After enjoying our Airbnb in Santa Cruz we returned to San Cristóbal to a new location. The Sparks left earlier and spent a week in Quito and Otavalo. We were so jealous and want to return there someday.
While walking around in town, we caught up with a set of missionaries serving on the island. We tagged along with them to a local spot that had the most delicious chicken and fries. And we returned after that because it was so delicious.
This little kitty is being well fed with my bits of chicken skin.
I’m not that fond of chicken feet, but the Ecuadorians put them in soups. For such a hot place, I’m surprised at how much they eat hot soup.
The covid pandemic has arrived in Ecuador. When we returned to Isla San Cristóbal they were taking our temperatures on the dock. Now the news says the last flight out of the Galápagos is on Sunday. Luckily, our flight is on Saturday. Sister Calderon called to check on us, but we’ll be back soon.
Our next day was spent exploring some great places to swim. Our first foray for our trip was to Tortuga Bay. Once you found the entrance for the walkway, you sign in and walk over a mile to the beach through desert type vegetation with cacti. We especially enjoyed seeing the “pine tree” cactus since the bark made it look like a pine tree. Once at the beach, we walked down to Playa Peninsula and Tortuga Lagoon.
Tortuga Bay has a gigantic, perfectly preserved beach that is forbidden to swimmers and is preserved for the wildlife where marine iguanas, Galápagos crabs and birds wander along the volcanic rocks. There is a separate cove where we swam with white tip reef sharks.
Plenty of surfers were out playing, but signs prohibited body surfers and boogie boarders. The waves and currents were just too strong for the average swimmer.
“Can you read that? I think we’re supposed to eat their fingers.”
If you sleep too long in the sun, you might wake up surrounded by strangers.
Before Charles Darwin arrived in the Galápagos, no one knew that marine iguanas existed. He wrote in his journal “This marine saurian is extremely common on all the islands throughout the archipelago. It lives exclusively on the rocky sea-beaches, and I never saw one even ten yards in-shore. The usual length is about a yard, but there are some even four feet long. It is of a dirty black colour; sluggish in its movements on the land, but, when in the water, it swims with perfect ease and quickness, by a serpentine movement of its body and flattened tail, the legs during this time being motionless, and closely collapsed on its sides. Their limbs and strong claws are admirably adapted for crawling over the rugged and fissured masses of lava which everywhere form the coast. In such situations a group of six or seven of these hideous reptiles may oftentimes be seen on the black rocks, a few feet above the surf, basking in the sun with outstretched legs.’”
We were told to bring along some bakery items so the Darwin finches would come eat out of our hands. They were so light, I could hardly feel them.
Swimming in the lagoon was my favorite part of the Santa Cruz experience. The water was warm and clear, the sand was clean, and the little sharks darted around me.
In English “Grieta” translates as crevasse. Las Grietas is a long crevasse, or fissure canyon, with high volcanic walls, filled with emerald green waters.
The water at Las Grietas is a mix of seawater that enters from one end, and freshwater that filters in from the other. The protected walls mean that the water is crystal clear and very calm with no current – perfect for a relaxing swim.
I was afraid to use my phone, so this picture is all we have to remember a cool swim in the canyons. A long hike in and out was totally worth it.
Sunday on Santa Cruz meant we were able to join the Saints in their sabbath worship. They have a beautiful building in the heart of town and we were able to meet up with the Sparks.
We met all of the missionaries serving in this branch and enjoyed sacrament meeting and Relief Society, too. Afterwards, the branch president and the four of us had lunch together and talked about the challenges on the island. The branch president was in the travel business and set us up with an expedition the next day. An employee picked us up on Monday and took us to the craters and El Chato tortoise reserve.
After viewing Los Gemelos (the twin craters), our next excursion was to walk through lava tunnels. In the village of Bellavista on Santa Cruz Island, you can walk through lava tubes. These are very similar to those we’ve seen at Mount St. Helens.
The outer skin of the molten lava hardens while the liquid magma continues to flow through, eventually leaving behind a cavity of empty tubes.
There are plenty of these happy fellas wandering around the acreage, eating as they go.
For scale, you have to climb inside. There is plenty of room to move around.
As I was walking down a street on Santa Cruz, I heard the hum of a sewing machine. Down a few feet below the street level was this sewing shop with three machines. I know many women who would complain about that sewing chair. It reminds me of a Chinese proverb:
“When there is food on the table there are many problems. When there is no food on the table there is one problem.”
After a few days on San Cristóbal we boarded a boat for the island of Santa Cruz, where most of the population lives. The restrictions imposed by Ecuador are very strict on permitting citizens to live on the islands.
