Our last full day on the island of Santa Cruz in the Galapagos, we had a few options of things to do and finally, somewhat halfheartedly, decided on swimming in Las Grietas, an interesting geographical formation formed by (of course) volcanoes, filled by a mix of fresh and salt water. Wow, were we pleasantly surprised!
We had to take a new (to us) form of transport to get there, and as instructed, we hopped onto a water taxi and asked to get off at Las Grietas. Much to our surprise, after about 2 minutes and a quick hop across the small bay, we were there. Now the $.80 per person wasn’t as good of a deal as I first thought.
Undaunted, we hopped off the boat and followed the clearly marked signs towards Las Grietas.
We followed a path for a bit, passing some interesting salt pans, before we arrived at this strange spot where high lava walls encircled a narrow and clear water-filled crack.
I had read the water was cold, so C, A and I were wearing wet suits. I didn’t think the little guys would go in, so didn’t bother getting wet suits for them. I also figured that since they wouldn’t get in, I would be stuck on shore with them, while A and C swam and snorkeled.
However, the walk was hot and the water looked really inviting, so the little boys were intrigued. C basically forced them to get in, and, with them on his back, he swam to some rocks at the far end of the first pool to drop them off one by one.
Once the little boys were in the water, I got to hop in with the snorkel and do some swimming.
A and I decided to explore beyond the first pool, and had fun swimming along another, longer pool and spotting the fish and occasional eel.
While there are no doubt better places in the world to snorkel and spot more colorful fish, we had lots of fun in that unique spot.
After swimming for a few hours, we headed back to the boat dock, and easily picked up another water taxi for the (expected this time) short trip back to the main dock in town.
Once we got back to the dock, N and I talked briefly to a very interesting guy who made sculptures out of cigarette butts gathered from beaches. He had a very interesting life story, including being lost at sea for 77 days! The man told me he was featured on the Facebook page Nas Daily, which I had actually seen, so that was really cool. He actually got two videos about his life, it was so interesting! I can’t link directly to them, but if you go to Nas Daily, you can scroll down to days 582 and 583 to watch them.
That is all from our Galapagos trip. We all agree this was one of our favorite trips ever, and it won’t be one we soon forget!
