Galapagos Islands, Ecuador - Day 6

Friday, February 18

Today was our first full day on land in Santa Cruz, Galapagos. Santa Cruz is the biggest city in the Galapagos Islands province where roughly 20,000 people call home. That said, it’s still a fairly quiet beach town. Visiting the Charles Darwin Interpretive and Research Center was on my list of things to do during our visit, so we decided to go there this morning after eating breakfast at our hotel.

One nice thing about Santa Cruz is that the whole town is walkable. We made our way along Charles Darwin Street, past the pier and main drag of shops and restaurants, to the other side of town where the museum is located. The sun was shining down on us and it was already really hot outside by 9:00am.

We checked in at the Galapagos Island gatehouse & paid $10 per person to visit the Charles Darwin Research Station with a certified naturalist. Later, we figured out that we could have gone into the Charles Darwin Interpretive Center on our own or visited the beach located there without paying the admission fee, but paying gave us access to the research center where scientists and park rangers breed and care for giant tortoises. Plus, that money supports Galapagos National Park so we didn’t mind paying.

While we’d already learned a great deal about animal life in the Galapagos during our five-day cruise, it was nice to hear some of the information again from another naturalist. We walked through an series of outdoor shelters that shared information about Charles Darwin’s research in the Galapagos, the national park itself and the plants and animals found here.

During our tour, we learned that the Giant Galapagos Tortoise was once an endangered species after excessive hunting and non-native predators introduced to the islands threatened their livelihood. It wasn’t until the formation of Galapagos National Park in the 1960’s, strict conservation efforts and the assistance of breeding centers like this one, that the giant tortoise began to thrive on the islands once again.

One famous tortoise named Lonesome George was the very last of his species to live in the Galapagos. He died here at the center in 2012 at the age of 125.

After our tour with the naturalist ended, the four of us walked around the Charles Darwin Interpretive Center.

Then, we walked down to the Playa de La Estacion. I’d read this was a nice swimming beach so we brought along all our swimming gear and beach blanket, but by the time we made it there it was almost 1:00pm and everyone was hungry. Aden jumped into the water to cool off a bit and then we walked back into town to find lunch.

Andi picked the Solymar Hotel for lunch & we found a table on their outdoor patio by the ocean. The hotel restaurant had a huge menu — Andi ordered coconut shrimp and Aden got the fish fingers. I ordered a salad and Tory ordered her usual burger. The portions were huge here and the food & service were very good.

We stopped at an ice cream shop on the walk back to the hotel to get a cold treat. The air temperature is hot and steamy here in the afternoons. It seems like the only thing you can do is eat ice cream and find some air conditioning.

Tory and Aden decided they wanted to swim when we got back to Hotel Ninfa. Just as they jumped into the pool, a hotel employee came over to tell us he needed to perform some pool maintenance. I asked how long it would take & he said until 7:00am tomorrow. What?! That’s a bummer. Why on Earth he’d decide to do pool maintenance at 2:00pm on the Friday of a holiday weekend was beyond me.

So, we returned to our hotel room and attempted to shower off. I’m pretty sure this hotel only has hot water in the evenings through because both days we tried to shower the water was ice cold during the day. The four of us lounged around in our hotel room for the next few hours until the heat of the day subsided a bit.

Around 4:00pm, we walked back into the main part of town. There was lots going on since Galapagos was celebrating their statehood today. Tory and Aden played at the playground for a while and we watched some sealife swimming in the water by the pier. We saw sea turtles and even a few small sharks.

For dinner, we ate at a restaurant called The Rock. Andi and I both ordered tuna poke bowls, Aden got fish again and Tory ordered spaghetti. We’re so impressed with the quality of seafood here in the Galapagos. Even the kids meal fish nuggets are big hunks of flaky white fish. Food isn’t as cheap here as it is on mainland Ecuador, but the quality and variety of food has been very good.

After dinner, we walked back to Hotel Ninfa, showered and went to bed. I wondered if it would be a loud night with celebrations happening in town, but it really wasn’t. Tomorrow, we’ll head off to San Cristobal Island.