The Galapagos

The Galapagos

It was a fairly long walk on the tarmac to enter the terminal building. The surrounding landscape looked pretty bleak, but just as we got near the terminal a massive land Iguana waddled onto the path, stopped and looked disdainfully at us before waddling off on the other side. Our first sign of how remarkable this place was going to be.

We flew into Baltra an Island barely spitting distance from the northern end of 'Isla Santa Cruz'. It is an ugly island, not helped by the remnants of the US airbase that it once housed. Hence, I guess, the airport.

A bus took us to the short 'ferry' crossing. All of the cases placed on the roof of the barge that constituted our ferry and we were onto Santa Cruz in just a few minutes, although we had to wait for other ferry loads as our bus was determined not to move until it was actually full. I think it was almost an hour before we got under way.

The northern end of Santa Cruz is almost as bleak as Baltra, aside from the rubble and concrete. As we climbed into what the locals call the highlands and down the other side everything became much greener. Then came our first true 'sight of The Galapagos' - giant tortoises. They were everywhere up here, in almost every second field. Not just one or two either.

It was mid-afternoon when we reached Puerto Ayora, where we were staying for the next few days. After dropping our bags we decided that a stroll around town would suffice for that day, but what a stroll around town that turned out to be!

The main street in town is the Avenida Charles Darwin. In that half mile stroll we saw an incredible array of wildlife all of it either on the pavement or in the water a few feet from us. Hundreds of bright orange and red crabs, seals, frigate birds, pelicans, a manta ray turtles and land Iguanas sprawled everywhere.

What must it be like out of town.