travels.of.tara

April 12, 2023

What a day. Such a huge change and culture shock from my time in Quito. But here I am, on San Cristobal Island in the Galapagos! Being here feels like a dream. And I’m getting that happy sort of fulfilled feeling that I chase when traveling, just on day 1.

After a decent night’s sleep, we had breakfast in the hotel at 6am for our 6:30 drive to the airport. Another Intrepid worker met us at the airport and helped usher us through the boarding process, which was cute. She gave us our boarding passes and sent us through a special bag check to scan for foods and plastic bags and such. The Galapagos are super protected and the flight was pretty unique because of that. We had a special transit card the tour gave us, for $20, that everyone needs to enter. When you arrive you also pay a $100 national park fee in cash ($6 for Ecuadorian residents). The flight stopped over in Guayaquil after 45 minutes and we stayed on the plane while it refueled, and we had to turn fully off our phones and be unbuckled for this time (so we could evacuate if the plane explodes, we posited). The flight attendants also sprayed all the stored carry on luggage with a disinfectant or pesticide of some sort.

We landed in San Cristobal after another hour and a half, a small airport with no gates and a staircase plane exit. The thick humidity and heat felt magical. We waited in a long line to go through the control process, grabbed our bags (no turnstile, just left in a pile), and just outside met our guide Paulina and local assistant Juan Carlos. We were quickly ushered to a waiting bus outside, and drove about 5 minutes to check into our hotel, Casa de Nelly. There was a little town and it was all very small and walkable, and there were lots of good murals and art on the buildings we passed. At the hotel we were given 20 minutes to change into bathing suits and get ready for the afternoon. I once again got the single room, and while the 3 of us solo girls made an agreement to switch off, I feel like things might just stay this way.

Paulina walked us down a block and a half to the water, where we immediately were greeted by lots of the creatures the island is most known for, sea lions. They hang out on the beach, lounging, rolling, fighting, and squawking. You can go onto that beach and swim with them! It was a very cool intro to the islands. Paulina walked us through the main touristic drag and pointed out some key spots, and then took us to eat at a little restaurant where I had a caprese sandwich and fries. The prices are much higher than Quito here, still less than NYC but comparable to some other American cities. We walked down the block to a gear shop, where we were fitted for fins, snorkels, and the optional short sleeve wet suit, which I opted to pay the $40 for solely to help with sun protection (I later find out the water is cool but very comfortable).

The bus drove us 5 minutes to Playa Loberia (sea lions beach), and a short flat hike in led us to a beach/bay for our first snorkel. It very briefly rained a little, so we stored our bags on hooks under a wood shelter, which a few sea lions were disinterestedly sleeping underneath. We were warned not to leave shoes on the floor or they might chew them. We stripped down and jumped in the water quickly. Everyone in our group had snorkeled before so we got in fast, leaving me struggling to quickly adjust my mask straps and figure out my waterproof phone camera case. I caught up quickly and immediately we were snorkeling through lava rocks and sea life. It was stunning with great visibility. As we got out to the buoys marking the breakers (where the surfers went), we saw our first giant sea turtle. I struggled to turn my camera on and then lost him, but then looked straight down and there he was, on the sea floor maybe 10 feet below me. Huge and chill! We saw about 4 of them in total! We also saw lots of reef fish, black with yellow accents; and baby yellow striped clown fish, some schools of small fish, and random other big ones. I missed the excitement and seeing two large white-tipped sharks, but was close to them. And then we saw a huge eagle ray, which was just weird and amazing. This was just our intro dive of about 40 minutes, and I felt full and in shock of how much we saw so soon. Lacking towels, we walked back in our wet bathing suits, stopping to see our first marine iguana right in the middle of the path. I see why they call them Godzilla-like; they are really weird looking.

So back on the bus, a quick briefing about the next day, and we were sent off for the night. It was just about sunset and we watched a little from the balcony by my 3rd floor room. We all loosely agreed to meet up after our showers for dinner. We made it out and then formed a what’s app group to make life easier, though most had to rely on spotty wifi. Steve and Wendy weren’t ready and told us they’d go out on their own. So we walked down and repeated our daytime walk path, seeing so many more sea lions very close and in the dark lit by street lights. We got nice happy hour mojitos, then meandered before deciding to go back to the same restaurant as lunch. I had a chicken sandwich. There were probably 15-20 restaurants to choose from in town, at least that we could see, and just a few shopping stores and a market. It’s definitely a tourist island though there are some locals, maybe about 10,000, though it has been a while since the last census. The Galapagos have four inhabited islands where you can stay overnight, and the total population is just about 30,000. You can’t just move there; to live there you must have a generational connection.

Adrenaline and excitement are finally giving way to fatigue, it is bedtime! It is another hour earlier here. Breakfast is at 7:30, well after the 6am sunrise, so we’ll see how the morning goes. Woo!