Well, would you be surprise if I told you that I had another crap nights sleep last night.... Probably not!!! You guessed it, ships motors powering up overnight is enough to wake the dead.... So for me it was just another night of no sleep on the Galápagos cruise!!!
But nothing was going to dampen my day today..... as today was giant Galápagos tortoise day.... hopefully!!
I didn't want to put a mozza on it... as everytime I have really wanted to see something, it never really goes to plan. So these days I try to not put any expectations on what I will see, that way I won't be disappointed if I don't see it. However deep down I really really wanted to see the giant tortoises.
Even the rain that was falling outside my port hole window wasn't enough to dampen my spirits.
So this morning the ship had anchored off the coast of Santa Cruz island. The water was rough. The boat was tipping from side to side, which made having a shower and even just walking down the hall way to breakfast a task and a half. If it wasn't before breakfast I would have been worried that I may have had a little bit too much to drink.
After breakfast, we all got our bags ready for our morning excursion. Camera, check, water, check, rain jacket, check. I'm ready.
We waited for the boobie group to be called to the disembarkment area, and as the second group to leave this morning it didn't take long. Our landing today was a dry landing.... so with my converse sneakers on, I was ready to walk around this island in search of the giant tortoise.
Once on the island, we joined the albatross group in a bus, and we were driven for about 45 mins, up to the highlands of Santa Cruz. By this stage the rain was heavily falling.
There was a stark contrast on this island compared to all of the other islands that we have visited to date. All of the other islands have been very dry and arid, any trees that were present on the islands had been bare, with hardly a leaf in sight!! So you can imagine our surprise, when we start driving through Santa Cruz island to find thick, green forests, with tree after tree of green leaves lining both sides of the street!!
We travelled along a main road, however after about 20mins, we turned down a smaller unmade road. On either side was unruly green paddocks, with high fences and the occasional cow. Then the call went out.... There's a tortoise. Everyone's response was a very dubious, 'no you didn't, that's a rock'.
However soon everyone was pointing out the giant Galápagos tortoises, left, right and centre. There's one, there's another, there's 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. Ok, I'm definitely going to see my giant tortoises today!!! I'm a very happy lady!!!
We eventually pulled up at a farm. The rain was falling quite heavily, so we pretty much just grabbed our rain coats and our cameras and jumped off the bus. I was starting to worry about my shoes. It looks mighty wet and muddy out there.... I've already wrecked one pair of converse, I would prefer not to wreck this pair as well. However it looks like their fate has also been sealed. As we got off the bus, we were lead up to a big shed. As we walked in, we were greeted by the most playful and energetic puppy, who immediately rolled on to his back... just begging for his tummy to be rubbed!!!
Then, out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a man. I can tell that he had been sent by the shoe fairies, as it was a sight of pure bliss.... he was handing out gumboots. Even better, he just needed to look at you feet, and he would go to his shelf of gumboots, select a pair for each of us, and they fit.
So with gumboots on, we were lead off into the rain and the mud by our guide Fatima. We walked all of 5m and we came across our first giant tortoise. They were everywhere. The biggest problem however was the fact that the rain was so heavy, it was hard to take photos. I spent half of the time drying off my camera and my lense. The last thing I wanted was for all of my photos of the much anticipated tortoises to be overshadowed by water droplets!!
So I tried to keep as much of the rain off my camera, and took some great photos of the tortoises.
When we arrived, a few of the tortoises were sticking their heads out of their shells, looking around. However, people were just so desperate to get a good photo up close, that they just marched on up to the tortoise. So what did the tortoise do, pulled his head into his shell. The frustrating part was the fact that these same people then complained about not being able to get a photo of the tortoise with its head out of the shell. Hmmmmm.... Wildlife photography 101... don't run at the animal and then wonder why they are retreating!!!
Either way, I was just so happy to see the tortoises, I didn't care whether their heads were out of not. We were allowed to walk around and enjoy our time with all of them. One fact I did find out today, they don't like to walk when it's raining. Both Kathy and I were hanging to see a tortoise walking around.... However it just wasn't meant to be today.
After a while, Fatima then led us down a different muddy pathway. This time we were walking down hill, and I just had images of me falling over on my butt in the mud. So I just took my time getting down the hill safely. At the bottom of the hill, the most beautiful site, it was a pink lagoon. The lagoon was covered in the most gorgeous pink plant. There were a number of ducks playfully swimming their way through the lagoon and plants. Towards the edge of the lagoon, a tortoise. He was so cute, his shell was partially submerged by the pink plants, and the plants also surrounded his neck like a lei!! I believe that he would have to be the most photographed tortoise there today!!
