Day 5: Charles Darwin Center Jan 5th,2018
|
The next day was again a really good yet really hard day! It began with all of us leaving our hotel at around 8:30 am. On the short bus ride to the docks, we were all really really upset to be 1) leaving our hotel 2) leaving isabela island and 3) leaving Paula. Everyone in the group (myself included) had looked to Paula as not only a great tour guide, but a good person and also like a mom. So once our bags had gone through expectation and we got our badges for the boat, it was time to say our goodbyes. I was teary eyed as I made my way to hug Paula. I did not want to leave!!! I didn’t!!! To me… it was as if Isabela Island had become a part of me. It was and will forever be one of my ‘happy places’ if you believe in such a thing. I truly felt at peace and stress free while there and that is saying A LOT for me. Although, as sad as it was… we had to move on.
Once we were all loaded on the small taxi boat, we made out way to our larger boat. Again we spent about two and half hours on the boat ride back to Santa Cruz. This time, no one was as excited to stay awake and look for creatures in the water and sky. Almost every (including myself) fell asleep. Once back at Santa Cruz Island, our luggage had to go through security again. We took this time to look at the sea lions playing the water beside us, happily. Before we knew it, we were back at our hotel and in our rooms. Since this was a more “relaxation” day and our last day in the Galapagos, we really did not have anything to strenuous planned. Before leaving for our event of the day, we headed to lunch at the hotel. Soon after, we left for our first adventure for the day: the Charles Darwin Center. We spent the first half of the day here walking the paths and learning about Charles Darwin. Along the outside paths they had different stations set up with different information about Darwin and his life, his voyage to the Galapagos and his inspiration of writing his Origin of Species . The center also had a whole big display on Lonesome George. |
The Story of Lonesome George
|
|
|
At the end of the tour, the paths lead us to this really incredible center. Inside there are dinosaur bones, information after the Galapagos islands, some of Charles Darwin’s books/specimens and a gift shop. Overall, it was a really fun time.
Afterwards it was not even noon yet, so Tait let us walk around by ourselves. We were sort of on the edge of the ‘city’ part of this part of Santa Cruz and less than a 15 minute walk from the hotel, so we really had all the time in the world to explore. The group I was with took advantage of this time by going into every shop we saw and too buy tons souvenirs. A few hours later we all made our way back to the hotel. Then around 1pm we all walked to Tortuga Bay Beach. It was actually scorching hot this day and I remember just watching Aidan’s skin fry as we walked the path for about 45 minutes.This beach was absolutely beautiful! However, due to reasons unknown to us, we weren’t allowed to swim on the main cove of the beach. So we had to walk, to what seemed like the end of the beach to actually go swimming. This beach was also made of up white sand, crystal blue water and a bright green mangrove surrounding it. Being so far out from the beach, the area we were at was sort of more a lake- like area than a beach. For instance, you had to walk really really far out to even be waist deep in the water. Either way, we all made the best of it! Most of us started out by playing chicken in the water and then slowly but surely we began to split into different groups. While the others went to go kayaking and snorkeling I chose to spend my time staring at the white tip sharks swimming close to us and sun bathing. Some may say I’m crazy for doing that somewhere where the sun is soooo intense, but I wanted a tan before going home! After a few hours at the beach we were all beached out and ready to go back to the hotel. Instead of walking all the way back to the hotel in the heat, we hitched a ride with some locals on their boat. Let me tell you, there was nothing fun about this ride. First, getting onto the boat was really difficult and scary. Second off, the boat was way more packed full of people than it should have been. Luckily we did not have to walk and the boat ride was not that long. Once we were back at the hotel, it was about 4 pm and we had the rest of the day to ourselves. We were given the option to come to group dinner or not and we were going to have a short (less than one hour ) meeting straight after dinner. I spent most of my day with Victoria, showering, packing, sleeping, touring the city, going to dinner and out on the town for awhile. At the end of the night Victoria, Tait, Lester, Aidan, Jackalyn, Abby and I snuck away from everyone and got a second authentic Ecuadorian dinner in the city. We had almost everything under the sun here, literally probably 10 different full courses for about $6 each. Most of the meals were weird but oddly satisfying. After our bellies were full of food Aidan, Victoria and I went back to the hotel to change. We then left to meet up in John and Kevin for a night out in the city! |
References:
Galapagos Conservancy. (2018). Lonesome George. Retrieved from https://www.galapagos.org/about_galapagos/about-galapagos/lonesome-george/
Image:
Lonesome George: https://www.theguardian.com/science/animal-magic/2017/feb/17/welcome-home-lonesome-george-giant-tortoise-returns-to-galapagos