Galapagos - Santa Cruz

Santa Cruz is the main island, in the centre of the group

​Santa Cruz is the final island we visit on our tour of the Galapagos. It’s the most developed island, quite a tourist hub offering tours to all of the other islands, and providing a pick up point for the small cruise ships that ply these waters. It is also the best place to provision for our upcoming Pacific Ocean crossing. Having seen all of the iconic Galapagos animals it feels like our visit is winding down as we shift focus to the next stage. Nevertheless Santa Cruz was well worth exploring as two important questions remain unanswered: 1. Do those marine iguanas really swim? (and if so what stroke do they do?) 2. Can Lynda fit inside a giant tortoise shell? Read on to find out.

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Isabela to Santa Cruz

​From the island of Isabela to Santa Cruz is 40nm heading NE. The forecast was for very little wind but filling in by the afternoon but as we were getting 8kts of breeze by 9ish in the anchorage we decide to up anchor and go for it. We had a pretty good sail for a while with the gennaker, but eventually lost the wind and motored the last 3 hours. Lost 2 lures along the way and caught nothing. We arrive into the anchorage to meet up with the crew of Miles Away, Mowzer and WildThing2, part of the Santa Marta crowd. Everyone is sympathetic about our fishing woes, our reputation is by now well known in these anchorages, its embarrassing, however it does mean we are regularly donated recently caught fish by those more proficient than us (and whose freezers are full!) In this case Mahe Mahe from The WildThings, who also offer to give us a much needed fishing lesson!

The town here in Santa Cruz is a much larger, more developed and substantial town than San Cristobal, lots more supermarkets, tourist shops and restaurants, not to mention paved streets. We walk up to the Darwin Research Centre, which hosts researchers studying the unique flora and fauna of the Galapagos. There is a small exhibition hall with a big whale skeleton and some tortoise shells we can look inside. It’s super hot and we are getting very sweaty – so we check out a couple of beaches along the path. The sand is lovely and soft and the black lava rocks are teeming with marine iguanas – so far none seem that interested in giving us a swimming demonstration though.

​Tortuga Beach

Yeah, nah - dont fancy a swim today

One afternoon we walked across to Tortuga beach – a reasonably long walk on an undulating concrete path to a beautiful, long white beach with the softest sand. It is fringed with black lava rocks which hosts the now familiar marine iguanas. The strong waves and current make it challenging for swimming but we managed to cool off in the shallows. The marine iguanas have heeded the warning signs, and again none of them are up for a surf. It’s a super hot day and as much as we enjoy walking, it is really draining so we have to stop for an ice cream on the way back. There is no savouring it though, you have to eat it really quickly or it is running down your arm!

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Crawling through a lava tunnel

​Into the woods

A walk in the woods

We joined Gill and John from Mehalah to take a taxi tour up into the hills. Our first stop was Los Gemelos (the twins) two really big craters side by side. These are not volcano craters but were formed by the collapse of lava tunnels beneath. The craters are deep and heavily forested, and we have a lovely walk around them and through the rainforest. This area is famous for its lava tunnels and we visit one that we can walk all the way through. The tunnel is well lit and about as wide and high as a subway station - there is one short, section where we need to get down on our hands and knees to crawl through and of course this is where the water collects so it gets a little muddy. The tunnel looks fairly stable although here and there we can see where a large chunk of rock has fallen some time ago (we hope). It is interesting to be in a cave with no limestone, no stalactites or stalagmites, it is all lava rock. Our final stop is the Rancho Primicias which is actually a cattle farm which provides a large, free range area for giant tortoises to roam about. They have a great display of a tortoise skeleton with shell as well as a shell that you can climb into. Yes! I can fit into a giant tortoise shell! I manage to do a couple of push ups with the shell on, which is pretty impressive as the shell weighs around 80kg, which is more than me! No wonder those tortoises are so slow getting around. We walk around the grounds with a guide and he points out some of the regular tortoise visitors. The animals are not fenced in and are free to come and go as they please, it’s not a breeding or rescue centre, just a safe place for them to roam. There are some pretty big tortoises here, and although we have seen them before they are still very impressive and special. It’s a much wetter environment for them than on San Cristobal and they seem to enjoy wallowing in the water and feasting on the lush vegetation. They come to the ranch to hook up with mates and breed, but then the females then head down to the lower and warmer ground to lay their eggs. The parents don’t take any care of the young so once the eggs so they are on their own.

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An ex-tortoise

Puerto Ayora (Academy Bay)

Do the hip shake baby

Academy Bay is the main anchorage in Santa Cruz. As with the other islands, taking your own dinghy ashore is not the done thing. Water taxis are the best way to get around, although getting bulky shopping back on board, and past the seal defences on your transom can be challenging when the afternoon swell kicks in. It’s a really bouncy anchorage but the water taxi drivers are very handy and fortunately we avoided any mishaps. The seals in the harbour have not really paid us much attention, having moved on to easier targets. WildThing2 is an Outremer with large sugar scoops who have used their SUPs to create a barrier, leaving a small area exposed – the seals seem to prefer this to ITIKI. The main public dock is a great place to hang out and watch the aquatic wildlife including turtles, small reef tip sharks and YES marine iguanas swimming around. We finally see our first swimming specimens in action. They are much more streamlined and gainly in the water than on land, using a funky, latin-inspired hip wiggle to give them momentum, they cruise around the bay very elegantly.