We continued our journey along the pathway, running parallel with the lagoon. We reached the edge of a forested section of the property, and it was here that the ground became a huge mud pit. We continued to walk through... however after not having any luck finding any additional tortoises, and the fear of actually hitting quick sand, we decided to head back to the gumboot shed.
We made the wet walk back up the hill to the shed. In the dryness, we took our muddy gumboots off, and put our dry, clean shoes back on. We then walked across to another shed, where we had some morning tea.
Soon after it was time to leave. Back on to the bus... We drove a few minutes up the road and stopped. The guides gave us an option to visit a lava tunnel. Sounds good to me.
Half of the bus decided that they were more than happy to remain in the dry bus. The rest of us went to go and see what this lava tunnel was all about.
We walked a couple of minutes through a paddock, and without the safety of gumboots I watched every step, making sure not to stand in a puddle or tortoise poo!!
We then came to a cave looking structure. In guessing that this is what a lava tunnel looks like. The guides then gave us the option to walk inside. A few decided it wasn't for them, however the rest of us went down to check it out. It did require us to crouch down and try to avoid hitting out heads on the low lying rock ceiling. I didn't hear too many people yelping out that they hit their heads, so we obviously did a fairly good job of making it through. The end of the tunnel appeared, and it just looked like we were in a cave. So we turned back around, and crouched our way back through the tunnel. We boarded the bus, and were driven back to the main township of Santa Cruz. Here we were herded back on to our zodiacs, and ferried back to the boat.
We had lunch, and the pleasure of having ghandi as our waiter again.
After lunch, I succumbed to a siesta.... Again I caught a good hour of sleep, and felt so much better for it.
It was then time for our afternoon excursion. This afternoon we were heading back to the township of Santa Cruz. However, instead of the bus taking us on a 40 min bus trip to the highlands of the island, it only had the pleasure of driving us 5 mins down the road to the Charles Darwin Research Institute.
Here we were dropped off in the carpark, and we walked down a path that ran along the coast line. After about 5 mins of walking, we came to the entry of the complex. Here we were shown the breeding and protection program for the giant tortoises.
There were so many enclosures, with lots of baby tortoises. It's hard to believe that they all start off so small, and grow into to these massive creatures. We saw lots of different types of tortoises, and it's great to know that this breed is protected. I just hope that they remain in the wild, so future generations have the opportunity to see these magnificent creatures.
Once we finished walking around the visitors centre, we were free to walk back to town and have a look around. We looked at a lot of the gift shops... and then tried to use the ATM to get some cash out. However I think the island was out of money. We tried on 4 different ATMs, all of which wouldn't spit any cash out!!! Oh well... I guess I will just have to wait until I get back to the mainland.
We slowly made our way through town, one gift shop at a time, until we hit the pier. Then the same old routine.... Life jacket on, board the zodiac and get ferried back to the boat. This time the zodiac ride back was rough. The driver took it slow, however I was nervous. We made it back to the boat, and we had to time our move from the zodiac to the ship just right. We just had to wait for a wave to pass, the boat to stabilise and then jump across. Everyone made it across, with no incidence of man overboard.
After a quick costume change, it was bar time. We headed up to our usual watering hole.... The top bar and enjoyed a nice cold beverage.
Whilst we sat at the bar, the boat lifted it's anchor, and we set sail. The boat was a rocking!! We watched the water in the pool swish from side to side as it was drained slowly. We held on to our drinks, as the chances of it tipping over were increasing by the second. The bar man received a phone call.... He then explained to us that he had to leave the bar, as the main bar below may have had a little incident.... in an attempt to prepare for the farewell cocktails tonight, the bar man in the main bar had laid out all of the cocktail glasses on the bar in readiness. As the boat was rocking from side to side, they lost a large proportion of those cocktail glasses. So what evolved from there was one massive clean up job, and just before dinner service as well, it meant that they had little time to clean up the mess. It was all hands on deck!!!
Soon after it was time for dinner. We slowly and carefully made our way to dinner. The boat was really getting a hammering, and we were really moving. It was so bad, that Jan skipped dinner and retired for the night after medicating herself. Another 3 of us took travel sickness tablets in an attempt to dull the nausea that was sweeping across us. After about 20mins I was fine. But I still laid off the alcohol.... I don think I really need to aggravate this situation. I ate my dinner, and then headed back to my cabin. I spent the evening packing my bags, ready to disembark the boat tomorrow. By 10pm the boat had made it's way to our final destination. I heard the anchor drop, and the boat soon became still. We must be in a protected bay.... As the boat had gone from throwing us from side to side, back to the gentle rocking that we had grown accustomed to. My room was quite, no engine rattling my room. Oh my goodness, I think I'm going to get some sleep tonight!!!! Fingers crossed!!!