San Cristobal where sea lions rule

The Galápagos Islands are known to be expensive; from getting here, accommodation, food and tours. Mainly tours. As 95% is National Park and no-one is allowed in the National Park without a Government-trained guide, it makes sense that it's expensive.

Observation 1) The National Park does an amazing job at protecting its spaces from tourists. 2) I have no idea where all the tourist money is going. When you enter, each adult paid $100 fee to the National Park. Excellent. But the cost of the tours is crazy. Someone is getting rich but the local people don't appear to be.
And the cost of food is beyond belief...£4 for a tin of tuna. £1.75 for 1 bread roll. They don't even bother to put prices on items. Ha ha Some rude person once (a long time ago) said to me, If you have to ask the price, you can't afford it. He may have a point!

So, I need to find the balance between not spending excessively and not being so cautious with money, that I leave with regrets. After all, in all likelihood, I won't return.

Luckily, because I am going to be here for 2 months, I don't have to rush such decisions. So, for this first week on San Cristobal Island, I did one tour and the rest of the time found the free places I could go.

I started on a high with a tour to Kicker Rock aka the Sleeping Lion. If you have a vivid imagination but overall it looks like a giant rock sticking out of the sea. 250ft high and another 250ft below the water mark.

We arrived on Playa Cerro Brujo and it felt like I had landed in Paradise, with more sea lions, black crabs, blue footed boobies, marine iguanas and one random Pelican who made a very big splash, dive bombing very close to me.

On the tour boat, I teamed up with 2 American ladies, and we snorkeled together, seeing about 100 sea turtles and, of course, lots of tropical fish which can get very attractive and very big. I did see one black tip shark no more than 2 metres long which swam below me - I could see it clearly but it went a little too fast for me to get scared.

The next few days have been local beaches, all which require a little trek to get to. Playa Mann, aka sunset beach, with even more chilled out sea lions and Darwin's finches. Later in the day, Playa Carola for less crowded action. Now the further the walk to get to a beach, the more isolated :-)

So, one finch made it here from God knows where. Over time, it morphed into 13 different species, with different diets depending on what was available and different beaks, depending on the diet.

Watching the sea lions bed down in the sunset is hilarious. They vye for their places, babies look for the right mamas, the bulls roar at the pesky babies who climb across them.

The sea at La Loberia beach was quite rough but went in anyway, staying fairly shallow (being really conscious that there is no-one to report me missing!). I had 3 snorkeling sessions because... Well why not? I remember the last time I snorkeled years ago, thinking that this really is me. And that feeling was back. I kept bumping into sea lions and doing an about turn, quick smart, after my first guide warned us they were unpredictable. I saw more sea turtles which surprised me as I was so shallow, probably maximum 3-4 meters depth.

I did a hike across lava rock in sandals. I moved across sideways, on all fours, 🦀 crab like, as I was terrified to slip. Saw many land iguanas basking on the rocks.

Friday night is street fiesta night; music, dancing, street stalls - the locals come out to play and the street population more than doubles. Pretty sure everyone is happy to be here.Read more