Bahía Tortuga

I had to be at the dive shop sometime after 3 to get fitted for my gear for the next day´s diving. What to do til then? I checked my map of the town and saw that there was a Baia Tortuga (Turtle Bay) not too far from where I was staying. It was a nice 2.5k walk so why not. I set off with just my hat, my purse and a 500ml bottle of water...it was 9:30 and the sun was already beating down.


The path to the bay is paved with volcanic pavers and you are not allowed to stray from the path - not that you would want to...the surrounds are not very hospitable. It is not yet the wet season so the vegetation is looking quite dry and well, dead.  There are some impressive cacti here though, they grow like a normal tree; they have a trunk and their flat, round, spiky "leaves" grow from the top...its quite peculiar and only found in the Galapagos.  Darwin´s finches are all over the place, and I probably could have taken one in my hand. They were that close to me, and completely unafraid.








As I crested a hill I could see the ocean was near and when I finally reached the beach proper all I could see was the beautiful turquoise water and white sand. There was also some outcroppings of black volcanic rocks - I walked towards those...there are always interesting things on  rocks. 

I wasn´t wrong. There were brilliant red crabs all over the place. They scuttled over the volcanic past of the islands to avoid the surf. They were also sharing the rocks with some dark land iguanas who were lazing about catching some rays. They didn´t seem to mind that they were the rock stars du jour - let the plebs take their pictures of us; we know we´re hot!

I kept walking along the beach with a great big grin on my face. After all I was wandering a beautiful beach on one of the world´s most unique places! And I had seen iguanas...and red crabs! How cool is that??!
Well, about 20m further I caught sight of my first water iguana...GADZOOKS! What a monster! They´re massive compared to their land brothers. The land iguana is about the size of my forearm, the water iguana is the size of my entire arm.



Water iguanas

The sun continued to beat down - I had told myself that just because I was feeling much better, it was best that I not go swimming - the sun continued to beat down...the water was warm on my feet...the crystal clear waters beckoned...You can understand why I caved in. The grin just got bigger and bigger as I played in the warm waves.

After playing for a little while I continued walking down the beach towards another bunch of rocks near some mangrove trees. There was a heron there - I waded in up to my knees and waited for him to finish preening before I took my picture.  A man near me, who I thought was also taking pictures of the heron said, "Oh, he`s coming right for you!" I looked down and there was a big water iguana  swimming straight towards me. They are very elegant swimmers - he swam within one metre of me.

I continued past the mangrove trees, and there was the actual bay of turtles. There was a guy there renting kayaks so I took one out for a paddle. It was so quiet and peaceful on the water. Every once in a while a small head would bob out of the water and inhale - its called turtle bay for a reason. I managed to follow one for a few for short periods - they are really magnificent creatures - flying through the water.





I had spent the better part of the day out in the sun and I was begining to burn - I ran out of sunscreen earlier in the day. The walk back, with the sun at my back...searing the already burned backs of my knees was not pleasant...neither was dragging the wetsuit over them when I finally got to the dive centre!