Today we woke up and went and had a buffet breakfast downstairs in our hotel. We left our hotel at 8am to head to the airport to go to the Galapagos! We landed on Baltra island at 12:30 pm which is an hour behind from Guayaquil and NJ. We met up with Jonathan our tour guide during our duration of the Galapagos and Caesar the owner of the hotel we will be staying at in Isabela. From the airport we took a short bus ride to get to the boat dock. As we were getting closer to the dock all of us started to get really excited when we saw the crystal blue water. On the bus looking out to the water is where we saw our first shark. When we were waiting on the dock we saw our first group of blue footed boobies! Luckily Greg took some photos of them. We then took a short boat ride to Santa Cruz Island. When we got to the island we gathered our suitcases and took a bus to get to our next stop. Our first stop was the Los Gemelos or the twins as commonly known on the island. The twins are a set of sinkholes not craters. They were formed when the volcanic roof of empty magma chambers collapsed from tectonic shifts (Los Gemelos Santa Cruz Island Galapagos, 2016). This area had a different climate from other parts of the island and were surrounded by scalesia forests. Jonathan said that the trees looked like broccoli trees. We then got back on the bus.
Our next destination was the El Chato Ranch. The Arias family who own this 12 acre ranch have dedicated over 20 years of promoting tourism. They worked hard to create the environment that these tortoises would favor (El Chato Ranch Tour, n.d).Right as soon as we turned down the road to the ranch we saw a bunch of tortoises. These tortoises we just roaming around in there fenced in areas. When we got to the parking lot we saw a whole bunch more just roaming freely. One of the tortoises was even posing in front of the El Chato ranch sign! We then went into the restaurant to have lunch. While we were eating lunch we observed even more tortoises. Then when lunch concluded we started our tour. It started to rain but we did not mind we all wanted to observe the tortoises. We first walked through a dark lava tunnel. Jonathan explained that water can get through the tunnel but nothing lives in it due to the lack of sun. After the tunnel we walked around the ranch where we observed the tortoises. Jonathan explained that these tortoises can live up to 180 years. You can tell a tortoise is young if they have a lot of rings on their shell. He also told us that males are much larger than females. The most interesting fact he told us was that tortoises can feel vibrations. They are able to sense when storms are coming. After our photos we headed back on the bus. Our next stop was to our hotel. After checking into our hotel La Ninfa we took a water taxi to get to another part of the island. We went on hike around the island and saw salt marshes, a small beach, and lots of iguanas. We hiked to Las Grietas in hope to go snorkeling but by the time we got there the place was closed. So we ended up just walking around the top of the look out point. Las Grietas is a grotto that was formed from volcanic activity. After taking photos at the top we walked back to the small beach and swam for a little. This was my first time ever swimming in the Pacific Ocean! After our swim we took a taxi back to the main part of the island and got ready to go out for dinner. We went to a restaurant that was downtown the main street of Santa Cruz. The food was delicious and we had amazing passion fruit tea. At the time we did not know it but for the rest of the trip Lauren, Julie, and I always talked about how we wanted more of that amazing tea. We finished our dinner and headed back to our hotel to hear a presentation. Isabel Timpe worked for the Charles Darwin Research Foundation and the Galapagos Marine Research and Exploration Program. In her presentation she talked about her current research involving ocean acidification in the Galapagos. She then discussed the investigation at Roca Redonda which is an underwater volcano 5 times bigger than Cotopaxi. Through out her presentation she discussed the importance of monitoring and compacting of ocean acidification. Isabel explained that the ocean absorbs 20-30% of anthropogenic CO2. After her presentation Haley, Julie, Greg, Cass, and I went to get ice cream. We all agreed that we did not like this place for ice cream. Greg told us we will have to wait for the good place in Cuenca. Then we headed back to our hotels to get a good night sleep to prepare for our long journey to Isabela in the morning. |
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