Early in the morning we left The Continental Hotel and were transported to Guayaquil Airport. It is a 2 hour flight to Baltra Island, Galapagos. Baltra is also known as South Seymour Island.

The Doc was sitting next to a young UK tourist who was making an impromptu trip to Galapagos as part of his South American holiday. Fellow tourists had strongly suggested he visit Galapagos. He was going to plan his visit after his arrival, as suggested by the tourist guides.

Baltra airstrip was built by the Americans in WW2, as they thought the next target of the Japanese after Pearl Harbour would be the Panama Canal. Galapagos was a forward defence base to defend the Panama Canal. About 5,000 personal were stationed at Galapagos.

It is a very basic airstrip at Baltra and we had been warned about a crowded terminal. Upon arrival, we could see a large building out the plane window after landing. A new terminal building!

We paid our US100 entry fee, the other US10 fee was already paid. We preceded quickly to pick up our bags and walked out towards the bus. Here we meet Patrice Vargas or Pato for short, our guide for the sea trip.

Big ugly wind turbines just outside the terminal. Not working of course, they are still building the power lines. Click to see full size photos, thumbnails are blurred.

We boarded our own bus, and travelled down to the wharf on Baltra. There is a place under cover for us to wait. Cameras out, a few marine iguanas, sea lions and blue footed boobies.

 

We were loaded onto The Millennium a twin hull vessel, followed by our bags. We headed out of the harbour for Cerro Dragon. We had not gone far when the Frigate birds started to follow the boat, a few even landed on The Millennium. Our first real photo opportunity. The Doc took a few shots, many were to be culled later.

Cerro Dragon is on Santa Cruz Island, but Santa Cruz is a separated from Baltra Island by a narrow channel. It took about 2 hours to go around Santa Cruz to the landing spot. A dry landing today. No one else was around when we arrived.

We landed on the rocks, pelicans, boobies, sally light-foot crabs and marine iguanas awaited. We quickly moved off the rocks around to a brine lake that had several flamingos feeding. Lucky for The Doc the flamingo came close to his position. There is panorama of the brine lagoon and some pictures of the flamingo.

We started walking on the track, very dry. The Doc spotted a “Large” Cactus Finch feeding on a cactus flower. The Doc managed to get some good shots. Later we came across a Mockingbird.

Next we tried to spot Land Iguanas, more colourful than there marine cousins. We spotted one, but no good photos. You will see the better photos The Doc took elsewhere of the marine iguanas.

We completed the walk and had some time back at the rocks. The Doc’s shots of the Sally Lightfoot crabs were not great, so the provided photos were from later in the trip. A good start to the trip.