Even more paradise

“Out of bed, choppy chop!” Without even taking some time for breakfast, we jumped into our swim suits and left the room. Tortuga Bay was our destination.

Sign in at the National Park Office, walk along some stoned pathway, reach the beach – and be amazed! The sun had just risen, as we found ourselves being the only tourists at a long, long stretch of a white, sandy beach!

Being the only tourists includes that some of the native animals had already woken up.

And as locals usually know the way best, we decided to follow a marine iguana to see where it was heading to.

Guess where it went? Yeah, exactly – to the next stretch of beach, even whiter, the water even more pristine, surrounded by mangrove trees, so that the lush green could contrast the beautifully blue sky!

This time we were too late: There was already another lady in the water, having her early morning swimming exercise. (Mum, this could have been you… *g*) But well, we ignored her professionally and decided to draw our attention to those lovely animals around.

May I introduce: Mr. Pelican:

Mr. Marine Iguana:

Mrs. Kidd:

Mr. Kaiser:

And Mr. Crab indahouse:

These were our friends we spent the morning with. And, of course, after so much animal observation and action one has to relax a little.

When a team of old, grumpy ladies walked in, and complained loudly with their tour guide about yesterday’s food, the tough walk to here and many, many other things, we decided to leave.

We went back to Puerto Ayora, and became witnesses of just a normal, regular, everyday procedure: The preparation and selling of stocks at the local fish market. Featuring: A lot of Pelicans and our first two sea lions!

Nothing special, you know? Just business as usual.

And because this island was so totally un-special, we decided to take the afternoon boat (30$) to Isla Isabela – the biggest one of all the islands. And the most beautiful one, as we would find out after a two hour afternoon nap.

The sun was already down low…

…when we arrived, found a place to stay at Sula Sula hotel (15$ per person) and set out to fulfill Sarina’s childhood dream: See Flamingos in the wild! Unfortunately, we failed. So this picture could not be taken by us, but had to be downloaded from the internet. :(

Well, at least I could pretend to be a Flamingo at what they call Flamingo Lake.

Anyway, we didn’t put our heads down into this flour-like sand, but preferred to stroll along the beach a little to marvel at those super relaxed, inviting cafes right at the beach front. And to watch little local kids playing in the sand. Do they know they’re growing up in paradise? Or what would they say should they ever set a foot e.g. on German ground?

Another tough thing we had to do: Admire the sunset amongst the palm trees.

And admire it some more.

And go swimming one last time. For today.

Back home we went, switched on the TV, and found “Babe”. That cute little piggy I had seen last time like 10 years ago or so. But that time it was in German. Now it was in Spanish. *g*

We took advantage of one of those ad breaks to find the probably cheapest – and still incredibly delicious – restaurants on the island: 2,5$ for dinner. Plus: They had a television! So we could keep watching “Babe”.  And organize bikes for the next day with the restaurant’s owner.

After we had finished dinner, the restaurant seemed about to close. So we refused the ultra-polite invitation of the owner to stay a little longer to watch “Babe” until the end, went home instead and saw the last few minutes lying in our beds – ready to fall asleep right after it had finished.