I had thought about doing a day trip today to some island I hadn't seen yet. But since that would have involved another lengthy boat trip - something I wasn't really keen on - I decided not to. Instead, I went for two wonderful long walks on Santa Cruz, the island I was on anyway. I really enjoyed that I was finally able to explore the Galapagos at my own pace and not at the pace set by a guide and a noisy group of fifteen people.
The first walk took me to Tortuga bay, a beautiful beach that can only be reached after a 45 minute walk along a cobblestone path. The walk was great: very quiet, but the willing observer could detect many birds and lizards along with opuntia cacti and mangrove forests.
These finches, for example, are a specialized type of finch that are adapted to life on opuntia cacti. They use the cactus to protect their nests, they drink its nectar, and they do the pollination for it.
The Galapagos species of opuntia is apparently the only one growing in the shape of a tree, forming cactus forests that grow directly on lava rock. Very impressive!
On the beach at Tortuga bay, there were many marine iguanas to be seen (once again), their black bodies forming a nice contrast to the powdery white sand.
I spent an uncharacteristically long time on the beach, sitting in the shadow of a mangrove, listening to the newest episode of my favorite podcast and leisurely observing all kinds of marine birds doing business in the bay.
After just about enough time spent sitting in the sand I hiked back into town and took a water taxi to the trailhead leading to Las Grietas. Las Grietas is a narrow canyon that is about twenty meters deep. Its lower half is filled with cold, clear sea water.
The possibility of climbing up the canyon walls to jump back into the deep water makes Las Grietas a popular haunt for locals and tourists alike. I too couldn't resist the pristine water and went for a swim - wonderful! Even without a mask, I was able to photograph some fish hanging out on rocks in shallower parts of the canyon:
Back in Puerto Ayora, I stopped by the fishermen's wharf to witness the daily ritual of fishermen selling their catches and feeding the scraps to pelicans and sea lions. Watching the pelicans fight over scraps and fill their beaks with as much as they could was very amusing, but the funniest part was when a sea lion took off with a fisherman's bag because he had smelled the fish inside :-)
The first walk took me to Tortuga bay, a beautiful beach that can only be reached after a 45 minute walk along a cobblestone path. The walk was great: very quiet, but the willing observer could detect many birds and lizards along with opuntia cacti and mangrove forests.
These finches, for example, are a specialized type of finch that are adapted to life on opuntia cacti. They use the cactus to protect their nests, they drink its nectar, and they do the pollination for it.
The Galapagos species of opuntia is apparently the only one growing in the shape of a tree, forming cactus forests that grow directly on lava rock. Very impressive!
On the beach at Tortuga bay, there were many marine iguanas to be seen (once again), their black bodies forming a nice contrast to the powdery white sand.
I spent an uncharacteristically long time on the beach, sitting in the shadow of a mangrove, listening to the newest episode of my favorite podcast and leisurely observing all kinds of marine birds doing business in the bay.
After just about enough time spent sitting in the sand I hiked back into town and took a water taxi to the trailhead leading to Las Grietas. Las Grietas is a narrow canyon that is about twenty meters deep. Its lower half is filled with cold, clear sea water.
The possibility of climbing up the canyon walls to jump back into the deep water makes Las Grietas a popular haunt for locals and tourists alike. I too couldn't resist the pristine water and went for a swim - wonderful! Even without a mask, I was able to photograph some fish hanging out on rocks in shallower parts of the canyon:
Back in Puerto Ayora, I stopped by the fishermen's wharf to witness the daily ritual of fishermen selling their catches and feeding the scraps to pelicans and sea lions. Watching the pelicans fight over scraps and fill their beaks with as much as they could was very amusing, but the funniest part was when a sea lion took off with a fisherman's bag because he had smelled the fish inside :-)
