For those like us that get seasick easily on long cruises, Santa Cruz Galapagos is a welcome island to stretch your legs, visit villages with real people and keep off your cruise ship for a few days.

This Santa Cruz map shows you the second biggest of the Galapagos Islands (only Isla Isabela is bigger) with an area of 986 km². Isla Santa Cruz is actually a large dormant volcano with a maximum altitude of 864 meters.

We reached its harbor Puerto Ayora which has the largest human population on the Galapagos islands. The best news however is that this island has many hotels, so you can say goodbye to your cruise ship cabine and enjoy solid ground under your feet for as log as you stay.

Lots of things to see and to do on Isla Santa Cruz Galapagos, we especially enjoyed our bike-rides. Of course there is the Charles Darwin Research Station with Lonesome George – the very last tortoise of his particular species from Pinta Island – and many other giant tortoise preserves.

On a funny note: although Santa Cruz houses the Charles Darwin Research Station, Charles Darwin himself never set foot on this island!

But best of all: Santa Cruz Galapagos is a great place to be when you are not used in sailing for days on the sea like me I will post what we did exactly in Santa Cruz in my next post.

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In order to enjoy South Plaza island the fullest, you need to arrive before the tourists arrive. That means early in the morning greeted by the sea lion colony on the coast and with a lovely sunrise.

The night however from Genovesa Island Galapagos to South Plaza in our little Galapagos cruise was tough: we needed to take 2 and a half tablet of Primatour in order not to get too seasick. But all that was well worth the early arrival: a beautiful sunrise, sea lions, land iguanas and even another blue footed booby.

South Plaza island is famous for it’s typical vegetation: pear cactus trees make the "opuntia cactus forests" and "sesuvium" grows at ground level. It’s red from  June till January and green during the rainy season. Sesuvium is the main nourishment for the large colony of "grazing" land iguanas on South Plaza Island.

A little bit of snorkeling with the awesome sea lions and off we went towards close by Isla Santa Cruz.

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For underwater adventurers, Galapagos Island diving offers thriving reefs, marine life and the best underwater visibility on Earth! Diving for divers of all skill levels and extreme fun diving with the sea lions.

Visibility when diving in Galapagos can go to 30 meter or about 100 feet! This is partially due to the fact that around 70,000 square kilometers of Galapagos islands: the marine areas are protected far enough out of the way to make the destruction of this environment less likely.

Galapagos tours for diving cater for everybody, but due to strong currents, many dive areas are much more appropriate for intermediate and advanced divers. The most impressive dive experiences I had were at about 20 to 30 m deep.

I found the water to be warmer than on the Great Barrier Reef, but do ask the experienced divers on these Galapagos tours for their opinion. It could get as cold as 13 degrees Celsius when you descend to 20 to 30 m. Snorkeling at the surface is fun in water between 18 to 30 degrees Celsius throughout the year.

Since the Galapagos Islands are protected for hunting, expect an enormous variety of marine life: I managed to see lost of reef fish, some sharks, sea lions and even a whale shark!

All in all you should at least snorkel in the Galapagos islands to have an idea of the marine life underneath your cruise ship. For more experienced divers, Galapagos Island diving is a must do for a few days.

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When I look at the map now, I guess I should have known that reaching Genovesa Island Galapagos from Bartolome Island would be difficult.

I agree:

• it’s easy to get on your boat and let them sail through your Galapagos island holiday.
   
• It’s also sounds easy that lots of the distance covered during our Galapagos island cruises would be done at night…

It’s just not at all easy to sleep in a rocky boat when the doors of your cabin cabinets keep on slamming…

So I strongly advice when you are looking for Galapagos cruises to ask for short island hopping trips.

I chose to visit Genovesa Island Galapagos because it is known as "Bird’s Island" and of course I am a number 1 bird lover.

We climbed all the way up the Prince Philips Steps and really that’s birds paradise! I will post pictures of the birds in my next post.

Today I just wanted to show a close up from the smallest marine iguanas living on Genovesa Island Galapagos.

