jumped into the water in search of Hammerhead sharks. The current here is a bit stronger, which made the dive a touch more tricky, but a bit more fun as well. But I wasn't here for fun, I was here for the Hammerheads. A total of 44 minutes we were on the lookout for them, but with a visibility of just up to 5 meters, we were not able to see anything meaningful. We saw some big tuna fish passing us and apparently an outline of a black-tip shark, but otherwise just green water.

I was deeply disappointed. Naturally, no one can control the diving conditions, but still, it was one of the animals I really wanted to see most - next to the blue-footed boobies. So I was very sad, when we got back on land without having seen them. But it is nature, I'd rather not see them in the wild than seeing them in an aquarium or in captivity.

Anyway, on my last day on Santa Cruz, I took it slow, wandered around the small town, shared a bench with a sea lion, went shopping and thought about my time here. Apart from not seeing the Hammerhead Sharks (still gutted about it), it was exactly what I wanted out of the Galapagos Islands. A great mix of land- and sea-based activities, seeing tons of animals in the wild, and simple marvelling about the remoteness and rough beauty of the islands. A trip worth doing, even if the Galapagos are certainly on the expensive side.

That also concludes my time here in Ecuador and all I can say is that it exceeded my expectations and was exactly what I needed after feeling a bit exhausted after Colombia:
From being somehow surprised by Quito, to absolutely loving Cotopaxi and following in the footsteps of Charles Darwin to see the amazing Galapagos Islands (basically a giant open-air zoo). For that reason, Ecuador has positively surprised me and there are a few other places in the country that I want to explore next time. Ecuador, muchas gracias por todos - voy a regresar pronto!Read more