Galapagos – Santa Cruz | Miriam's Voyages

After spending 3 days in San Cristobal, we bade farewell to the other Arc boats and set sail for Santa Cruz. It was only a 6 hour trip so we made it in before nightfall. We are starting to make some great friendships now with the crews of the other boats. Beatoo is a Spanish boat that has 2 crew members in their 20s, and 2 in their 40’s. This suits both Gavin and I and so we socialise quite a lot with them. We have also become quite friendly with the crew of Trompeta. They are all from Yorkshire. Along with the fact that I could listen to their accent all day – they are great craic. But the ones to beat all in terms of being the best craic are the 3 Ozzie men on Glamorous Gallah. I literally get a pain in my face from laughing with them.

From Santa Cruz we booked a few all-days trips. Booking organised trips with good National Parks guides is the way to go here. They know where all the wildlife hang out and can pick out the best snorkelling and dive spots. So for this blog I have nothing to say that isn’t better said with photos. I have no underwater ones yet as they have to be developed the old-fashioned way, then scanned to jpeg before uploading. Don’t hold your breath…. Just to let you know though that the snorkelling has been fantastic. No fishing in permitted in the region so there is an abundance of fish. There is a huge variety of colours and sizes and you literally swim through shoals of fish with the occassional turtle and shark. We are also often joined by seas lions who expect you to play with them. I found them a bit scary as they come up behind and under you and appear magnified underwater. Because I don’t like to play with them they tend to poke their noses into the front of my goggles which has the opposite effect of what they want. It scares the bejaysus out of me so I blow bubbles at them to get my own back!! The first place we went to was Baltra and the Plazas in the north of the island. This is the home of many land iguanas. They are a yellowy colour and about a meter in length. They eat the prickly pear cactus.

Land iguana - been in a fight. See the blood on his neck!

Eating a cactus bud

As this is the wet season the ground cover is in full colour and the prickly pear is blooming. The iguana were eating the buds but when these are finished they will eat the fleshy spiny parts.