Day 313: San Cristóbal Highlands
Today we decided to explore the land of San Cristóbal Island. We hired a taxi driver (our hostess’ father) for the morning for USD $50 to drive us up through the highlands to the beach at Puerto Chino on the other side of the island – a common tour for visitors. Along the way, there were several sight-seeing stops:
1. El Ceibo Treehouse: (admission USD $1.50 pp) a cute little tourist trap in the small village of El Progreso, about a 10min drive outside Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, where a local family built a little house atop a HUGE Ceibo tree. Originally used as a vacation home for the family, and then a playhouse for the kids, the family eventually added a restaurant and turned it into a mini theme park for tourists. It’s a bit corny, but climbing around and inside of it sure made us feel like kids again!
El Ceibo Treehouse – an 40M tall Ceibo tree that has a treehouse hostel in its branches, a rappel wall along its trunk, and a secret hideaway within its roots
Igor descends into the natural hollow in the middle of the tree to discover a whimsical room underneath
Lindsay pops her head out from the inside of the tree
Recycled bottles decorate the restaurant area of the El Ceibo Treehouse
As if this place isn’t cool enough – the owner has an affectionate brown & blue-eyed husky and a flock of ducks
2. El Junco Lagoon: actually a crater lake, it is the only source of fresh water in the entire archipelago. All the other islands must rely on desalinization, raincatchers or shipments from the mainland of Ecuador. As it is the only source of freshwater for animals as well, it’s supposed to be a good place for bird watching, although we didn’t see much while we were there. We did get a view of the island’s first wind farm on a neighboring hill. It currently supplies 30% of the island’s electricity needs, reducing their usage of diesel for generators by 2.3 million gallons and helping to reduce the risk of oil spills. (An accident in 2001 dumped over 150,000 gallons of diesel off the coast, threatening the unique wildlife that is so precious to their lucrative tourist industry – not to mention the heritage of the world!)
El Junco Lagoon – a freshwater lake inside an extinct volcano
Wading through dense vegetation on our walk around the lagoon, where we get a view of the islands wind turbines
3. The Giant Tortoise Breeding Center: (Free Admission) In an effort to help rebuild the San Cristóbal Giant Tortoise population (which declined sharply when introduced goats went feral and over-grazed on the island’s sparse vegetation), this center relocated a few of the remaining wild tortoises from the northern part of the island into a protected park where they can do it, lay eggs and mature in peace and safety. There are several such breeding centers throughout the Galápagos Islands, as each island has a unique sub-specie of tortoise.
The David Rodriguez Giant Tortoise Breeding Center
Baby tortoises have numbers painted on their shells. Once they are 5 years old they are released into the fenced-in forest where they live in the semi-wild
Don’t these guys just look prehistoric?
Awkward, wrinkly, and adorable Giant Tortoises
4. Puerto Chino Beach: Our final destination was a beautiful sandy beach, with gentle surf where we could swim with turtles and sea lions. Well, Lindsay got to anyways! After we picked one of the few shady spots on the edge of the sand, Igor let Lindsay take the first swim while he watched our stuff and she got to play with the animals before the crowds of people arrived. Unfortunately, the visibility under the water was not that great (all the nutrients in the water are great for attracting wildlife, but not so good for photographing it) so none of the pictures came out. When Igor took a dip the water was empty, so either all the splashing kiddies scared them away or Lindsay was lying about seeing them in the first place.
End of the road at Puerto Chino – a short walk through the brush takes us to the beach
We have the beach practically to ourselves for about 30min before the crowds of tourists come rolling in
Igor climbs the nearby rocks and gets his first glimpse of the Blue-Footed Booby!
We returned to Puerto Baquerizo Moreno in the early afternoon and decided to take a mid-day siesta and chill in our room (hey – if all the locals are shutting down businesses from noon – 3PM every day, they must have a reason!). Once the afternoon heat broke, we ventured back out to the pier to pay our nightly visit to the barking sea lions and other local wildlife.
Igor gets acquainted with a Brown Pelican during our sunset stroll along the pier in Puerto Baquerizo Moreno
Can you stay overnight at the El Ceibo Treehouse? Could you swing like Tarzan?
The pictures Igor posted on FB were awesome of those giant tortoises and the Blue-Footed Booby.
You can stay overnight at the Ceibo Treehouse, but there’s no screens to keep out bugs! We’ll let the hippies stay there while we sleep in air-conditioned comfort, thanks!