Galapagos Travel - Ecuador Travel
EL JUNCO LAGOON
A road leads from the capital to the village of
El Progreso, about 8km to the east and at the
base of the 896m-high Cerro San Joaquín,
the highest point on San Cristóbal (buses
go here several times a day from Puerto
Baquerizo Moreno or you can hire a taxi
to take you for about $20 round trip). Rent
a [...]
Near Santa Rosa, is El Chato Tortoise Reserve,
where you can observe giant tortoises
in the wild. The reserve is also a good place to
look for short-eared owls, Darwin’s finches,
yellow warblers, Galápagos rails and paintbilled
crakes (these last two are difficult to
see in the long grass).
A trail from Santa Rosa leads through
private property to parkland about 3km
away. The [...]
Tags: Tortoise Reserve
Several sites of interest in the highlands of
Santa Cruz can be reached from the transisland
road and are part of the itineraries
of many cruises. Access to some sites is
through colonized areas, so respect private
property. From the village of Bellavista,
7km north of Puerto Ayora by road, one
can turn either west on the main road continuing
to Isla Baltra [...]
Tags: Lava Tubes
A 3km paved trail southwest from Puerto
Ayora takes you to Turtle Bay, a beautiful
white-sand beach good for swimming,
surfing or just sunbathing. A spit of land
provides protection for swimmers (there
are strong currents on the exposed side of
the spit) and you can see sharks, marine
iguanas, pelicans and the occasional flamingo.
There’s no drinking water or other
facilities. It’s about [...]
Tags: Trutle Bay
About a 20-minute walk by road northeast of
Puerto Ayora, the Charles Darwin Research Station
(www.galapagos.org; h7:30am-5pm) can also
be reached by dry landing from Academy
Bay. It contains a national-park information
center; an informative museum in the Van
Straelen Exhibition Center (where a video
in English or Spanish is presented several
times a day); a baby-tortoise house with incubators,
where you can see [...]
Tags: Charles Darwing
The island of Santa Cruz has the largest
and most developed town in the Galápagos;
almost every visitor to the islands spends at
least some time here even if it’s simply commuting
from the airport on nearby Isla Baltra
to a cruise ship in the harbor of Puerto
Ayora. However to anyone who stays for
longer, the island of Santa Cruz is [...]