South America – Ullan Adventures

Santa Cruz, Galápagos

Kirsten / January 23, 2016

Santa Cruz was the last island we visited on our trip. It’s not the biggest but has the largest population and is the tourist hub of the Galápagos. Most visitors we talked to said Santa Cruz was their least favorite island and I think we’d agree. It’s not that there is anything wrong with it, but it’s busier and more touristy and just didn’t have the character like San Cristóbal or Isabela.

That said, it did have a pretty harbor and reminded us a bit of Thailand.

We arrived on Wednesday morning after a 3 hour ferry ride from Isabela which was our longest ferry ride, but also the calmest. Luckily we were able to check into our hotel, Suites del Sol, and relax a bit. Wednesday was a pretty chill day of just walking around the town, getting our equipment fitted for our Gordon Rocks dive, and getting to bed early (again!).

Thursday we were up early (again!) for our dive to Gordon Rocks. Later that afternoon, we strolled around the main town looking for souvenirs for the kids and soaking up the sights. We also wandered down to the fish market where the fishermen bring their catches at the end of the day. It was quite a sight with a sea lion and many pelicans trying to steal any fish they could get.

Friday was our last full day on the island so we took the day to relax. We did hike to Las Grietas which is a swimming hole set among a crack in the lava rocks. There weren’t many fish in it and the water was very cold, but it was still a neat place to visit.

We were also lucky enough to spot a marine iguana swimming and were able to get in the water quite close to him. Unfortunately our pictures didn’t come out.

After getting cleaned up, it was time for cocktails, something that was mostly absent from our entire tropical beach vacation.

That night we ran into our Australian friends, Laith and Katie, and said our goodbyes. It’s funny how many times we saw them on our trip and it was such a pleasure to get to know them.

On Saturday morning, we realized our flight had a delay so we had time to run back down to the pier to say goodbye to the island (and of course ran into Laith and Katie again!). We were treated to the pelicans and blue footed boobies diving into the water for their breakfast. We also got to see a marine iguana swimming.

And then it was time to leave which consisted of taking a pickup truck taxi to the ferry landing, then taking a ferry to Baltra, then taking a bus to the airport and then, finally getting on the plane. 🙁

Diving with Hammerheads at Gordon Rocks

Kirsten / January 21, 2016

One of the things we were most looking forward to on our trip was diving with hammerhead sharks. We had 2 chances – one at Kicker Rock off of San Cristobal and the other was at Gordon Rocks off of Santa Cruz.

Gordon Rocks is known as “THE” place to dive with schools of hammerheads in the Galapagos without doing a live-aboard. It is also considered an intermediate to advanced dive due to currents (it’s nickname is the “washing machine”). Most of the good dive shops won’t take anyone with less than 30 dives (I’m at 40+, Chuck is at 30-ish) and they make sure you’ve been diving recently too.

I’ll admit, I was actually nervous about this dive. I think I read too many stories online about the dive being difficult and even a case where a diver got swept a few miles away by the current (they found her a while later). Someone online was also telling a beginner that wanted to dive there to “Google ‘Gordon Rocks’ + death” as apparently people have died there. So yeah. Crazy current, being known as a “washing machine”, people dying, advanced dive credentials required. Oh and schools of sharks. Yep, I was a bit nervous.

At least my nerves were calmed when we went to the dive shop the previous day to get outfitted for our equipment. Once they heard we dove Kicker Rock a few days prior and had plenty of dives under our belt, they said we’d be fine and it’s only horrible a few days a year.

Ok, deep breath.

The morning of, we took a pickup truck taxi to the ferry landing at the north end of the island then headed out on the boat.

After about 45 min, we stopped to do a check dive. Then we took a 5-10 min trip over to Gordon Rocks. After about 5 minutes of the crew checking the current, it was time to go.

The dive entrance was different than normal because of the current. Our group got ready, sat on the side of the boat and waited. When our dive guide said “Go”, we immediately back rolled into the water, met at the back of the boat and descended quickly so the current didn’t sweep us away.

As soon as we got down to about 40′, I saw 2 hammerheads swim by on the sea floor (they were about 60′). And, that was the only hammerhead shark sighting we saw the entire dive. Sigh. 🙁

We swam around for about an hour but really didn’t see much: a sea turtle, others saw a golden ray, some fish. Very disappointing. The current wasn’t too bad though so that was good.

We were bummed coming back to the boat and got more bummed when we found out the other group saw a huge school of hammerheads. Guess we just weren’t in the right place at the right time.

After an hour surface interval (that was quite wavy and making me nauseous), it was time for dive #2. We knew the hammerheads were out there so our fingers were crossed.

