Today we flew from Quito to Guayaquil and then on to the Seymour Galapagos Ecological Airport on Baltra in the Galápagos Islands.. We were greeted by a large Galapagos land iguana as we entered the terminal. We were last here in 2021 just after opening from COVID , and besides being a bit more crowded with tourists, it looked pretty much the same.
From the plane, we took the public bus for a short ride to the ferry dock where we took a ferry (cost $1) to Santa Cruz Island. We then boarded our private group tour bus and headed across the island to the giant tortoise reserve, El Chato Ranch, for lunch and lecture. We learned there are 14 different species of Galapagos tortoises on the island. The Males are massive and the females smaller and they can live to over 200 years old. They migrate twice a year from the high ground to low ground and back. After lunch we took a hike (kudos to Sue for hiking with a broken toe) to see the giant tortoises up close, and we learned about the lava flow in this area. We walked down into the tunnel to see this. This compared favorable to our 2021 visit with the giant tortoises of Galapagos.
After getting some alone time to explore and look at all of these amazing creatures we headed to our hotel, the Plaza Luna Suites in downtown Puerto Ayora. We took a walk around the town and saw more animals lounging around. Crabs, brown pelicans, iguanas and seals were unperturbed by human presence. In town every Friday night, they close the streets to automobile traffic, and everyone comes out to enjoy the outdoor activities.
We had dinner as a group and dinned on spotted scorpionfish which is unique to the Galapagos area. We got a whole fish, rice and beans and plantains. It was delicious. We are glad we got the opportunity to see this and to spend the night here before boarding joining our ship tomorrow,
Flight to Baltra/Ferry
Tortoise Reserve
Puerto Ayora
