After the ferry ride, we arrived on the island and promptly checked into our hotel, a nice little gem set back from the road, hidden among some trees and foliage. After a brief lunch, we decided to smooth out some odds and ends. We explored the main streets of Puerta Ayora and familiarized ourselves with the area. But we had some business to take care of, too, so, being the responsible people we are (ha!), we decided to square that away before anything else. That ended up being the best decision of the entire trip.
Some background: Some of Ashley's classmates were planning on taking a daytrip with us to an uninhabited island named Bartolome ("Bartholomew"), which is near Santa Cruz. The coordinator for Ashley's program made reservations for 5 at our request, and things were set for Sunday. Lo and behold, due to improper planning, the other three weren't able to come. They told us the day before we left for Santa Cruz (they would have had to come there with us, as the trip would leave from there incredibly early, and they're on San Cristobal). Thankfully, Ashley's coordinator assured us that we’d have a spot as long as we made a deposit by Friday, which is when we were going to arrive on Santa Cruz. We had hoped her coordinator would have confirmed things with the agency over the phone (she speaks fluent Spanish, much better than Ashley or me), but since she told us we could make the changes ourselves, we figured it would be ok. All was well.
Unfortunately, it didn't quite work out that way. When we stopped over at the travel agency to make the deposit, we were informed that we s hould have called to confirm the reservation on Thursday. Our seats had been given to someone else, and the boat was full. What about other days? we asked. We weren’t leaving until Tuesday, and this was the single thing we really, really wanted to do (you’ll see why in a moment). Any trips on Saturday? Or Monday? Anything?
No. They were all full.
Because Puerto Ayora’s main road (Avenida Charles Darwin) is a tourist hub, there was a travel agency behind every-other storefront. We stopped in agency after agency, using my fumbling Spanish to ask about trips on Saturday, Sunday or Monday for a reasonable price—we had expected to pay $85 per person on the Sunday trip.
But everything was full. They were calling boat after boat asking if there were any seats left. There were none. We imagined that each agency was calling the same boats, and our hope was slowly but steadily devolving into despair. We finally ducked down a side street to try but one more agency.
After making a few calls, the man told us there was one leaving in the morning—Saturday. Our hearts started beating faster as he told us there were two spots available, but became less hopeful when he said it was a first-class boat. Ticket prices began bouncing around in my head. How much would this cost? $150? $200?
$95, he said.
$95! That’s only ten more than we had planned to spend! We worked out the deposit with them and thanked them profusely. Not only had we gotten our trip, but we had gotten it sooner, and on a better boat! For a mere ten dollars! All of a sudden, we were pretty glad the other plans had fallen through.
The boat ride was about 2 hours out to Bartolome. We met two other young people on the boat--everyone else seemed to be enjoying their retirement. One of them is a professional photographer. She was able to make this shot look great, despite the gray skies. They would clear soon enough.
This is where the boat dropped us off. We've just landed and are looking out into Sullivan Bay. Pinnacle Rock can be seen just in front of that volcano. We'll be seeing more of both of them coming up.
Lava tunnels form when molten rock moves so slowly down a slope that the top cools and hardens while the stuff underneath remains hot and liquid. Lava canals form when the lava moves too quickly to cool. These are lava canals.
One of my favorites. This was a shot from one of the stops as we climbed the hill. That's a lava cactus growing out of lava rock, with the Pacific behind it.
That's only about a third of how far we walked. And that part wasn't uphill.
The entrance to a small lava tunnel. This one i s only about 3 feet wide. Days later, we'd see a much, much bigger tunnel. Photos of that to come.
Frame of reference. Some of these craters were huge.
Finally. This i s what we had come t o see. This isthmus can be seen on thousands of postcards and any Google Image Searches of the Galapagos that you might perform. Pinnacle Rock and Sullivan Bay are off to the right, the volcano we spoke of earlier in the background.Remember that photographer friend I mentioned earlier? Turns out, she brought her own camera. A really nice camera. And she offered to take our pictures with it, and email it to us. She made good on her word, and below is my favorite photo of the trip (cropped just a little). I'll be lucky to ever get another one like this again.
The trip didn't end there. We snorkeled (successfully this time!!) and swam, we ate lunch on the boat (a big step up from what we would have gotten on the other boat), and napped on the way back to the island. That evening we h ad a nice dinner at The Rock, an American-style restaurant on the main drag, and relaxed again. it was a long day, but an incredible one.
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OK, ok, I can't finish this post without these pictures. Enjoy.
Galapagos penguins! I swam with some! Not these particular ones... but their buddies around the corner. I also swam with rainbow fish, a turtle, saw a white-tipped shark and swam away from a baracuda. These guys were my favorite.
My blog's namesake. Blue-footed boobies on Pinnacle Rock!Alright, that's all for this post. Up next: the Charles Darwin Research Station. It was incredible. Hopefully posting tomorrow.