Not long after we descended, we started seeing the sharks. Hammerheads, Whitetip reef sharks, Blacktip reef sharks, Galapagos sharks. Some were together maybe 20′ away, some were alone maybe 10′ away. Plus we saw a pair of spotted eagle rays. THIS was the dive we were hoping for. I was so calm yet excited when I saw the hammerheads. I kept saying to myself “I can’t believe I’m seeing this. I’m so lucky.”

DCIM100MICRO — Not me, but another girl in our group. Look how close!

There was definitely more current on this dive but nothing too bad. The only interesting thing was the up/down current that would make you ascend or descend a bit. It was subtle for me but Chuck got caught in it a bit more. Nothing too scary or a big deal, but I can totally see why this is an advanced dive.

Soon it was time to get back on the boat and head back to Santa Cruz. We were treated by a whale sighting on the trip back. At first they said it was a baby humpback whale, but I’ve seen enough of them to know it was something else. When I saw the head, I thought it was a pilot whale. But watching the video back, I’m starting to think it was a beaked whale, maybe a Cuvier’s beaked whale. Not sure, but still a cool sighting.

After lunch back at the harbor, we took the trucks back to the main town and that was that.

Logistics: We went diving with Academy Bay Diving out of Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz. They did a pretty good job so I’d definitely recommend them. We met at the dive shop at 6:30am, left the shop at 7am and returned around 2:30pm.

Galapagos South America

Snorkeling with Penguins at Los Túneles, Galapagos

Kirsten / January 19, 2016

Before we came to the Galapagos, we each picked which experiences we most wanted and also which animals we most wanted to see. Near the top of my list was penguins! Yes, they have penguins in the Galapagos! They can only be found on 2 islands but only 1, Isabela, is (semi-)easily accessible to those doing a land based tour. We knew adding a 3rd island to our trip was going to keep us really busy, but I didn’t want to miss the chance to swim with wild penguins, so we figured out an itinerary that included Isabela and figured out that snorkeling at Los Túneles, aka The Tunnels, was the best place to go.

Los Túneles is about a 45 min boat trip from Puerto Villamil, which is the main town on Isabela. It’s a rocky trip out but we were lucky that it wasn’t too bad on the day we went. We were also REALLY lucky that we had some great animal sightings on the trip out. We saw a massive manta ray somersault out of the water twice, a baby hammerhead shark, and mating turtles.

We first stopped at an area outside of the Tunnels where we snorkeled for 2 hours. There weren’t that many fish or even coral, however, there were a lot of other cool things: Huge sea turtles munching away, lots of reef sharks hanging out in a cave, a marbled ray, a massive lobster (thing had to be 5lbs!), a big parrotfish, and a really cool eel that looked more like a sea snake than an eel. However, the highlight of this snorkel, for me at least, was seeing a seahorse!

I also found one of the more interesting things I’ve ever found in the ocean – a $5 bill. If you don’t know, I tend to find money all over the place and have found random money in many of the countries we’ve visited even if we’re just there for a few hours. Usually it’s pennies or some other small coin, but this time, it was a $5 floating in the water. I asked our group who lost money out of their pocket and no one had so they clapped for me and my good fortune.

After our snorkel, we headed over to The Tunnels to see the penguins. We weren’t sure if we’d be able to get in as other boats were having trouble, but our captain surfed us in no problem.

I was so excited to see the penguins and we quickly got into the water to get a closer view. Unfortunately, we didn’t see any penguins swimming in the water as they were content to hang out on the rocks.

There were also blue-footed boobies hanging out on the other rocks, so we were able to swim near them for a closer view.

A pelican then flew in and landed on one of the rocks. So cool!

After snorkeling here, we headed over to the actual Tunnels which were so pretty. We ate a quick lunch then headed up on the rocks for a look around.

Then it was finally time to head back to Puerto Villamil. However on the way we were treated to some jumping manta rays.

We then came upon a rock that had Nazca boobies alongside Blue-footed boobies.

Then it was back to the dock and our hotel.

Logistics: We booked our trip with Scuba Galapagos which is located in The Wooden House hotel. I was able to arrange the trip via email before we left the US. The trip was $90USD pp which included lunch. The good: They were really good at spotting wildlife. The bad: the boat didn’t have a bathroom or any shade which would be nice on a 6 hour trip, lunch was a warm ham sandwich, and we had a 1Km walk home from the dock after the trip. Lastly, the guides spoke both Spanish and English, however, most of the people on the boat spoke Spanish so they didn’t bother to translate as much into English for us English speakers. This made us feel a little clueless on some things and ignored other times. Overall, they wouldn’t be my first choice, but they were a fine choice and we had a magical day so I really can’t complain.

