Hiking to Tortuga Bay

Even though we aren't in the Galapagos on a boat disembarking to the different islands to hike, we still managed to hike a lot on this Galapagos island of Santa Cruz. We walked to Tortuga Bay, considered by many to be the most beautiful beach in the Galapagos. Personally, I found some of the beaches much more beautiful as they had less people, more animals, and beautifully colored water. Even so, this beach was still gorgeous, though I'm not sure I'd walk 6 miles to go to the beach.

Pathway to the beach.

The long pathway is how I imagine the Great Wall of China looks like. It was of different elevations with twists and turns and a small wall on both sides of the path. When we got to the beach, we walked even further to get to the shady beach. It was a lot less crowded there and it was very low tide, making it easy to walk around in the water. Green algae against stormy skies created a dramatic contrast in landscape photos. We saw a few more marine iguanas along with finches and some shorebird we couldn't identify. We also saw two really small crabs fighting. They were about the size of a penny or smaller, with one claw larger than the other. It almost looked like they were fighting with swords due to the extended claw!

The furthest beach away from the crowds.

Marine iguana walking on the beach.

Shorebirds in the water.

A peak of the ocean.

The rest of the afternoon was free time, spent souvenir shopping. I got plenty of t-shirts! We had a group dinner at a pizza place, which was a nice way to end the trip. I can't believe we fly back to Guayaquil tomorrow. Time flies!

Craft market near the hotel.

Street sign for Charles Darwin.

That's all for now... Stay tuned for more Galapagos adventures. Also, be sure to hit the subscribe button to be notified of new posts, as there is sometimes unreliable internet! Follow my instagram @elissatitle for more photography posts.