The Journey Continues

From Montanita we went to Guayaquil to catch our flight to the Galapagos. We were the last to board,......[ collar pull,....who knew pssshhhtttt ] .  We flew into Baltra airport Galapagos where I snuck a pic or 2 before my Ipad camera stopped working completely. Dbl Yaaarrrrgh. We ended up staying at a place I will not even give the satisfaction of even web advertising whatsoever. The brother of the owner [who we thought was a random guy off the streets at the time] attempted to take my money first of all. NO BUENO. But luckily I am a  TDot chic and he was tracked down by the morning and dealt with so we got a free stay out of his stealings. We got stuck there for an extra night due to the sneakily early checkout time. We  continued to have colonies of ants, giant beetles. and mice. Ants and beetles and mice !!! OH MY!

But success instilled once again as the beauty of the Galapagos slowly melted away the negative Montanita trap of sorrow. Our first full day in Santa Cruz, we woke up early. Here we encountered our first grumpy morning sea lions at the pier. Haha They did not want us there, the Iguanas were cool though. wink wink. We walked to Tortuga Bay which was awesome. There are 2 beaches here. The first was the surfer beach. We hung out with marine Iguanas. That is something to see. These marine Iguanas are endemic to the Galapagos. They are only found here. To see an Iguana squiggle through the water is so pleasing for some reason. Probably because it is totally new. We hung with them for a bit while collecting volcanic rocks. And these little flocks of birds were checking us out like crazy. Its amazing how close they come. We continued our walk to the second beach which is the swimmers beach. Its crazy how it goes from big waves where talented young proteges carve artwork into the rushing water swells, to barely a movement on the other side of the sea turtle nesting dunes. We chilled here with the birds and the Iguanas for the day. Here we played hangman in the sand and swam with Iguanas in the hot sun while staring up at a volcano in the distant rainforest. Let me tell you ,......ya don´t do that everyday!!! The food here is amaaaazing. wow. Very expensive though. The whole damn place is. obviously. The next day we saw our very first Giant Tortoises at the Charles Darwin Research Center. They were absolutely incredible! Dinosaurs ! HUGE !!! moving sooooooo slow. haha And a breeding ground for all of the little baby tortugas. So cute. wow. Success once again.