Galapagos South America

Isabela Island, Galápagos

Kirsten / January 18, 2016

Isabela was the 2nd island on our trip. We mainly wanted to go there so we could snorkel with penguins and seahorses, but also because everyone said it was their favorite island. We only had 1 late afternoon/evening and 1 full day on the island so we didn’t have time to do much.

We arrived on Isabela after a long day of ferry rides starting at 7am with a 2 hour ride from San Cristobal to Santa Cruz, a 5 hour layover on Santa Cruz, then a 2 hour ferry ride from Santa Cruz to Isabela. I was so happy to finally get there, partly because it meant I could get off speedboats and partly because it was gorgeous there!

When we arrived, we realized the dock was 1km from the town so we hired a taxi – more like a huge sightseeing thing that I wish we’d taken a picture of – for the ride to our hotel, La Gran Tortuga. I guess the hotel was full because they moved us to a room a block away which turned out to be just fine.

Our first impression was that we loved the main town, Puerto Villamil. It is so tiny and full of character and we loved that roads aren’t even paved.

We didn’t have time to do much except check in for our snorkel trip, get some laundry done and eat dinner. For dinner, I took a risk and ordered fish and it was outstanding. Best meal of my trip so far. Unfortunately, I woke quite sick the next morning (maybe it wasn’t the fish?!?!). Really unfortunately, it was also the day of our big snorkel trip to see the penguins so I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to go. Luckily I rallied and we had an amazing day!

When we got back into port, we saw some penguins swimming around the dock. They are so fun to watch!

There were some massive marine iguanas hanging out near the dock too.

We then wandered to Concha de Perla near the dock to see if we’d get to swim with penguins and/or sea lions. Unfortunately neither were present although Chuck did get to swim near a marine iguana.

The next morning we took the 6am ferry from Isabela to Santa Cruz. We were sad to leave as we really didn’t get to spend enough time on Isabela. Next time!

Galapagos South America

Diving Kicker Rock, Galapagos

Chuck Ullan / January 16, 2016

Kicker Rock is one of the better-known dive sites in the Galapagos, and we were so eager to get to diving that we scheduled this dive for the first day of the trip. It’s one of the prime spots for hammerheads, and you occasionally get good sightings of big fish as well.

We checked in for equipment fitting the night before, then met the boat at 7:30 am for a ride out that was about 45 minutes. We had a brief skills test in a shallow area on the way, then it was go time!

As it turns out, we were a little disappointed with what we saw on the dives. We caught a couple glimpses of hammerheads, one good Galapagos shark, but that was it for the big stuff. Some days there are lots of sharks, and they even had a sunfish show up recently, but it just wasn’t our lucky day. That said, we got to swim into a giant “bait ball” with thousands of fish, a very unique experience.

This video has the best highlights, including reef shark, Galapagos shark, sea turtle, spotted eagle ray, and the bait ball.

Skirting the outside of the giant bait ball

After the diving we went to a little bay and had lunch on the boat, then got to explore on the beach for a bit. Tracked down an iguana and saw lots of cool wildlife, with a guide there to explain some of what we were seeing.

20160116_134256 — Tracking down an iguana.

The other notable part of our diving here was running into new friends from Australia, Laith and Katie, whom we ran into about 10 other times throughout the week. We envied their trip, as after the Galapagos, they were headed to Peru to hike the Inca trail to Machu Picchu!

We booked directly with Wreck Bay diving for $160 pp. The boat was reasonably nice and shady and we got a pretty solid meal after the dives. Definitely worth considering them if you go.

Galapagos South America

San Crístobal Island, Galapagos

Chuck Ullan / January 15, 2016

San Crístobal Island was the first stop of 3 islands on our Galapagos tour. Just looking out from our room near the harbor, you could see sea lions, crabs, pelicans, marine iguanas, and more.

The afternoon of arrival, we just laid low and checked in at the dive shop. Next day was diving at Kicker Rock, and the final day there was spent on an island tour.

2 full days is plenty for the island. Everything that you can see is easy to get to, so you wouldn’t really have much to do if you stayed longer.

The crabs are very cool. — The Sally Lightfoot Crabs are very cool.

Big ole marine iguana just hanging out. — Big ol’ marine iguana just hanging out.

On our last day there, we did our own island tour that took us to the Galapaguera de Cerro Colorado Tortoise reserve and breeding center, plus down to Puerto Chino beach.

Puerto Chino beach reminded us a little bit of Kua Bay in Hawaii. We were both homesick a little bit.

We struck out on finding blue-footed boobies here, so our taxi driver took us back to a spot near town where we found them, plus a cool view of the town.

We stayed at Hotel La Zayapa, which worked out very well. Fantastic location, nice views from the room and very clean. Nothing fancy about it, but a solid mid-range choice.