Galápagos Islands: Santa Cruz, Part 1

Goodbye Isabela. Hello Santa Cruz.

Today we left the Galapagos’ biggest island en route to its fourth and final inhabited one. But not before Isabela put on one more show for us, begging the question do you really want to leave?

After a quick, early morning breakfast our group was driven over to the pier to have our bags inspected and loaded onto the water taxi. We then walked across the street to find eight kayaks lined up alongside the beach.

Kayaking on Isabela Island

It’s true what the say about the early bird getting the worm. Or in this case, the fish. Within minutes of paddling we were surrounded by blue footed boobies on the hunt. One after the other they dive-bombed into the water in search of their breakfast.

As always we could have stayed there forever just taking it all in. But it was our guide’s job to keep us moving and on track, so we continued on as curious sea lions approached our kayaks trying to determine if they were interested in playing with us today or not. We must not have been all that exciting as they moved on after a couple of minutes. Ah well. You win some, you lose some. The Galápagos penguin was also proving to be somewhat elusive this morning. They move like a rocket inside the water and those we did see were zipping through the bay in search of their prey and not sitting pretty for us to take their picture. I mean. Where are their priorities? LOL.

The hour flew by and pretty soon we were back on dry land and boarding our boat to Santa Cruz. Right on cue, a penguin appeared in the crystal clear waters beneath us in full chase mode. We couldn’t see what he was after but it must have been a tasty treat as he chased and chased and chased, sufarcing and diving over and over in his quest. It was sad to leave Isabela. She was good to us.

Journey to Santa Cruz Island

We arrived on Santa Cruz an uneventful two hours and fifteen minutes later. Our only excitement provided by the marine authorities in Isabela who declared they had a medical emergency in the form of a pregnant woman who needed immediate care at a proper hospital. With our boat being the first one to leave port that morning, she would be joining us in the ride. Poor woman looked terribly uncomfortable. The situation also begged the question: isn’t there an air ambulance on the islands? The answer: No, there is not. If you need air transport a plane must be sent from the mainland, which is at least an hour and fifteen minutes away to fetch you. But here’s the catch. It’s pretty much only available to tourists such as ourselves, who have the proper evacuation insurance. Why am I not surprised?

In any case, our pregnant woman made it to Santa Cruz without any added complications. And we disembarked into what felt like another world after the last several days of sleepy nearly inexistent towns, wher the main streets are either covered in sea lions or covered in sand.

There were however dozens of baby sharks in the waters around the pier. It was the coolest thing to see. More will be forthcoming later we were promised.

Puerto Ayora is the name of the town here and it’s a bustling one. In line with what you would expect on a small island resort elsewhere. Not quite Cozumel for those who’ve been there, but more along those lines. Looking forward to exploring but still with one more activity on the docket today we all quickly settled in, then went for lunch at a restaurant set up by our guide.

This was, without a question the first epic fail of our trip as the staff were clearly on island time and had no regard for our desire to get to Tortuga Bay to spend time in the water with the baby sharks.

In the end it did not really matter as Mother Nature had other plans. For all I know the water was teeming with sharks. The visibility however was so bad we could barely see a thing. Mind you, I still managed to sight a couple of adult black tips that swam in front of me completely oblivious to my presence, a huge sting ray I had to avoid hitting, and a handful of baby sharks whose outlines I could only just make out. Even when you “strike out” in Galapagos you really don’t.

We are now nearing the end. Tomorrow is our final day.