Finally Galapagos-San Cristóbal

Now that the God of Holy Wi-Fi has once again shown us mercy, we, the prophets, are able to share joyful news from distant lands with our followers! Even though the power of the Internet abandoned us for almost 2 weeks, we gained insight into the beauty, but also the mercilessness of divine creation, related to humans, animals, and the environment. 

The first island, San Cristóbal, welcomed us with a mountain of sweets in the form of elongated, convex-shaped, big-eyed, and hydrophilic creatures - the lobos! Here, the rule is: if a lobo takes over a footpath, humans have to make their way through the bushes. 

The journey became even more difficult when WE, foolish and naive, embarked on a - according to legend, two-hour long - bicycle tour across the island! Oh, we unlucky ones! Under tropical, untrained conditions and after 1.5 hours of deadly pedaling, we could only boast 8 km. Taxi!! And that was a good thing because the steep, winding road continued uphill for a long time. But at the end, the legendary Galapagos turtles were waiting for us for the first time! These turtles also have the habit of sitting right in the middle of the road, while at the same time, you shouldn't get too close to them.

But these were not the only animal challenges! In order to enjoy the underwater world, one has to set sail with a guided boat group and snorkel near steep cliffs and sea urchin-infested bays, while swallowing lots of saltwater. But we were rewarded: sea turtles, rays, colorful fish, and sharks that we could see up close. Unexpected and highly joyful was also the sighting of two baby orcas learning to fish or hunt turtles. Additionally, we, admittedly unplanned, took on the role of environmental activists during the tour around the whole island by discovering and neutralizing (by chance) illegal fishing devices. 

Unfortunately, nature is not always so romantic. At the beach we reached after a nice climbing hike, we found a lobo baby, which was probably stillborn, and the iguanas feasted on its placenta. Iguanas are swimming reptiles that you might stumble upon, as their black color hardly stands out from the cooled lava.

The village of Puerto Baquerizo Moreno is very idyllic, feels like it has more lobos than residents (about 4,000), and has a nice promenade. However, it is expensive!! Like everything on the islands. 

Unfortunately, it seems that we cannot upload videos here. We will put them in a Dropbox so that you can see the underwater creatures. The videos are from our guide, which he kindly provided to us, and no, it's not me touching the turtle. Enjoy!

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/3sy7ziwhuvfvfjp/AADChUi-H5nE1VkUBRIRPATJa?dl=0