Travel Pro Adventure #14: Hiking the South Western Coast of San Cristobal Island, Galapagos! Part One, Rainy Morning Start on Rout to Playa Punta Carola! (30 photos)

Hey there my Steemit friends! In a recent post titled How to Do the Galapagos on a Budget I talk about all different things about exactly that. One of the topics I went into detail about was self tours. On the Galapagos Islands if you want to part with your money there will always be someone around to help you with exactly that! Especially tour agencies, but the reality of the matter is they are really not needed unless you are going scuba diving or visiting some nearby uninhabited islands.

The day before I hiked up this hill called "La Tejeretas". I saw a sign showing a hiking trail that was several kilometers long taking you up the south western side of the coast. Sounded like an excellent self tour. A couple days earlier on my Travel Pro Adventure on the Southern Coast I found myself in the mid-day sun. Boy was it strong. I ended up with a slight sunburn.

So the night before I set my alarm to 5:30 am and went to bed early. Planning on avoiding this strong afternoon sun I started my day as if I had an early morning flight to catch; something that is definitely not too foreign to this "Travel Pro". I was up an hour before the sunrise. I made myself a little breakfast of mixed fruit, nuts, and chocolate. I ate half of it and brought the other half with me for the hike.

The sun was just coming up as I left the hotel at about 6:20 in the morning. I was a bit concerned. While I was having my breakfast I began to hear the pitter-patter of rain starting to fall outside my hotel window. I grabbed my umbrella, looked out the hotel front door, and just stood there for a good minute just watching the rain fall. I took a deep breath, opened my umbrella, and said to myself "It's time for a Travel Pro Adventure!" and I headed out! Now come along and let's explore the Galapagos together!

I thought this would be a nice cover photos for the post. This cruise ship actually turned out to be a point of reference during the entire trek; and it's seems to show up several times from many different vantage points throughout this adventure.

As mentioned in the intro, this is how the adventure starts! In the rain with the umbrella open walking down the street away from our hotel.

We pass a school. It looks nicely kept. I've seen so many schools laid out like this all over the second and third world; with the basketball court front and center and the classrooms and buildings built around it.

Heading away from town and toward Playa Punta Carola, the paved road quickly turns into a dirt road.

The dirt road is bordered by this stone wall. There is an opening. We take the trail.

The trail ends after a short five minute walk and this fantastic view of Playa Punta Carola is suddenly laid out before us. This is the biggest and one of the most popular beaches on the Island of San Cristobal. At this hour of the day we had the entire beach to ourselves, and some sea lions of course!

The little ones are so cute. Like little aquatic puppy dogs!

Do you see the sea lion in the photo? They can be quite camouflaged while on these black rocks.

These finches were found all over the island. I noticed you had to be quick if you wanted to photograph them. They never seemed to stay in the same spot for more than five seconds.

Wildlife is the name of the game when you come to the Galapagos. Every single sandy beach area on the island was home to at least some sea lions and a mix of birds.

As we head to the far western side of the beach, basically the corner of the island, the cruise ship comes into view.

This finch is bright yellow! Seems like they come in yellow and black here in the Galapagos. They are nothing like the big famous Blue-Footed Booby we saw the other day.

This rocky outcrop was home to many Galapagos Iguanas. Can you see any in this photo?

How about now?

Those are some pretty big birds! I had to zoom in on my camera for this shot.

The passengers of this cruise ship are probably still sleeping. It's not even 7:00 AM yet.

Hey a trail! I'm hoping this leads up the hill to La Tejeretas where the start of the main hiking trail is that I saw yesterday.

Nope it just went behind the same beach for a short ways and led us to this seen straight out of a National Geographic documentary!

I love how caring and affectionate these sea lions are. Not only that, they are full of personality and are fun to watch.

These are the famous Galapagos frigate birds. That red part fills up with air like a balloon! It's like their mating call or something. I'm really not sure.

Ahh this must be the trail we are looking for. To no surprise there is a big iguana right in our path. I really have never been anywhere on the planet where the wildlife is so in your face. You literally can't avoid it if you tried. I suppose this is one of the main attractions to why people come here.

In part two I start practicing talking on camera again. You can listen to me fumble around trying to come up with an opening and closing statement. So there are a couple videos I'll be sharing in the next post.

This path twists and turns and gives us a great unexpected stop over on the way to the start of the nature trail on the hill called La Tejeretas.

Thank you so much for joining me on this Part One of our Travel Pro Adventure during this rainy morning on the South Western Coast of San Cristobal Island in the Galapagos! Until next time -Dan "World Travel Pro!"

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Travel Pro Adventure #12: Hiking the Southern Coast of San Cristobal Island, Galapagos! Part Three, The Search for the Blue-Footed Booby! (26 photos, 1 video)

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With over 11 years of travel experience I answer travel and international lifestyle questions. Leave a question in the comments and I may make a Steemit post just for you!

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