Santa Cruz & Return to Isabela

Weather: Sunny, SO HOT, and a Whole Lotta Sweat

Breakfast was buffet style at the hotel this morning. It included pancakes which was just great. Soon afterwards we walked to the Charles Darwin Research Station. It was so cool and we got to see a lot! Our first stop was to see the taxidermic remains of Lonesome George. He was the last surviving male tortoise of his species. They tried mating him with the other females that existed about 6 years ago, but apparently he preferred a rock. We had to cram into an AC’d room and wait for the temperature to cook before going into the room with him. They want to preserve the body as long as possible and by cooling our bodies down before we went in eliminates some humidity. On our way out we had to wait two minutes after shutting the door behind to open a second door that led us outside. George was bigger than I thought he’d be and it was pretty creepy to be honest. It was cool/sad to see as he was the last male of his kind. Soon if there’s females left they’ll become extinct which is also a bit sad to think about.

After seeing George we saw some baby tortoises at their nursery and some larger tortoises that varied when it came to which species they were. We then walked to see the different corrals of mature tortoises separated by species. Each species belongs to a different island so when they have babies the center releases them back to their respective islands. We ended up seeing Diego who was brought to Santa Cruz all the way from the San Diego zoo, hence his name. He belongs on Española Island but they keep him at the breeding center because out of nearly 2000 babies, he is the father to 40% of them according to our guide. They eventually move most of the babies back to Española where they live the rest of their lives in the wild.

After seeing all the tortoises we saw a land iguana which are iguanas we would be accustomed to seeing in the states. The ones here in Galápagos is a yellow-orange color and they’re really fat. There was only one land iguana that we saw, but it was still cool to see since it's a species that’s endemic to the Galápagos. We kept on walking and headed to the main spot of the station. It had AC (most importantly), an option to send a postcard via email for free, gift shop, whale skeleton that washed up on San Cristobal, and some other cool artwork. Everything you spend in the gift shop goes right to the station so I ended up buying a cool t-shirt that has all the different tortoise shells from all the different species in the Galápagos on the back.

After the station we all dispersed and had about an hour before we had to meet back up for lunch. We all walked around and saw a ceramic garden and looked at some shops. Around 11:30am, Kayelyn and I headed back to the hotel to grab our bags before lunch because we were catching the 2pm ferry to Isabela Island. Lunch in Santa Cruz was pesto pasta with veggies and was very delish. 2pm quickly approached and soon enough me, Kayelyn, Jintong, Eve, Raina, and Mika were on the pier ready to head to Isabela. All four of them had an air bnb they were staying at for about 65 a night. The room had beds for 4 people and a sofa so Kayelyn and I were just gonna find our own hostel because we wanted beds. Raina offered to sleep on the floor as she likes to do that sometimes apparently. So we were easily convinced as it would only be 10.50 for each night we stayed with them, and we made it cheaper for them too. It was a win win situation.

We got on the ferry and it was pretty packed with people coming from all over. I heard some people speaking French and another woman had a Laos flag on her backpack. My immediate impression of the boat itself was wary as there was duck tape around the windows and it was pretty banged up. The captain went to start the boat when we were all settled and sure enough it wouldn’t start...I was not too comfortable with the situation as I was thinking about the fact that we had a two hour boat ride ahead of us (some/most of that being in open ocean). After 20 minutes of this guy hooking up jumper cables from battery to another and doing some electrical work we were off to Isabela. Thankfully we arrived with no further problems, except one of the french dudes was puking half of the time. I had my

headphones in so luckily that combined with the engine noise I couldn’t hear anything.

Once we got off the boat a chiva from the air bnb picked us up and brought us over. I wasn’t sure what to expect but when we arrived I was thoroughly surprised. We had a full living room and kitchen, 1 full bathroom and 1 half bathroom, and a big room that had our beds and dressers in it. It was beautiful and you couldn’t possibly get any better for 10.50 a night. Mika wanted the sofa, Jintong and I each got twin beds, and the queen bed was more like a king size and it could fit Kayelyn, Eve, and Raina. Once we got settled we headed to dinner around 7:30. We got a merienda (which is like a lunch deal but for dinner. So for fish, rice, beans, tomatoes, and some banana chips it was $6. I felt accomplished because so far I have stayed way under budget, and I was expecting to pay $23 a night for a hostel here in Isabela. We’re not doing a tour here since we did the most amazing tours Isabela has to offer with IES, so we’re saving a lot of money in that respect as well. Moral of this story is that I’m proud of myself and it may not be glamorous traveling, but I’m seeing amazing things for dirt cheap.

After dinner, we walked to the beach and looked at the moon and the stars (as cheesy as that sounds). It was really pretty and it was almost a full moon. On our way back to the air bnb, we stopped and got ice cream sandwiches as well as eggs, jam, and bread for breakfast tomorrow morning. We plan on making breakfast both mornings so we all save some money that way as well. Between all of us and everything we got breakfast ended up costing each person $2. Anyways, I sound like a cheap skate but I’m really impressed by how cheap things have been so far. I don’t know why but I was truly expecting Spring break to break my bank. So far so good and tomorrow we have a great day planned for exploring Puerto Villamil.