Our first day in the Galapagos and oh what a day it was. We had an early start leaving Quito and got into San Cristobal, Galapagos around noon. After eating lunch at Rositas (opened in 1945!) and buying some provisions, we took a stroll down the Darwin Boardwalk. Immediately we were blown away – sea lions sunning themselves, some crazy looking crabs, frigate birds and marine iguanas. And this is at the pier in town.
We hustled back to our AirBnB to gear up for a walk to La Loberia. La Loberia is a beach area, about a mile from where we are staying.
While it was overcast and wind, we still saw the goods. The beach was filled with sea lions. The bull sea lion was making a racket while some pups frolicked in the water or breast fed off their mother. As we were taking it in, Ash turned to me and said I might just cry.
It was cold at this point, but we had heard that the snorkeling was pretty good here. We braved the frigid temperatures to see the sights. I went in first and immediately saw a green sea turtle. I popped up and yelled at ash to get in the water, as she was a bit slower adjusting to the cool water temperatures. It took her a while but she got in, and saw it, then immediately saw two more. We also saw some beautiful fish – Sergeant Major, Anchovy and Butterflyfish but they paled next to swimming with sea turtles, a dream of ash’s for as long as I can remember.
As we were sunning ourselves and resting, we also saw a yellow (mangrove) warbler and ruddy turnstones.
We hiked a bit farther over some lava rocks, where we saw some marine iguanas. I also saw saw a blue footed boobie and a swallow-tailed gull.
As we were walking, we reflected that we have been so lucky to be able to see so many things.
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