An early morning flight from Quito to Guayaquil to Baltra deposited me in the Galapagos! About 1,000 kilometers from mainland Ecuador, the Galapagos are famous for unique and diverse wildlife.
I found my cruise group and we took a 10 minute bus ride, a 5 minute ferry ride, and a 45 minute bus ride to reach our boat. We moved into our rooms and the ten of us introduced ourselves: five Germans, two Brits, one South African, one American and me.
Once we were settled, our guide took us to see if we could find any giant tortoises. We managed to find one--it really was gigantic!--and snapped a few photos of it slowly moving its heavy head to check us out. It made a low grunting sound and eventually retreated into its shell just as the tropical rains came down, so we headed back to the bus for our next stop: a cave tunnel.
I love caves and secret tunnels, so it was great to have time to explore. It didn't quite have that Indiana Jones feel to it since it was well light and had a sturdy staircase inside but I enjoyed it anyway!
The cave spat us out at a restaurant with a fantastic view of the setting sun. You could see different layers of hills in the mist and the sun glowing off the water. Gorgeous.
The restaurant gave us complimentary lemongrass tea to warm up from the chilly rains which had by then stopped. There was an empty shell from a tortoise so, not being one to miss a chance to make myself look ridiculous, I climbed in and had my photo taken. That shell was heavy! No wonder they move so slowly.
Today's animals:
Giant tortoise
Birds (definitely pelicans!)
Crabs
Sea lion in town
No comments:
Post a Comment