San Cristóbal (Galápagos)

After more than 5 months on the South American continent and over 17,000 km by bus, we boarded a plane again to the island of San Cristóbal, one of the three largest islands in the Galápagos archipelago. We were very excited.

After the procedures at the airport (a very superficial biosafety check and a 200 USD/pax entrance fee for the national park), we walked to the small town to our hostel right on the promenade; the distances here are short. And there, everything was full of Galápagos sea lions! On the beach, on the road, on benches. Incredible and absolutely wonderful!

The part of the island that can be explored on foot is fairly manageable. The animals are numerous and not very shy. A small hike through quite dense thickets to very secluded beautiful beaches with numerous animals (many finches, lizards, iguanas, spiders, insects) over small hills of volcanic rock and a lagoon for snorkeling with sea lions and turtles were the first highlights. The fauna and flora were easily recognizable even to the untrained eye as unique, bringing us wonder and contemplation of the whys and wherefores.

In addition, we took a 360-degree tour around the island, where we could snorkel wonderfully in some lagoons and in the deep water by the rock Kicker's Rock, which gave us fantastic encounters with turtles, small sharks, and fish. Especially snorkeling and swimming in open waters with lots of sea turtles was absolutely amazing.

We spent our evenings happily at the sea lion beaches, which in the evening are populated by hundreds of animals for their overnight stay. A unique spectacle with deafening moans, rustling, and roars, never boring to watch. On our first day at one of these beaches, which was also used for swimming, we - like many other tourists - were first driven away from our beach towel by a sea lion - the sea lions clearly enjoyed teasing and chasing us humans.

Then we continued by 'ferry' (actually quite worn-out old boats) to the island of Isabela.