Galapagos is not accepting any new permanent residents. In 1998, a law was passed granting permanent residence to anyone who had lived there for five years, or who did from that point on.
The last permanent residencies were granted in 2003 to those who had just moved there when the law took effect in 1998. Now, only those who marry or are born to residents can get permanent residency.
This was far from my idea of a “ferry,” but that’s what they called it. After about 30 minutes, we boarded a small tinder which brought us into the marina.
How many different animals can you spot?
Almost everything by the dock is pulled from the ocean.
And if you’re patient, you can get a bite.
Upon arrival, each individual must pay $100 cash at the airport. This gives you access to the National Park. The government has designated 97% of the land area of the islands as the country’s first national park. The remaining 3% is distributed between the inhabited areas of Santa Cruz, San Cristóbal, Baltra, Floreana, and Isabela.
Our first expedition was out to Kicker Rock, a 500′ rock that juts out in the Pacific off the coast of San Cristóbal. Our friends the Sparks got an early sailing and we followed an hour later. They showed us a video of all the hammerhead sharks swimming beneath them. Luckily, a storm came up in the interim and stirred the water up enough that we were completely oblivious to their presence.
This does not inspire confidence as a snorkeler.
We’re going snorkeling in there?
Two of the passengers were going diving and needed instructions. It turned my stomach just to imagine diving in this remote area, but they seemed to have a great time.
Since I didn’t have an ocean camera, I found some pictures of the things we saw on our time in the water.
Imagine the underwater sounds of fish chomping on the coral. It’s a hundred tiny clicking sounds surrounding you on all sides.
We then wandered around in our boat to see the blue-footed boobies on outlying islands. The blue-footed booby is distributed among the continental coasts of the eastern Pacific Ocean from California to the Galápagos Islands south into Peru.
We arrived on Monday, March 2 on the island of San Cristóbal. San Cristóbal is the fifth largest and easternmost island of the Galápagos. It is comprised of three or four fused volcanoes, all extinct. Its name comes from the Patron Saint of seafarers, “St. Christopher.”
We stayed at an Airbnb in the town of Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, the capital of the Galápagos province. It is home to many government offices, an Ecuadorian Navy facility, and an airport with daily flights to the mainland. There are approximately 5,400 residents, making it home to the second largest population, after Santa Cruz. The majority of inhabitants make their living in government, tourism, and fishing.
Galápagos sea lions can be found on all of the islands of the Galápagos archipelago. Less than a quarter of them reside on San Cristóbal Island.
Feeding mostly on sardines, Galápagos sea lions sometimes travel 10 to 15 kilometers from the coast over a span of days to hunt. This is when they come into contact with their main predators: sharks and killer whales. Injuries and scars from attacks are often visible.
Sally Lightfoot crabs are brightly-colored coastal scavengers, found in the Galápagos Islands and across the western coast of South and Central America. They have an extremely generalist diet, feeding on anything from sea lion placenta to other crabs.
The Galápagos Brown Pelican is a common resident of Galápagos; population is estimated at a few thousand pairs that breed throughout the year, nesting in small colonies in low bushes and mangroves.
How many sea lions can you count?
I hope their fatty nature makes the rocks more comfortable. The crashing waves drown out the sounds of the crabs clicking away as they run sideways.
While on Playa Loberia we watched this baby take a nap on the beach with us, then waddle to the shore and take a bath. His mom watched from nearby.
Due to the temple closure, we need to get out of town for two weeks. Temple maintenance will be replacing our ovens and updating the air conditioning systems. Our last day at the temple was February 29th and it was crazy. I knew from working in the Seattle Temple that the day before closure was always the busiest day. A former temple president told me in the cafeteria one day that we should try cleaning closures more often for that exact purpose. We received a call at 4am telling us the buses were arriving. Paul and I were the only ones running the baptistry so President Calderon came to help us occasionally. Ward after ward arrived and we kept the laundry and cafeteria running for seven straight hours.
The next day the Area Presidency asked that no sacrament meetings be held in the city of Guayaquil. This was a surprise because I thought that Covid hadn’t made its way to Ecuador. But it was a special sacrament with just the temple president and the senior couples who were still in town. Most had flown to the United States to visit their families, so it was a nice small group. Paul gave an impromptu talk about missionary service and giving away our stuff to know God.
Our plan is to fly to the island of San Cristobal for 5 days, then boat to Santa Cruz for 5 days, and then return and fly out of San Cristobal. One funny fact is that we ran out of toilet paper before we left and we thought we’d just grab some when we returned. Who knew there would be a run on toilet paper?
Where are the Willards? 
