- Start of the eight-day cruise through the Galapagos Archipelago with the Darwin Yacht
- Snorkeling stop at the beautiful Las Bachas Beach
- Discovered the first sea lions, a stingray and countless fish
- Rough overnight trip to the island of San Cristobal
Having deposited the large rucksacks in the hotel, we march to the dock. There we hope in vain for more tourists to arrive so that we can split the taxi costs. So there are two to the ferry terminal in Baltra. When you arrive at the airport, it says Wait for the rest of the tour participants to arrive. They all arrive on the plane from the mainland.
Shortly before noon it finally starts. We rely on them in the Zodiac Darwin yacht over and get our room allocated. The cozy, though narrow bunk with air conditioning, toilet. A delicious first meal is waiting for us. Then we are complete. A second Swiss couple, Canadian Chinese and a Norwegian giant are on board. So the boat is nowhere near fully booked!
We make our first landing at the wonderful Las Bachas Beach a. While walking on the beach we get a lot of interesting information about the local flora and fauna from guide Patrizio. We marvel at the numerous Red cliff crabs on the black lava rock, then over the sand dune, which sea turtles use to lay their eggs, to the lagoon behind. Flamingos cannot be seen today. Instead, frigate birds with their bright red throat pouches circle overhead and a blue-footed booby plunges into the water.
Then it means Put on fins, mask and snorkel and plunge into the waters. A few meters further out we see one Variety of colored fish. including doctor and parrot fish.
I swim a little further out where larger groups blue surgeon fish, similar to Dori from the animated film Nemo, can be seen and countless little fish. Next to me something suddenly takes a deep breath. What I first think of as another snorkeler turns out to be one Sea lions. Two more swim past me in a moment. I swim a little back towards the beach, where someone can big stingrays on the bottom has made out.
After this impressive first snorkeling adventure, we drive through the channel between the islands of Baltra and Santa Cruz. Here you fill up again and then eat in the somewhat calmer water.
After dinner you can start seven hour crossing to the island of San Cristobal. This proves it Sea being pretty rough. The Darwin is shaken up quite a bit, which Niki and the Canadian are not good at. The rest of us talk a little more on deck before we get into the bunk.
