Woke up early feeling refreshed but my feet were still bright red and extremely sore, so I decided to go explore the town to take my mind off of the pain. I left for a walk around 6AM and walked past several interesting wall murals on various nearby buildings depicting the local wildlife. As I meandered around, I happened upon a home bakery and grabbed a couple loaves of fresh bread to share with the group later. On my way back to the hotel for breakfast, I noticed several groupings of cacti scattered about various yards.
My breakfast at the hotel consisted of a bread roll, a large chocolate cinnamon roll, and my newly favorited variety of juice: blackberry! I passed around the loaves of bread I bought and everyone filled up. This morning we had another long ferry ride ahead of us, back to Santa Cruz Island.
What started with a calm serene view quickly turned into a mixed signal ferry ride I didn’t know how to feel about. The water was choppy, the sea spray was biting, and most of the group dozed off pretty quickly. I stayed awake for most of the ride but the fore and aft rocking of the boat eventually put me to sleep too. Before dozing off, looking out at the ocean passing behind us felt unusually soothing so I embraced it!
Waking up feeling refreshed, we emerged from the ferry.
At the Charles Darwin Research Station, we learned all about the Galapagos Tortoises. We split into 2 groups; one started with the history and importance of the islands and the other started with the legacy and facts about the Galapagos Tortoise. My group began with learning about the geography of Santa Cruz Island. We made our way through the lava tubes, a cave formation carved out of the hillside by lava flows. On the other side we came across several tortoises hanging around a small watering hole. Our timing was impeccable because we were able to observe a couple mating! Oddly enough, the other half of our group was watching from the other side. It’s almost like the tour leaders planned for it… but is that even possible?
As we continued along, we saw some pink flamingos, colorful crabs, and many, many more iguanas lounging about. Back at the research station, we observed tortoises of various ages (and sizes) go about their daily lives. The little ones had the most energy and we watched as they climbed over one another as they made their way to the other side of the enclosure to get their lunch. Baby tortoises gotta eat to grow up strong enough to become legends. Most of the the older ones were not nearly as active as the young ones and moved around far less, as if their best days were behind them: such is the curse of aging! However, there was one tortoise who was clearly the hero of his own story and was dubbed The Poop Sleeper, as he did precisely that. We caught him climbing over a short wall into an empty recessed area and he proceeded to walk towards the singular plop of brown goop laying in the center of the area. As he approached the brown blob, he slowly lowered himself down until he was laying right on top of it and there he stayed. Truly, The Legend Of The Poop Sleeper!
After watching tortoises for close to an hour, we headed inside the research station to learn about the latest in ecosystem restoration and sustainability! There’s a great big world out there we know frighteningly little about. The Charles Darwin Foundation seeks to overcome that through scientific research and conservation action!
We were on our own for lunch so I quickly bought a few souvenirs from the research center store and proceeded to find a place to get a quick bite before heading back to the hotel to get ready for an afternoon at Tortuga Bay.
At the beach, you probably wouldn’t have guessed it but there were more sea lions and iguana’s everywhere! It was like they were multiplying by the minute. Cristian showed us an area of the bay where often times sharks can be found swimming around. Fortunately we were able to spot a few whitetip reef sharks moving around under the water but the glare from the sun on the waters surface prevented any photos from capturing the shadows beneath. Most of the group kept their distance while Melissa stuck her head in to get a better view! After that we stopped by the other side of the beach for an ocean landscape backdrop photoshoot against the cloudy skies!
Once we had our fill of the beach we took the bus back to the hotel to clean up before dinner. As we walked in, I was told my feet resembled those of a pregnant lady being bright red and swollen. I hadn’t given my feet a break at all since I got to Ecuador. According to my fitness tracker, I had been averaging 18k steps a day. That’s a whopping 9mi every day and my big vacation wasn’t even halfway done yet!
For dinner I kept it simple with grilled chicken and fries. And then we went out for bar games and drinks. Between Jenga, Never Have I Ever, and some dice game, the night continued on! I ended up scoring a 3 for 1 deal on tropical cocktails!
Once we finished at the bar, we stumbled back to the hotel for late night shenanigans, juicy gossip, and a disproportionate piggy-back ride?? We squeezed in a lot today, but if you can believe it, the highlight of this Galapagos trip was still ahead of us!
No Regrets: The Only Way To Live 