A dream is coming true. We have booked ourselves a 5-day cruise to the Galapagos Islands! We manage to get a discount for a last minute tour on the luxurious Santa Cruise ship. We leave our bicycles in a motel in Quito and fly to Santa Cruz island a day before the actual cruise starts. After we checked into our hotel we walk to the shores of Puerto Ayora where we are already flabbergasted by the abundancy of wildlife! We can’t stop smiling to see these strange animals just up close and personal.
After lunch we take a taxi to explore the inlands of this island and head to an open turtle park. They roam around freely here and they are huge!! Like huge rocks dotted in the landscape, in between farming houses. We can almost touch the animals, they just eat grass slowly and are not bothered by our presence.
Giant tortoise
The next morning we take a ride back to the airport and join the rest of the group for boarding the Santa Cruz ship. What can I say, we love every single moment of this tour. It’s very well organised, always taking the welfare of the animals into account. They teach us a lot, super interesting information about the islands, the animals and the people living here. We never run into another tour group, the groups are never larger than 12 people and we do many, many tours to different islands. Wet landings with zodiacs, walks on the islands, swimming with sea lions, snorkeling to see colorful fish. It’s a strange feeling to just ‘want’ to see a shark instead of swimming away from it!
The last day everyone takes their flight back, but we planned to stay another day and we are happy we did. We even think of booking another tour! But, that would really cut into our budget, so we decide to be wise and leave the Galapagos behind, with an everlasting memory in the pocket. See for yourself…
Blue footed boobie