Exploring San Cristobal

While having ice cream the day before at La Zappa, we overheard an American couple sitting nearby trying to put together a trip to the Highlands of San Cristobal. Not knowing any of the local cruisers, we decided to be bold and asked if they had any more room on the tour, which started a nice friendship with the crew of Full Circle from Austin, TX. David and Cindy had built the beautiful custom catamaran in Astoria, OR which was unique in the fact it had electric motors rather than a diesel engine. We also met their long time friend, Larry, who used to crew for David when he raced J boats. Larry was a former programmer for the IRS and had that wry sense of humor I enjoy.

We met the next day at the water taxi and all piled into a pick-up truck (with David and I in the truck bed) and headed up to the top of San Cristobal. We were very fortunate to have Jorge as our guide, he apparently is the only English-speaking guide on the island who is also trained as a naturalist.

David off to explore the tree house.

All the comforts of home in the tree tops.

Our first stop was called, appropriately enough, the Tree House. Still don’t know the full story but a local guy built a very unique tree house that was part art and part construction (reminding me of my friend Tom Teitge’s houses). He rents it out as lodging to tourists and has tours when it’s empty.  The bar on the ground level was made up of over 20,000 former green Pilsner beer bottles. David, an engineer by profession, marveled at the construction and ingenuity of the design of the tree house. It even featured a fire house pole for quick descents, and the base of the tree was hollowed out for a TV room and mini bar.

Descending into the roots of the tree. Perfect location for a root cellar. 

Over 20,000 beer bottles went into constructing the bar.

From there we continued up the hill to El Junco Lagoon, a volcanic basin lake and the only source of fresh water on all the Galapagos Islands. Our guide, Jorge, was a trained naturalist and took us on a two-mile hike around the rim of the volcano/lake. This area is home to hundreds of frigate birds, the males with a bright red pouch on their necks and the females with a white underbelly. Frigate birds are the only seabird without oil glands, which means they need a source of fresh water to clean their feathers and to drink. They are also superb flyers with long sculpted wings that they twist into various configurations as they swoop down to the lake to drink. We could have watched them fly for hours.

The volcanic highlands of Isla Isabella.

Soaring frigate birds.

Hike around the rim of the crater lake.

We also saw a nesting area for gulls located in a fern-type grotto. The park rangers have to put rat traps (not an indigenous animal but introduced from sailing ships) as the rats feed on the bird eggs. The view from the top of the rim was incredible, looking out over hundreds of miles of blue Pacific Ocean.

Our guide, Jorge, explaining the procedures at the tortoise breeding center.

Lunch is served, don't everyone one rush in.

Next we went to the Cerro Colorado Galapagos (Tortoise) Breeding Station where a large amount of land as been preserved by the parks authority for the conservation and breeding of land tortoises.  Our timing was perfect as the ranger was just bringing an armful of otoy (banana leaves) that are fed to the tortoises twice a day. To say they all rushed over when the ranger appeared with lunch would be overkill; they very slowly raised their prehistoric heads and slowly lumbered over to the feeding area. There were six tortoises in the immediate area, including a baby, and in the distance we saw three others slowly ambling their way to lunch. It is breeding season and the smaller females are very wary about being around the much larger males. When they eat, since they really can’t use their hands, they grab the banana leaf and slowly masticate it using just their mouth. This is all a very slow process, much like a lunch in a fine French restaurant, but without the wine.

Scientists estimate there used to be more than 200,000+ tortoises on the island, but unfortunately they were too convenient a food source for visiting pirates and whalers who would take them aboard their ships so they would have fresh food during their voyages. Stuffed into the hold, they could live up to 8 months on a passage.

These tortoises live in a protected cage until the reach the age of 3 years old.

This acclimatizing area hold tortoises up to the age of 5, when they are then released into the wild.

 A typical tortoise will lay up to 10 eggs (much different from the sea turtles who lay up to 100 eggs) in a nest dug out of the hard ground. At the breeding center the rangers collect the eggs and put them in special incubators where they stay for 90 to 120 days. Then they are transferred to holding pens where they live until age 3, after which they are put in special acclimatization areas that replicate the environment of the island. At age five they are transferred into the wild, but this long process only produces about 20 tortoises twice a year.

Dining area at the Otoy Restaurant

Delicious fruit crepes for dessert

Our next stop was a real treat. Jorge knew of a new restaurant named Otoy that was about to open and was having a group of potential investors over for the day. We were fortunate to be included in the group and were served an excellent lunch in a very posh setting. They had hammocks strung between the trees and we were tempted to just spend the afternoon just chilling. (By the way, we learned the term posh comes from the British aristocracy who when sailing from England demanded Port Outbound and Starboard Home for the best views).

Puerto Chino Beach.

Our final stop of the day was the Puerto Chino beach area, a pristine white sand beach with tumbling surf on the shores. Unfortunately we were all too tired to take advantage of the swimming opportunity and just stayed under the shade of the trees and talked.

Once back in town we stopped again at La Zappa for a shot of ice cream and some WiFi, then back to the boat for sundowners and to chase the sea lions off our back step.