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Princess Pelican

Seal on WildThing2

Bird on a wire

Fun times with families and friends

After a day of boat jobs in preparation for the next leg of our journey we joined some fellow cruisers for an evening of R&R ashore. There are 3 "kid boats" all anchored nearby and it was quite exciting getting aboard the water taxi with kids and scooters and explaining in our dodgy Spanish to taxi driver that they need to go to this boat, then that boat, then back again because someone forgot something and then finally unloading everyone and their gear at the other end. There is a street set back from the waterfront which is buzzing in the evenings and lined with great value restaurants serving local fare. They display today’s catch on ice and we chose one that can manage to organise a table for the 10 of us. We enjoy a lovely meal of local seafood, lots of talk, sharing plans, tips, tall tales and plenty of laughter – followed by ice cream on the way back and a little more fun getting tired kids (and emotional adults) and scooters back to our respective boats. Such a fun crowd to share great times with and we know we will meet again soon in another anchorage, in another country.

Playa Alamanya

Playa Alamanya

Went ashore one Sunday morning to try to visit Las Grietas, which is an river canyon where you can swim and snorkel, similar to Los Tunnels on Isabela. Enjoyed a walk along a path to Playa Alamanya (German Beach) which is a mangrove lined beach, then walked on to the entrance of Las Grietas to find that the 10:30 tour was full and departed. Its very busy today being a Sunday and locals can go for free so we book in for the 11:30 tour, pay our money and go to the beach for a swim. The shores are lined with mangroves and the tide is coming in so the beach will soon disappear, but the iguanas seem to like it and we see several of them swimming around - pretty cool! Sadly the 11:30 tour to Las Grietas did not eventuate, Sunday is not a good day to do it as it’s so busy. Clearly it wasn’t meant to be. We caught up with some fellow cruisers on their return from a tour to Isabela, where they had hiked the volcano. Had a drink and said our farewells and continued onto have a lovely dinner at the Midori Sushi Pub, Japanese food with fresh local tuna.

Yummo!

A little bit of diesel

​As we are about to head across the longest single stretch of our journey, 3000nm to French Polynesia, we want to make sure we have full fuel tanks. Getting diesel in the Galapagos is a bit of a saga and can be quite expensive. Of course the supply is strictly controlled as it has to come a long way from mainland Ecuador. We refuelled on arrival, organising it through our agent to be delivered to the boat, but the cost was double the price at the pump! We also had to deal with unwieldy 15 gallon drums. Having realised we already paid for a “fuel permit” we pushed our agent to provide this for us, so we could go directly to the pump and fill our own Gerry cans at the pump price. If only it were that simple… Having been given the run around and drip fed information about the process, we eventually managed to piece together the puzzle. The permit will only be issued by the agent within 24 hours of departure, once we have booked our exit inspection, so we have to wait until we are sure we are leaving, confirming weather etc. On the appointed day/time, we head to our agent’s office with our empty Gerry cans, drop off our passports and we are escorted to the fuel station by our agent’s offsider in a taxi to the gas station. Our permit papers are scrutinised and stamped in triplicate. They refill our 5 x 5 gallon jerry cans, managing to fit 29 gallons in… They only take cash so I whip out the $50 notes I brought for the occasion, only to be told they don’t accept $50s or $100s! We managed to scrape together the $99 we needed from smaller notes and coins before dropping the agent back to his office and being off loaded at the cargo dock with our loot. Getting the Gerrys cans back to the boat was fun as there was quite a swell running. Keith jumped onto ITIKI while I handed them up to him. I think we surprised ourselves that we managed to get them all back on board without mishap! We are now officially read to leave the Galapagos and head to to Hiva Oa, French Polynesia, 3020nm away.

ITIKI with engines on and underway

Oh but wait!

The morning of our departure we were up early and trying to remember everything needed to do for final preparations. Well we cant just up anchor and sail off into the sunset. We need to have an exit inspection. The official Inspectors, along with our agent rep, arrived just after 9 and filled in more paperwork, walked around the boat in their hobnail boots and took pictures. I guess that they need to make sure we are not souveniring a tortoise or two! A few more final preparations, removal of our Galapagos garbage signs, some mindful breathing exercises and it was time to depart on our longest single passage since launching ITIKI. Lifted anchor about 11:30, John and Gill from Mehalah waved us off and that was it, we are on our way. Spoiler alert, we made it to French Polynesia – a full report of our passage is coming soon!