Galápagos Islands - San Cristóbal

Without really waking up we made our way to the ferry terminal to catch the ferry service back to Santa Cruz. It great seeing the sunrise over the rugged volcano bay while leaving out of the harbor 🌅 Julia had a good spot at the back of the boat so she felt a little better during the two hour ride. At 8 we were already in Santa Cruz, just in time for a breakfast. The host at our first hotel had recommended a breakfast restaurant, La casa del Bolón. Julia had a cheese bolón and I finally had the chance to try a typical Ecuadorian breakfast, Tigrillo. It's a bit like a squished bolón but not as dry and especially great with an egg and a spicy salsa. We enjoyed the delicious breakfast with coffee and juice ☕

Then the tour agency we had booked everything through opened up and we could leave our luggage there. Because there was still one spot here we wanted to explore, Las Grietas. To get there we needed to take a taxi boat to the Playa los alemanes, an upscale hotel area, pass the beach and walk for about a kilometer. There we reached the entrance shortly after 10:30, just a few minutes after the tour left, which meant waiting for an hour until the next one started. So we first went to the pier and watched the fishes and then had cold drinks overlooking the salt flats until the tour finally started. The - mandatory 🙄 - tour guide was nothing special and we moved on pretty quickly until the end of the tour. Las Grietas is a narrow canyon where there is salt and fresh water, so it's salty but not a lot. And there are a lot of different fish species enjoying the safety of this hardly accessible space. We snorkeled 🤿 for about an hour and then walked back out and dried on the beach.

After returning to the main town we wanted to go check on the beach at the Charles Darwin Station but I got caught in a clothing store that had really great stuff 😬 I couldn't resist buying a t-shirt and then we did have to turn back to grab our luggage and take the ferry on to Isla San Cristobal. The ferry ride was at least 30 minutes quicker than the one going to Isla Isabela so we had a little time to explore the town and especially the Malecón before sunset.
The Malecón and nearby rocks were crowded with sea lions and a lot of pups 🥰 The walkway was very well made with lots of seating areas, art constructions and playgrounds. The beaches, rocks and parts of the Malecón were taken over by the sea lions but they were mostly unbotherd by people. After we had walked the 1.5km and back we stopped by the dive shop that will do the tour tomorrow to try on our gear. Then we walked along the main street looking for a place to have dinner and found a nice spot next to the Malecón offering burgers and pub food variants. I decided on a surf and turf variant and Julia had a vegetarian burger with guacamole fries 🍟

On the way back to the hotel we walked by another political party advertising campaign making noise. We've definitely seen - and especially heard - more than enough of those now 🙈 Even though the hotel windows weren't that tight it was sufficient noise insulation that we could sleep 😴Leggi altro