Today was our last in the Galápagos. Some members of our group will continue on for another four nights, but most of us will be heading home or on to other South American destinations.
We ended our adventure in San Cristóbal. This is the farthest east of the islands. To help anybody without an atlas handy, here is a map. You may notice Spanish and English names as the British made a half-hearted attempt to claim the islands.
We spent most of our trip around Santa Cruz in the center of the map. Baltra Island, where we arrived, is just north of Santa Cruz. North Seymour Island is just north of Baltra. The Plazas islands are just off the east coast of Santa Cruz, and Santa Fe Island is not that far southeast of Santa Cruz. San Cristóbal, however, is a fair distance away and we spent all night plowing through the pretty rough seas to make it there by dawn. Many members of our little company became somewhat ill. John Pratt, alas, was among those who looked a little pale the next morning.
Puerto Baquerizo Moreno on San Cristobal is the capital of the Galápagos Province even though it is only a fraction as large as Puerto Ayora and considerably less affluent. It reminded me of a number of small Caribbean towns I have been to over the years: buildings only half-constructed, the same bright, but peeling paint, and a kind of musty smell everywhere. I did not dislike the town, but I would not make any special attempt to visit here.
Our first stop was at an interpretive center. This had a number of large pictures explaining in both Spanish and English some of the geography and history of the islands. It was interesting enough. We were then invited to take a stroll through some brush to the top of a hill. The Palo Santo trees were in full leaf here.
The view was nice, but hardly exceptional.
On our way down, we came across this statue of Charles Darwin as interpreted by some devotee of Socialist Realism.
John shared his hat to the tortoise. It looked good on him. I think John could have left it as a gift...
Returning to town, we had a couple hours to kill before we went to the airport. There is about five minutes of sightseeing and ten minutes of shopping in Puerto Baquerizo Moreno. So we amused ourselves by watching a sea lion who had taken over the bench in the middle of town. We figured out later that she had a pup underneath the boardwalk.
We were not ravenously hungry, but we ate lunch at a small place there called Calypso. It was a relatively good meal for this kind of town. After we finished lunch and were waiting for our bus, we noticed some splashing about in the water and figured out that it was a sea lion teacher her pup how to swim.
The youngster was frankly not enjoying this lesson and protested mightily every time his head was shoved under the water.
When mother gave a short break, the relief was obvious.
The flight from San Cristóbal to Quito was largely uneventful. When we arrived, Leo was waiting for us. It was starting to get dark, and he drove us back to La Casona de Ronda, the hotel where we had stayed our first night. That was not easy: perhaps because of Christmas shopping crowds, the police had closed many, many streets in the Old Town.
After we checked into our hotel, John wanted to go out for some dinner. The front desk recommended a place called “Los Geranios” or “The Geraniums” three doors down the street. It was easy to spot from the pots of geraniums (yes, you gardening pedants they are really pelargoniums) on the balcony of the second floor dining room.
The food was pretty good. It featured both Ecuadorian and Mediterranean items. We went for the native stuff. John had some ceviche. It Ecuador this is made with shrimp and lupine seeds. The latter give a pleasant crunch to the dish. He also ordered the potato soup, and it came with a flourish!
On our way out he noticed a lovely display or fruit and candles. We could not figure out if this was traditional for the season or if somebody just liked to decorate tastefully.
Tomorrow Leo gives us another tour and we will head to Sao Paolo on Christmas Eve. This will be the first Christmas Eve I will spend in the air. Maybe we will see Santa!