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If you love birds, then make sure to include Genovesa in your Galapagos island cruise.

Why would you put yourself through a night sailing in roughs and getting sea sick like me?

Because from all the islands in your Galapagos cruise, Genovesa is the ideal place to watching countless beautiful birds you wont see anywhere else.

We were lucky our guide spotted a short eared Galapagos owl, which as you can see on the picture blends in perfectly with the Galapagos environment.

Walking from Prince Philip’s Steps towards the black cliffs, it’s cute to see pairs of birds nesting, utterly protected inside the cliffs.

This red-footed booby is the smallest booby in Galapagos and the only one that nests in trees.

Other birds you will surely see without needing binoculars are pigeons, herons, sea-gulls and the above red footed boobies, while frigatebirds fly endlessly searching for food.

If you do love birds and you don’t mind to get seasick (or make sure to bring anti-seasick pills, which I unfortunately forgot…), then make sure to include Genovesa in your Galapagos islands cruise.

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Even more romantic: sometimes you can have this beach entirely for yourself!

Now some people do have funny ideas to tempt Darwin’s survival of the fittest theories…

Survival of the fittest? …

Please do not leave anything behind, where-ever you go (on the entire planet) than your footsteps!

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Baltra Island and San Cristóbal Island are the only 2 airports in Galapagos you can land on to start Galapagos tours.

When you travel to the Galapagos islands, normally you will fly from any destination of the world to Quito, Ecuador. Then you take an airplane to one of the 2 Galapagos islands mentioned above to finally embark on one of the many Galapagos island cruises.

Like other Islands in Galapagos, Baltra island is very dry. Baltra’s vegetation consists mainly of bushes and cactus.  

Baltra island is not within the boundaries of the Galapagos National Park and the many iguanas you will see are not even native to Baltra island: the native Baltra iguana got extinct before the second world war.

So when somebody on those Galapagos island tours stress that Galapagos is The untouched paradise on earth, be reminded on Baltra island: where people land, wildlife is in danger…

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What I will never forget and what sets the stage for your whole Galapagos vacation was the sea lion coming to greet us!

Sea lion’s welcome on Galapagos!

2 things are special on Galapagos:

1. you are only allowed with very tiny groups on each and every island at one time, so it’s all but mass-tourism
2. the animals just come to you in stead of you needing to wait hours in order to see a glimpse in the distance!

It’s just unforgettable!!!

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Although the boat is small, it beats the massive luxury cruises that brings you to yet another Galapagos tourist attraction.

How to eat a cactus

Every day we saw different Islands: one looks like the moon, the next looks like a volcano, the next is filled with flamingo’s, the next has real trees and the next only has one cactus next to the other…

Galapagos wildlife: iguana eating a cactus

And of course this variety leads to an equal immense variety of Galapagos wildlife animals: try to avoid the spikes when eating a cactus… It’s just amazing and as always: you are sitting next to the animal

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Snorkel with Galapagos Penguins

If you love both penguins and snorkeling, then Galapagos is the ideal place to come up and close with the Galapagos penguins. Don’t be surprised if the Galapagos penguin starts "chasing" you when snorkeling in stead you chasing him!

What makes a Galapagos Penguin standing out?

As with all penguins, they don’t fly in the air, but they use the flying movement under water, to swim around in the warm waters of Galapagos looking for fish.

But they stand out by standing, or more precisely by walking. On land, Galapagos penguins walk more upright than other birds. This is  because the legs of the Galapagos Penguin are placed more backwards. Penguins also move by hopping around with both feet, next time you visit Galapagos, have a look at the Galapagos penguins hopping outside the waves onto a rock. Quite amazing skills!

What is most unusual but understandable is the breeding of the Galapagos penguin. Unlike the penguins in colder areas that need to follow the seasons, Galapagos penguins can breed to up to 3 times a year. 2 eggs are laid and both parent Galapagos penguins share in the incubation. Yet only one of the young penguins will usually make it into an adult Galapagos penguin.

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