The first day we went to the Darwin Station in the morning. You can see giant turtles and land iguanas there, but I wasn’t very happy because I didn’t come to the Galapagos to see animals in captivity. So soon we went on. On our way back I tried to get money out of the machine in the only bank in town but it didn’t work, that could turn out to be a huge problem but hopefully I could get money on Monday from inside the bank. For now I wanted to see some animals and so we headed out to Tortuga Bay. Getting there I was disappointed in one way and surprised in another. My vision of the Galapagos was a few tiny volcanic islands with wildlife paradises wherever you go. We soon had to find out that this is not the case. Sure you will see animals in a way that is probably hard to match in other places but they are all concentrated in certain areas of the islands. Especially near inhabited places it’s hard to spot animals. But fortunately I got surprised with beautiful beaches and landscapes. I would never have expected to find such excellent beaches on volcanic islands, and the beach that we reached after about half an hour walking from Puerto Ayora was the best of all. I have never seen such powdery fine white sand, it was a dream walking there and looking at the waves break, seeing the sun bring out these beautiful colors in the water. The tourist information warned us about strong currents on that beach so we went on to Tortuga Bay, but there were quite a few surfers out there anyways. Surfing Galapagos, I would never have thought of that. Tortuga Bay has no waves and it is ideal for swimming and snorkeling. Unfortunately the snorkeling gear that I bought didn’t work well so I didn’t see much under water. We heard that there were sharks in that bay and one moment really close to the shore we saw rapid movements in the water but when we got closer to see, it was gone. Later a family discovered a water snake, the water was clear and we could watch the snake for quite a while searching the sand until finally it covered itself completely with sand. I never asked but since there were many local people on that beach, including children, I assume that the snake isn’t poisonous and the sharks don’t attack humans. We kind of realized that maybe we would need to take a tour by Yacht after all to see the things that we came for, so we looked around for more deals and fortunately we got lucky. We met someone that knew the owner of a sailing yacht and wee could book a 4 day trip last minute and without the commission the travel agencies usually charge.