Enjoy Galapagos at bargain prices when you base yourself in Puerto Ayora Santa Cruz island.

When you travel to Galapagos islands: your fixed price plain ticket has been paid for, your $100 for the park entrance fee and the island tax has been paid for, no matter how long you stay.

The bargains are joining "last minute" organized cruises from Puerto Ayora. Most boat tours to Galapagos islands will sell last minute tickets at bargain basement prices.

It was my favorite laid back pass time on Galapagos: just strolling around the harbor, waiting for a boat with a last minute berth and hopping along for a dirt cheap price. Just be prepared that there can be a complete week between these utterly cheap trips to Galapagos islands, but if you love to relax on your holiday, this is a great way to save money.

Strolling around in Puerto Ayora Ecuador

Puerta Ayora is your little "Spanish puerta" or door to both Ecuador and Galapagos:

• no need to spend time in Quito to enjoy Ecuador before boarding on a Galapagos cruise. Just head straight to the Galapagos islands and get acquainted with the people of Ecuador in Puerto Ayora.
   
• strolling around the harbor you will see much of sea creatures already, like this sea lion having an appetite for human legs.

Puerto Ayora Santa Cruz is small and easily navigable, so its straightforward to find your own way around town: the main drag, Charles Darwin, runs east-west along the bay

• at the west end of town you will find the Academy Bay port, the main grocery store, hardware store and the post office
   
• at the east end of town is the famous Charles Darwin Research Station
   
• in between are most of Puerto Ayora’s hotels, bars, shops and the only bank, El Banco del Pacifico.

The hotels in Puerto Ayora are plentiful: from cheap hotel rooms for backpackers for about $6 only in the low season to luxury hotels and oceanfront bed and breakfasts for around $ 75 single / $ 115 double per night.

Overall staying as long as you can in Puerto Ayora Santa Cruz will be worth every penny when you are looking for an affordable stay in what most likely will be your one in a life time travel to Galapagos islands.

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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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