San Cristobal Tour

Last week, we arrived in the Galápagos Islands. Yesterday, we went on a tour. It was very fun. I thoroughly enjoyed it. We drove around San Cristobal island looking at various fun things.

In the harbor where we are anchored, there are quite a few sea lions. When we arrived at the dock in the taxi boat from Sila,  there were several sea lions. One was a baby. It was cute ,but smelled horrible. We walked down a street and could not help noticing how clean it was; there was almost no litter on the ground. The narrow streets were made out of cobble, making them beautiful. While we waited for the tour to start, we stayed at a playground.

It was by the beach and we saw a lot of snoozing sea lions. A small one kept making honking and barking noises around the resting adults. The adults just ignored the small one that wanted attention. Mama commented that the baby was a little like me, constantly going from person to person seeking attention.

We eventually got into the truck and our guide drove us to the Giant Tortoise Center. We walked through a forest full of Giant Galapagos Tortoises. They actually are giants. 

Their shells are at least a meter long and half as wide. Their long necks are tan and wrinkly. We saw them munch on leaves and slowly lumber around. At the breeding center, we saw small tortoises that resembled the 80 year old ones perfectly except they were the size of my hand. 

This is an example of how they have to mark the eggs when they take them out of a nest and put them in the incubator. The eggs have to be oriented exactly the same or the baby dies.

We walked around the forest a bit longer learning about the Giant Tortoises then got in the car and drove to a beach. We tried to see the famous blue footed boobies but only saw a frigate bird

More sea lions snoozed lazily on the beach. 

After a time, we walked back up to the truck and drove to an old volcano. We hiked up it in lots of strong mist, rain, and fog. A small lake filled the volcano crater. It was too wet so we left the camera in the truck.

We hiked down to the truck and then drove to a treehouse. The tree was really tall and had thick trunk, branches and roots. Under the ground in the roots was a cave. We looked around in the man-made cave. Across a sloping upward plank bridge, a tree house rocked in the branches. It was very homey and had a small loft with two mattresses. If you paid, you could sleep in the loft. We climbed down to a small bar at the base of the tree. There was a tire swing and a knot swing. We would hold the thick rope connected to a large branch above and sit on a knot and swing over the ground and back to where we could let go. It was very fun to swing and to be in the treehouse. 

The tour ended at a restaurant in town. All and all, this tour was fun because I learned a lot and actually got to experience what I learned, not just learn it out of a text book. Furthermore, it was not just learning. We also hiked, went on the swings, climbed up into the treehouse, and talked with our friend the tour guide. - Jack Rabbit