The 2nd best city on Galapagos: Puerto Baquerizo Moreno

Sarina had to leave around 8:30am, so we could have slept in – but our biological timer woke us up as early as always. We spent our last morning together strolling around, eating cake and ice-cream and recapping the last few days, before Felipe finally organized her a cab to the airport. CU, Sarina!

But, as I wrote before leaving the mainland, travelling alone is totally uncool. And it only took me another piece of cake and 45 minutes at Felipe’s reception (in which he told me a love story of him and a German lady called Laura, which had terminated two years ago), until Julez, his Mum and a Dutch lady called Nikki were standing at our hotels doorstep to say hi. We all (except for Felipe, who had to guard the reception) went out on the pier for a beer and to discuss past experiences and future plans. Somehow it’s always good to meet Julez, we never get bored together… :)

I had to leave the party after noon, as my boat to San Cristobal (25 $) left at 2pm. And there was still so much to see on the islands!

Puerto Baquerizo Moreno on San Cristobal is the capital of the Galapagos Islands. Even though Puerto Ayora is bigger and more touristy, PBM is trying to catch up and is currently investing a decent amount of money into infrastructure and advertising.

In my opinion it shouldn’t. I found it to be more laid-back than Puerto Ayora, which made it instantly more sympathetic. Prices, especially for diving, are a little lower (160 $ on Santa Cruz compared to 120 $ on San Cristobal for a day trip, two dives), less cars and less tourists are around. But way more sea lions! No kidding – sea lions are part of the everyday normal life on San Cristobal. They are not just waiting (sometimes right next to humans) at the bus stations…

…but have also conquered the whole sand beach.

And, believe it or not, I even saw a sea lion walking into a restaurant at the beach front! It went in, as if it’d like to order something, sat down underneath a table and waited until a waiter came to friendly show it out! How cool is that? (Btw.: The waiter acted experienced, so I’m pretty sure this happens every now and then.)

The rest of the day I got used to the new city, watched the sunset from the soccer stadium grandstand, organized a mountain bike for the next day (15$/day) to be able to explore the island and a diving trip to Kicker’s Rock/Leon Dormido (110$ incl. photos; Wreckbay Diving) for Thursday. And then I went to bed in my 12 $ room in that hostel right at the beach front.