On Day 11 of my trip to Ecuador, Sierra and I went scuba diving and visited several popular sites on Isla Santa Cruz.
Gordon Rocks
We met at the Academy Bay dive shop, in Puerto Ayora, first thing in the morning. From there, our dive group was shuttled in pickup trucks to the dive boat on the north side of the island. The dive boat took us around the northeast side of the island to Isla Plaza Norte for us to gear up and do a buoyancy check. After fitting each of us with adequate weight belts, we headed to our dive site at Gordon Rocks.
Almost immediately after jumping in, we were greeted by giant a sea turtle. And, we saw many more sea turtles during our two dives that day at Gordon Rocks. We also swam with many sharks including blacktip, whitetip, and scalloped hammerheads. And, of course, we saw plenty of fish including a scorpion fish.
After returning to Puerto Ayora from our two amazing dives at Gordon Rocks, we still had several hours of daylight. And, being our last day on Isla Santa Cruz, we didn't want to waste them. Our goal for the afternoon was to visit one of several tortoise reserves on the island. With more time and cooler weather, we might have rented bikes and rode the 13 miles to the Rancho Primicias Tortoise Reserve. We opted, instead, for a taxi.
Galapagos Taxis
Taxis on the Galápagos Islands are not cars like you might imagine. They're either pickup trucks or boats. According to our taxi driver, trucks are more appropriate than cars for climbing the many hills and dirt roads on the islands. And, they can better accommodate visitors' large suitcases.
Our taxi driver was a bit like a tour guide. Instead of taking us just to the tortoise reserve for $40, he suggested we visit the three inland highlights including Los Gemelos and Tuneles de Lava for $50.
Los Gemelos
Our first stop was Los Gemelos which means "the twins" in Spanish. It's located in the highlands and includes a nature path that leads through the forest past two (twin) craters.
Other taxi drivers waited in their trucks while their passengers walked the nature trail. But our driver enjoyed conversing with Sierra in Spanish so he joined us for the nature walk. He explained various highlights in Spanish and Sierra translated them to me.
Tuneles de Lava
After our personal tour of the craters, our driver took us to Tuneles de Lava. It's a lava cave that anyone can visit. Our driver dropped us off at one end of the cave. It was well lit and easy to walk to the opposite end where our driver picked us up.
Rancho Premicias Tortoise Reserve
Our final stop was Rancho Primicias. It's one of several tortoise reserves on Isla Santa Cruz. Admission to the reserve is $7.50 per person and includes a guided tour.
The giant Galapagos Tortoises that call this place home are free to come and go as they please. We saw many of them in the pastures along the roads leading to the reserve. During nesting season the female tortoises travel (slowly) approximately 10 miles (15 km) to the beach to lay eggs. The journey to the beach and back to the highlands takes them about half the year.
Slideshow
Here are pictures from Day 11 of our trip to Ecuador.
Expenses
I'm doing my best to track expenses in this spreadsheet for anyone that's interested in a similar, relatively low-budget trip.
Ecuador Fun Fact
The Galápagos Islands are named for the giant tortoises that originated on the islands. They can live as long as 175 years and can weigh up to 500 pounds.
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