An easy morning taking the water taxi

We have an easy morning on the Galapagos today. After experiencing the cold water yesterday I have no interest in going under today. And we didn’t book a day trip to another island so we will just hang around Puerto Ayora. We go down to the harbor area and on the way there we obviously meet a sea lion relaxing on a bench at the water.

Sea lion sleeping on a bench in Puerto Ayora

At a little square close to the harbor is a band practicing. I guess there is a party tonight. There are a few young girls dancing while the band is playing – I guess that is the entertainment of the week around here.

Just before we reach the harbor we see two birds lying on the boardwalk. They look strangely interlocked and at first they are not moving – so we guess they might be dead. It turns out the birds are not dead – indeed they are very much alive and it looks like they have gotten themselves into a fight and we are just the spectators to their squabbles.

Birds fighting at the harbor of Puerto Ayora

We get to the harbor from where we can catch a small taxi boat to go across the water to an area called Las Grietas. It is pretty close to the city but there is no road out there so you have to take the short sail which doesn’t even cost a dollar so it isn’t breaking our budget.

Taxi to take us across the water to Las Grietas

When we get across the water we walk through the landscape and see some of the cacti growing in the area. It is some interesting vegetation to walk through you usually expects different vegetation here at the equator but on these islands there isn’t much rain so the desert like plant thrive in these conditions.

Cacti at Las Grietas
Cacti in the rocks near Las Grietas

As we walk along there are some birds at the shore of the low water there is in this area so we have a look at them as we walk along the little path.

Lizard sitting on a rock in the morning sun
Duck having a nap at Las Grietas
Bird walking outside Las Grietas
A heron in the water at Las Grietas

Finally we reach our destination – a small canyon where the locals come to jump into the water and have a swim at the secluded area.

After a while we head back and spot a few more birds and we decide to stay at a little hotel restaurant down at the water to have lunch before we head to the other side. As we are eating a few birds show up to try to get some of scraps.